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Touring Program - We Are Here
Short Videos from Lebanon
September 15 - April 20, 2008
In the past few years digital video technology has been credited with quietly generating a revolution in film production. During the summer 2006 Israeli assault on Lebanon, it allowed filmmakers, artists and activists to record what they were witnessing and experiencing and offered a forum to create work immediately related to the war. The compulsion to construct an audio-visual document of the violence came not only from a desire for an alternative to broadcast media; but also from an eagerness to compile an archive of the assault, because both the 17-year civil war and the numerous Israeli military campaigns since the 1960’s have scant records. The assault also stirred schisms, tensions and unresolved issues that had been lying dormant in the social and political body of Lebanon throughout its post-war years. In the face of trauma and the memory of past traumas, filmmakers reacted by producing short films, some in the framework of a commissioned project, others self-produced. This touring collection, We Are Here, attests to the amazing diversity of approach, genre and talent in how artists and filmmakers reacted to the war. The works are bold in subject matter and approach and do not shy away from voicing a critical engagement with taboo subjects, or being deeply subjective or self-consciously militant.
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Breaking News
by Hisham Jaber. 2006, Lebanon, 10 min.
An engaging video where the artist reflects on how the lived experience of a population in war becomes reconstructed as “news stories,” playfully contrasting the personal and collective drama or trauma, and challenging the anonymity that broadcast news affords Israeli soldiers engaged in combat. More
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Lebanon/War
by Rania Stephan (2006, Lebanon, RT: 47 min.)
These eight shorts videos present a ledger of how the “average” Lebanese citizen negotiated their everyday life during and immediately following the war. Compelling vignettes give voice to both a street-cleaner in the deserted Martyrs’ Square, and children from the south displaced and relocated to public schools. Far from the bombastic frenzy of media broadcast, the tragedy of war is recorded with humility and simplicity. More
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In Between
by Nadine Ghanem (2006, Lebanon, RT: 10 min.)
‘What did you do during the war?’ asked Ghanem to friends, family and neighbors. Filmed in black and white in gorgeous close-up shots, they answer, until the grandfather replies by asking “Which of the wars?”, throwing back to Lebanon’s recent history of turbulence, aggression and civil conflicts. More
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No Connection
by Myriam Sassine (2006, miniDV, RT: 10 min.)
Three young women in their early twenties are stranded far from their homes in the Beqaa valley in Beirut. Disrupted by the war, they each struggle to make sense of their lives: one decides to leave the country, the second becomes involved in humanitarian work, and the third decides to confront her frustrations through film. More
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To The Lebanese Citizens
by Ali Cherry. 2006, Lebanon, 2 min.
On July 21st 2006, the state of Israel began to air messages to the Lebanese people, interrupting the broadcast of the Lebanese radio station “Voice of the People.” From the window of his apartment, Ali Cherry filmed the Israeli military barge across Beirut’s coastline. More
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Slippage
by Ali Cherry (2007, miniDV, RT: 12 min.)
The moment the city spills its guts, the time has come to abandon it, for it will no longer hold places that can cloak us. More
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Tank You
by Zaid Antar. 2006, Lebanon, 12 min.
In the early days of the Israeli assault on the coastal city of Sidon, its roads and bridges were destroyed, cutting off any contact with the rest of the country. Fear of fuel short-ages spread panic in the city. This video records a conversation with a woman who is waiting in a frustrated crowd at a gas station, and as she talks freely to the filmmaker about her life, we realize that her tank is full. More
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You Can Come In
by Mahmoud Hojeij (2007, miniDV, RT: 23 min.)
When my father asked me to take his picture in front of our house in South Lebanon, I automatically thought of asking him to stand in front of the entrance so that the sign appearing on the front door would be part of the portrait. The image included my father, the house, the South, my family, my childhood, my education, filmmaking, war, Israel, and the sign, which read "You can come in". You could come into all of these if you stepped into the picture: the portrait I am still trying to make of my father. More
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