The discursive programme “We cannot determine what will make us surrender” hostest by Rabig Mroué concludes with a one-hour film programme that has been compiled by the film-maker and curator Nour Ouayda. The programme How do film and video record the traces of two revolutions, an economic collapse, a pandemic and a disaster between 2015 and 2021? With films by Danielle Arbid, Jocelyne Saab , Malak Mroueh, Lara Tabet and many others.

نكتب لكم من مكان بعيد
Duration: 63 minutes
curated by Nour Ouayda

An attempt to draw a trajectory between 2015 and 2021, between two revolutions, an economic collapse, a pandemic and a catastrophe.
What does a space in transition look like? How does film and video record a time and a place that is coming out of joint?

Duration: 24 minutes
Language: In Arabic with English subtitles

“A woman drives around Beirut and talks on the phone. She is calling a bank. She is calling those who owe her money. She is calling those who lend and those who borrow. She’s my mother.” Danielle Arbid

Duration: 15 minutes
Language: In Arabic with French subtitles

Two tired combatants wait for night to fall, by the Dog River.

Duration: 7 minutes
Language: In English

A portrait of Mei Shigenobu, daughter of the founder of the Japanese Red Army in Beirut, Fusako Shigenobu.

Duration: 5 minutes
Language: In Arabic and English

A letter from Beirut, Spring 2020.

Duration: 4 minutes
Language: In English with Arabic subtitles

Four filmmakers and videographers were invited by the Beirut Art Center (BAC) to make a short narrative film using only recordings from the 6 security cameras set up in the BAC’s space. During the preparations for these commissions, a heavier reference imposed itself onto the visual imaginaries tied to the CCTV footage, and that is the anticipation of the disaster that rushed into the intimacy of our lives and demolished our shelters.

Duration: 5 minutes
Language: French and Arabic

Four filmmakers and videographers were invited by the Beirut Art Center (BAC) to make a short narrative film using only recordings from the 6 security cameras set up in the BAC’s space. During the preparations for these commissions, a heavier reference imposed itself onto the visual imaginaries tied to the CCTV footage, and that is the anticipation of the disaster that rushed into the intimacy of our lives and demolished our shelters.

Duration: 5 minutes
Language: no dialogues

Lara Tabet is one of four filmmakers commissioned by the Beirut Art Center to develop a short film from the footage of the security cameras installed in the building. During the processing of the film material, the associative connection with destroyed shelters became omnipresent.

Duration: 3 minutes
Language: Arabic with English subtitles

Sealed within a liquid tragedy, how does time pass between an uprising and a catastrophe?

Duration: 1 minute
Language: Arabic und English

Footage shot in 2015. When the Beirut explosion occurred, my first thought was that of relief that my grandmother had passed a year and some before. The best hours to sit outside amongst her plants and flowers were those of sunsets. How does one mourn when they are grateful for the occurrence of some deaths as salvation? How does one mourn when in separation, we spare the ones we love the end of their world?