Chatti Ya Dini (Here Comes the Rain) now available on DVD

Chatti Ya Dini (Here Comes the Rain) now available on DVD at Virgin, Librairie Antoine and in other shops. If you missed it, want to see it again or want to make a gift, please get an original DVD to support the authors copyright!

https://www.facebook.com/bahijho

2012 Oscar Predictions: Best Foreign Language Film (indieWIRE)

indieWIRE will provide regular updates of our predictions for the 84th Academy Award nominations through late January, when the nominations are announced. Here's our take on the notoriously controversial foreign language film category, with more commentary to come shortly.

Check out a list of official submissions in the category, and our predictions in all the categories here.

Best Foreign Language Film*

1. Where Do We Go Now? (Lebanon)
2. Le Havre (Finland)
3. A Separation (Iran)
4. In Darkness (Poland)
5. Miss Bala (Mexico)
6. War Is Declared (France)
7. Footnote (Israel)
8. Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
9. Pina (Germany)
10. War of Flowers (China)

Check out the official trailer for the new Lebanese movie ‘Cash Flow'. Release Date: 26 JANUARY 2012 !

DAY TWO PICTURES     presents     A Film By SAMI KOUJAN     Starring CARLOS AZAR | NADINE NJEIM | TONY ABOU JAOUDEH | JOELLE DAGHER     HICHAM HADDAD | CHADY MAROUN | SHANT KABAKIAN | TETA LATIFA| ANTHONY NAJEM     And     HIAM ABOU CHEDID GHASSAN ESTEPHAN ANTOINE BALABAN     PIERRE CHAMOUN CLAUDE KHALIL     "CASH FLOW"

Executive Producer RONALD AJOURY | Music By CEDRIC KAYEM | Edited By NADIM KHAYRALLAH     Director Of Photography RONALD AJOURY | Sound Producer TONY KALAANY     Associate Executive Producer NATHALIE EL BOUSTANY | Assistant Director TAMARA ISMAIL     Written And Directed By SAMI KOUJAN    
© 2011 DAY TWO PICTURES - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED  


www.cashflowmovie.com
facebook.com/cashflowmovie

Yanoosak is now available on DVD

Yanoosak directed by Elie Khalife and Alexandre Monnier and starring Siegfried Terpoorten and Zeina Daccache tells the story of Rudi, an ordinary Swiss German living in Zurich, who decides one day to reside in Beirut in order to meet his soulmate and establish a small business. Between one heartbreak and another, he manages however to open a small pizzeria. The movie follows this segment of his tragic-comic life while revealing how European culture tries to blend into oriental culture without fully understanding its codes.

Yanoosak is now available on DVD in Lebanon.

Interview avec la realisatrice de "Beirut Hotel" a propos de la censure de son film au Liban

Censure : la société civile propose une loi sur la liberté cinématographique

Article de Sandra Noujeim - Orient-Le Jour 16/12/2011

Que les textes de loi qui soi-disant la fondent soient périmés ou pas, ou que la Sûreté générale la pratique avec « les meilleures intentions du monde », ne sont que des questions subsidiaires dans le débat sur la censure. Dénoncer cette pratique, c’est d’abord définir l’intérêt public – devenu prétexte d’empiètement sur la liberté d’expression –comme le corollaire du bonheur individuel et de la vitalité sociale.
Dans la salle du cinéma Métropolis (Sofil), à l’atmosphère feutrée, aux nuances bordeaux usées par les milliers de sélections projetées sur l’écran, des figures culturelles et médiatiques ont présenté hier un projet de loi sur la liberté des travaux cinématographiques.

Applications for 2012 TRT Documentary Awards Started

The TRT International Documentary Film Competition has been organized to support amateur and professional documentary film-makers; to contribute to the development and prevalence of the documentary film genre; to enable audiences to view different and high quality documentary films from various countries and in the long term to form the groundwork where worldwide documentary film-makers will meet and exchange their ideas.

Clôture des inscriptions FIDLab le 5 février 2012

Le FIDMarseille a inauguré en 2009 une plateforme internationale desoutien à la co-production, dans le but de
défendre et promouvoir des œuvres sensibles et singulièresàtous stades de développement, depuis l’écriture
jusqu’à la post-production.
Dans le cadre de la 4ème édition du FIDLab, qui se déroulera les 5 et 6 juillet 2012, nous vous invitons à
soumettre vos projets de films, sans critère de format, de durée, qu’ils soient fiction ou documentaire.

FIDMarseille - inscriptions

Clôture des inscriptions pour la sélection officielle du FIDMarseille 2012 le 18 mars
compétition internationale - compétition nationale - compétition premiers

SANAD FUND

Abu Dhabi Film Festival for Arab Feature & Documentary Filmmakers 
(Development & Post-production)

 Call for applications 2012: 
 First Deadline: January 26, 2012
 Second Deadline: June 26, 2012

Go to this page for more information

Who got funds from AFAC, December 2011

Stable Unstable
Feature film
by Mahmoud Hojeij
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Encounters
Documentary
by Sarah Francis
Producer: Joanna Saliba

Take me to this Place: I Want to Make the Artist
Feature Film
by Hatem Akram Imam
Producer: TBC

In stores soon: Mahmoud Kaabour's multiple award winning documentary!

Watch out for the iconic old woman & her Arguileh at DVD stores across the Arab world in late Jan 2012!

For more info, visit their facebook page: Teta, Alf Marra

Film Funds: Screen Institute Beirut

Next application deadline: 30 December 2011

The Screen Institute Beirut is a Lebanese non-profit Association. Its objectives are to strengthen filmmaking and infrastructure and competences for filmmaking in the Arab region.

Go to: www.screeninstitutebeirut.org

Lebanese films in Distribution 2011-2012

It's all in Lebanon
by Wissam Charaf
Documentary
Lebanon/UAE
Producer: Pierre Sarraf

Gate #5
by Simon El haber
Documentary
Lebanon/UAE
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Sector Zero
by Nadim Meshlawi
Documentary
Lebanon/UAE
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Rue Huvelin
by Maroun Nassar
Feature film
Lebanon
Producer: Maroun Jack Nassar

Where do we go Now
by Nadine Labaki
FEature film
Lebanon/France
Producer: Anne-Dominique Toussaint

Lebanese films in Pre-Production 2011-2013

May in the Summer
Director: Cherien Dabis
Feature film
Lebanon/Jordan
Producer: Sabine Sidawi

Le Collier d'Helene
by Sylvio Tabet
Feature film
Lebanon/France/USA
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Beirut
by Peter el Daher
Feature film
Lebanon/USA
Producer: unkown

Stable Unstable
by Mahmoud Hojeij
Feature film
Lebanon
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Lebanese Rocket Society
by Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
Documentary
Lebanon/France
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Une Histoire Vraisemblable
by Florence Strauss & Julie Marx
Idea by Radwan Kassar
Documentary
Lebanon/France
Producer: Radwan Kassar

Lebanese films in development 2011-2013

Back to the Jungle
by Wissam Charaf
Feature film
Lebanon/France
Producer: Charlotte Vincent

Beirut Hold’em Lebanon
by Michel Kammoun
Feature film
Lebanon
Producer: Georges Schoucair

The Eye of the Devil
by Katia Jarjoura
Feature film
Lebanon/France
Producer: Jerome Bleitrach

Ideal Love
by Dima El-Horr
Feature film
Lebanon/France
Producer: Arnaud Dommerc

Breathe
by Jihane Chouaib
Feature film
Lebanon/France
Producer: Nathalie Trafford

One day and 124 nights
by Sabine EL Chamaa
Feature film
Lebanon/Germany
Producer: Andreas Atzwanger

Beirut Solo
by Sabah Haider
Feature film
Lebanon/Canada/France
Producer: Pierre Sarraf

The World is Pink
by Myrna Maakaron
Feature film
Lebanon/Germany
Producer: Nicole Gerhards

3000 nights
by May Masri
Feature film
Lebanon/Palestine/France/Switzerland

Lebanese Salad
by Sabine Sebaali
Feature film
Country of production: unkown
Producer: unkown

The Orchard
by Carlos Chahine
Feature film
Lebanon
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Upside Down
by Ahmad Ghossein
Feature film
Lebanon
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Shidyaq
by Sherine Abou Chacra
Documentary
Lebanon/France
Producer: Georges Schoucair

Confession and Struggle
by Eliane Raheb
Documentary
Lebanon
Producer: Nizar Hassan

Between Sleep and Reason
by Laila Hotait & Marta Minorowicz
Documentary
Lebanon/Poland
Producer: unknown

Disorientations
by Carine Doumit
Documentary
Lebanon
Producer: Myriam Sassine (Abbout productions)

E muet
by Corine Shawi
Documentary
Lebanon
Producer: Georges Schoucair


Beirut I Love you
by Zeina el Khalil & Gigi Rocatti
Feature film
Lebanon/Italy
Producer: Marta Donzelli

Kawthar
by Samer Ghorayeb & Firas Khnaisser
Feature film
Lebanon/Georgia
Producer: Tinatin Kajrishvili


Encounters
Feature Film
by Sarah Francis
Producer: TBC

Take me to this Place: I Want to Make the Artist
Feature Film
by Hatem Akram Imam
Producer: TBC

Who got funds from AGENCE DE LA FRANCOPHONIE - Nov 2011

Home, sweet home
Director: Nadine Naous
70’ (documentaire, aide a la production)
15.000 €
Producer: Monika Borgmann


It's all in Lebanon
Director: Wissam Charaf
62’ (documentaire, aide a la finition)
7.500 €
Producer: Pierre Sarraf

Who got funds from SCREEN INSTITUTE BEIRUT 2011

Gate No. 5: Lebanon (Post-production)
Director: Simon El Haber – Producer: Georges Schoucair

Encounters: Lebanon (Production)
Director: Sarah Francis – Producer: Joanna Saliba

Conflit: Lebanon (Production)
Director: Josef kaluf – Producer: Bahaa Khaddaj

May 9 – Lebanon (Post-production)
Director: Tamara Stepanyan – Producer: Gohar Igityan

Who got funds from the Jordan Film Fund - Dec 2011

May in the Summer
Director: Cherien Dabis
Producer: Sabine Sidawi

In The Daily Star: The multifaceted, contentious world of Lebanese documentary

December 17, 2011
by Jim Quilty




DUBAI: (...) With 10 feature length films projected over three programs, Lebanese filmmakers were unusually well represented at DIFF this year. Perhaps because DIFF’s juries feted two of the Lebanese docs in competition, while the other two were locked out of the winners’ circle, these four works prompted a visceral debate – at least among some Lebanese at DIFF.

(...)Complicating this situation is the fact that still more Lebanese documentaries – which in another year, or another festival, might have been included in a competition line-up – were projected in the festival’s non-competitive Arabian Nights panorama.

“Che Guevara Died in Lebanon” (2011), the debut feature of Christina Foerch Saab, is a sweet-natured biography of her husband Ziad, a one-time fighter with Lebanon’s Communist Party who, like so many leftists this century, has taken to re-evaluating his belief system. It’s an often-touching work that draws obvious comparisons to Maher Abi Samra’s 2010 “We Were Communists,” without being in any way derivative of that work.

More challenging is Wissam Charaf’s debut feature-length doc “It’s All in Lebanon.” This media study relies largely upon archival images drawn from a handful of Lebanese television stations – all owned and operated by different political parties in the country – complemented by the commentary of several figures, most notably Lokman Slim, co-founder of the Haret Hreik-based cultural institute UMAM Documentation and Research.

The film analyzes the ideal types that have been projected into the Lebanese public since the end of the country’s Civil War. At one extreme are the Lebanese music videos that encouraged Lebanese to simply ignore their difficult reality – that, as Charaf notes in his voiceover, the civil war has not really ended. At the other extreme were the public relations videos of Al-Manar Television, which promoted an ever greater attachment to and recollection of the past. This business has only been complicated by the Lebanese media response to the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

All these works are worth finding, whether you’re Lebanese or not.

Read full article.

In the news: Lebanon at the Dubai International Film Festival

A new documentary film seeks to find out where Lebanon is heading
Source: Gulfnews - 13.12.11

Dubai: Where is Lebanon heading? A new documentary film, which premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival, sought to ask this on Sunday. Directed by Wissam Charaf, It's All in Lebanon traces the evolution of the country from the end of the Civil War in 1990 to the present day.

Using mostly archival footage and soundbites by people from various backgrounds, Charaf, a former journalist, built his narrative via what he called the three main players in post Civil War Lebanon: the late prime minister Rafik Hariri, the Hezbollah party and the pop music industry.

"As a journalist covering post-war Lebanon, there was a wealth of stories. There was so much happening politically and in the evolution of the society," Charaf told the audience after the film's screening.

"The political propaganda was on overdrive, each relaying their messages while at the same time the entertainment industry was showing a positive and glamorous side of the country and selling dreams. It was interesting to say the least."

The 62-minute film, which includes extensive footage from Al Manar, the Hezbollah affiliated television station, and Future TV, which was founded by Hariri in 1993, also took a scathing look at the state of the media industry.

"Today the media in Lebanon is not really a media - it's like a propaganda machine… it's like a horror movie," said Charaf. "In contrast, there is hope in our movies, there is beauty."

The music industry, led by three of Lebanon's biggest pop stars - Haifa Wehbe, Nancy Ajram and Elissa - are portrayed as visions of hope of a country devastated by and the constant threat of war.

Hind Mezaina, an Emirati blogger and photographer who was at the screening, said she could relate to Charaf's message of hope but with an underlying fear.

"I think the current state of Lebanon is very well-portrayed," says Mezaina, who blogs on theculturist.com. "I liked how it touched upon the frustration of the media and how things are controlled and manipulated. I could relate to how he feels because much of the media is similar across the Middle East.

"There were also interesting observations being made by how Lebanon, which used to be referred to as ‘the discotheque of the Middle East', used to lead the charge in demonstrations and change. Yet now that there are things happening in the Arab World, nothing is happening in Lebanon.

"But there is also hope and that despite the tensions, people are still carrying on. Still there is also an underlying fear that things will start up again soon," Mezaina added.

DIFF Winners

Want to know who won at DIFF this year?
Click here: DIFF Winners

News: "Le Liban au Festival international du film de Dubaï"

Article complet sur: L'Agenda Culturel

"Le Festival international du film de Dubaï lance sa huitième édition du 7 au 14 décembre 2011. Un programme chargé, des vedettes internationales de renom… Le Liban sera présent à travers la participation de quatorze films. Coup de projecteur."

"’It’s All in Lebanon’: Documentaire de Wissam Charaf (Arabian Nights)
Le film retrace l’histoire récente du pays à travers ses campagnes électorales, l’imagerie de ses relations publiques et les vidéos de musique pop. Il montre surtout comment le Liban s’attelle à reconstruire l’identité d’une nation depuis la fin de la guerre civile il y a 20 ans."

Trailer: "It's All in Lebanon" by Wissam Charaf