LFF 2010: Director Close-Up

TAMARA STEPANYAN
LFF 2010 : Little Stones

Born in Armenia, living in Lebanon for the past 16 years. Graduated from the Lebanese American University in 2005, majored in Communication Arts emphasis in Radio/Tv/Film. Participated in film workshops in Armenia, South Korea and Denmark. Made a number of films while in university. Latest work was a video/photo/audio installation called « My Beirut » as part of Badguer I in 2009. « Little Stones » is a documentary shot in Denmark, in 2010.

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Why did you submit your film to this particular festival ?

Well, first of all, I would like to thank the festival for selecting my film. My graduation film, The Last Station, was in this festival three years ago; and this is a festival that is close to my heart. Somehow it feels home. I have been in Lebanon for the past 16 years and I feel Lebanese so the first festival I applied to was the Lebanese Film Festival. It makes sense, no? I finished "Little Stones" some days before the deadline and I'm glad, really glad it was selected. Because I'm kind of scared and curious to see how the Lebanese public will see it. I was not present for the screening of the other film 3 years ago, I was in Korea at the time. I hope I will be in Beirut for the screening of this one.

What do you think about the question of identity ?

Identity...this is a question that keeps on roaming in my head all the time. And my film was derived form this mess in my head. I was born in Armenia as you already know and more than half of my life I've spent here in Lebanon. So somehow I feel both Armenian and Lebanese and at the same time I haven't found my peace yet. I don't know if this is a bad thing, but I'm sure it's tough, at least mentally and psychologically. Identity is "who we are", at least that's what the dictionary says, but I think for me it's "who I feel". Feelings are a crucial part of who I am.

Which difference is there between Europe and Lebanon concerning this subject ?

Europe, or rather in this case Denmark, which is part of Scandinavia, and Lebanon... The difference is huge. A country where all is silent (the city...), people are quiet and shy. Privacy is a well respected value. These are little details that unfortunately or fortunately we lack in Lebanon. There, I met these 4 women who came from very warm countries, and for them it was very difficult to be in this sort of Scandinavian setting. These souls opened up to me and I could feel their nostalgia and longing for the mess and warmth of their home countries. And this was the nostalgia I was looking for in this film...

Why did you film this movie in Denmark ?

Well I was part of an IMS exchange program carried out in collaboration with the National Film School of Denmark, where 3 Lebanese filmmakers were to be part of a course and at the end we were to make a film. I had the idea of this film before I left to Denmark. But definitely it was developed there. Why Denmark? As I said before identity and nostalgia are concepts that I think about. And Denmark was this neutral place where I felt I didn't take sides with any part of who I am, neither Armenian nor Lebanese. So it was the right place to search for what I was searching for...and I'm really happy I made it there. As neutral as it was, it reminded me a lot of Armenia...

What’s next ?

Next is a film that I will start filming tomorrow. It is Weird for me to sit here now and write this, while thinking of tomorrow's shoot... I'm in Armenia right now making this documentary about my grandma, whose name was Tamara and she a warrior in World War II....she passed away last year... I prefer not to talk more about it. And another project is, well a documentary that I will shoot here as well... Let's not enclose this one. It has been very busy last weeks but I love it.

LFF 2010 - Film Selections - Part 5

Here are six more selections for the 2010 Lebanese Film Festival.


Including the ones listed below, a total of 30 film selections have been announced thus far. Stay tuned for more...

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November de Mirella Salameh

Liban, 2010 - Fiction

Novembre est une promenade dans la mémoire d’une fille qui reviendra à sa maison à la recherche du temps perdu avec son père.

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Chou sar ? de De Gaulle Eid

France, Palestine, Liban 2010 - Documentaire

Le 9 décembre 1980, les parents de De Gaulle Eid, sa jeune soeur et onze membres de sa famille ont été assassinés à Edbel dans le Nord du Liban. De Gaulle EID a quitté le Liban pour la France il y a 19 ans. Il vit maintenant en Corse avec ses proches. Mais il reste tant de questions sans réponses : des questions qui tourmentent tant de familles libanaises! Ces interrogations le poussent à vouloir retourner au Liban où les voisins qui ont massacré sa famille vivent aujourd’hui en paix. Ils sont en effet protégés par l’amnistie générale de 1993, effaçant tous les crimes perpétrés durant la guerre civile libanaise.

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Beirut...Hide & Seek de Darine Hotait

USA, 2010 - Fiction

In 1982 Beirut, a family stuck in the middle of war. Each ones takes refuge in his own imaginary world. The war, up to this point political, becomes an internal struggle when Jamila finds out her brother's secret queer relationship with Omar.

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Metel kel a7ad de Sami Succar

Liban, 2010 - Animation

Walid, un jeune homme de 31 ans, se dirige vers son village pour passer la journée avec ses parents. Mais une nouvelle pub va causer sa mort sur l’autoroute.

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Le nucléaire n’est pas si grave !!! de Gabriel Zarazir

Liban, 2010 - Fiction

Deux voitures se trouvent face à face dans une rue étroite. Aucun d’eux ne veut reculer et céder la place à l’autre. Ils finissent par habiter leurs voitures durant 20 ans, jusqu’au jour où ils seront obligés de reculer à nouveau leurs voitures…

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DRU de Jihane Chouaib

France, 2009 - Fiction

C’est une femme et un homme, qui luttent

A terre et corps à corps

A égalité.

Cherchent-ils à se vaincre ou à s’aimer ?

En tout cas, aucun ne veut céder.

LFF 2010: Director Close-Up

CHRISTIAN GHAZI
LFF 2010 : Cent visages pour un seul jour / Miat wajh li yom wahed

Dans ce film, Christian Ghazi joint narration dramatique et image documentaire dans une perspective d’analyse de la société libanaise dans le début des années 1970. Un des rares films Arabes qui présentent une nouvelle forme audiovisuelle de narration. Ce film est l’unique œuvre qui a survécu à la destruction de la filmographie de Ghazi. Entre 1964 et 1988 Ghazi a réalisé 41 documentaires qui ont tous été détruits. Ses premiers 14 films ont été brûlés par la censure. Le reste de ses films a connu le même sort en 1988, aux mains d’une milice locale. Seule une copie 35 mm est encore à l’étranger, dont a été la copie Betacam qui vous est présentée.

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Christian Ghazi was born on 19-11-34 in Antioch, Turkey, from a French mother and a Lebanese father. His family moved to Syria then to Lebanon in 1939 where they settled, and where he studied, worked, lived and witnessed the destruction of all his work – the burning of all his films. While working in the newspaper “Le soir” and as a philosophy teacher, Ghazi was studying music at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA – 1959). Later he worked at the TV station “Lubnan wal Mashreq”, and at the same time started to direct documentaries. His first twelve documentaries commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism in 1964 were all banned and burned for being subversive. He had filmed people at the Casino du Liban and in restaurants, and the miserable peasants in the North and South of the country, then matched the video of the Casino with the audio of the peasants and vise versa. In 1987 while he was away in Africa, his house in Beirut was devastated by a local militia, and again all his films (the only existing negatives) were burned. Between these two dates (1964 and 1987), this veteran filmmaker had an abundant production – 29 films – mostly about the Palestinian resistance, but also about the Lebanese war, the misery, the refugees…

The only remaining of his films is “One hundred faces for a single day”, which he considers as his “manifesto of cinema” (the only copy of this film was found in the Syrian Cinema Institute; the film had been in competition at an alternative film festival in Damascus in 1972 where it won the critics award). Twelve years after his great loss, he directs “The coffin of the memory” (2001), a documentary “about the political insularity and apathy prevalent among so many Lebanese, despite the violence suffered by the people in the region, in Palestine and Iraq”, according to his own words. Since 1959 Christian Ghazi has also written four poetry collections.

LFF 2010 - Film Selections - Part 4

Here are six more selections for the 2010 Lebanese Film Festival.

Including the ones listed below, a total of 24 film selections have been announced thus far. Stay tuned for more...

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Little Stones de Tamara Stepanyan

Danemark, Liban, 2010 - Documentaire

Odeurs…sensations…gouts…Les sens connectés à la nostalgie de quatre femmes; quatre femmes qui vivent au Danemark. Elles sont Sud-Coréenne, Iranienne, Sud-Africaine et Indienne. Mais elles sont Danoises. Je vis au Liban et je suis Libanaise. Mais je suis Arménienne.

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La7za ma3 “Abou Rakan” de Christophe Katrib

Liban, 2008 - Documentaire

Abou Rakan, 74 ans, dernier fabriquant de « oud » (luth) de la ville de Tripoli, raconte l’expérience qui l’a lancé dans les années 50. Il joue un morceau sur le premier luth qu’il a fabriqué, Il a du mal, quelque chose pèse sur son cœur, il arrête et partage sa peine…

« Merci et louanges a Dieu… Merci et louanges a Dieu, dans tous les cas »

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Le temps d’un soupir de Patrick Sfeir
Liban, 2008-2010 - Animation

C'est l'histoire d'une rencontre insolite sur le toit d'un immeuble.

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My Status de Nathalie Sejean
USA, 2009 - Fiction

Combien partageons-nous réellement avec les personnes de notre vie ? Alice rentre chez elle après une journée coupée de toute relation virtuelle avec ses amis. Elle est maintenant prête a découvrir ce qui s’est passe dans sa vie, pour le meilleur ou pour le pire.

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Au milieu des Autres de Renée Awit
Liban, 2010

Nadim, un jeune cinéphile, tente d’échapper a sa réalité morne et de son univers familial hostile en trouvant refuge dans le monde du cinéma. Un besoin urgent de récolter une certaine somme d’argent l’entraine dans une petite aventure sur laquelle il projette son regard cinématographique et de laquelle il ne sortira pas indemne.

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Fleur oubliée de Riham Assi
Liban, 2010 - Documentaire

« Elle », l'oubliée, vient de la campagne et se nourrit de ses rêves et de ses espoirs. Elle a choisi de raconter son histoire avec un style qui mélange poésie et narration.

LFF 2010: Director Close-Up

MAYA ABDUL-MALAK

LFF 2010 : Au pays qui te ressemble

Maya Abdul-Malak was born in Lebanon and lives in France. Graduate in Contemporary Literature, she was also a continuity girl and script doctor for several movies. In the land that is like you is her first movie.

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Quelques mots de Maya pour ..né.à Beyrouth

Il est difficile pour moi de m'exprimer sur mon film.

Je pense que j'avais envie de faire un film sur le mythe du retour qui nous habite quand on est immigré : mon personnage chemine de l'illusion d'un retour au pays, d'un retour sur les vestiges de l'enfance, à la perte de ses illusions.

L'envie aussi de raconter une histoire de filiation et de séparation, de transmission et de perte, la quête d'une place dans le pays d'origine, là où l'on se sent à la fois étranger et charnellement lié.

Et enfin filmer trois personnes que j'aime, qui incarnent mon lien au pays, et faire résonner leurs histoires intimes avec celle du Liban. Et tout ça de la manière la plus simple possible, au détour d'une lecture de marc de café, d'une préparation de repas, d'un silence...

Je suis en train de commencer l'écriture d'un nouveau film qui se déroule à Paris, mais qui traite aussi du Liban (et d'amour), cela sera plutôt une fiction.

LFF 2010 - Film Selections - Part 3

Here are six more selections for the 2010 Lebanese Film Festival.

Including the ones listed below, a total of 18 film selections have been announced thus far. Stay tuned for more...

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As the poet said de Nasri Hajjaj

Palestine, 2009 - Documentaire

Un voyage visuel à travers la vie et les poèmes du défunt poète palestinien Mahmoud Darwich. Il s’agit d’un approche poétique de la vie du poète au cours de laquelle la camera nous fait passer par les villes,les maisons, les théâtres, les écrivains qui ont connu et aimé la poésie de Darwich. Tout au long du film, nous sommes guidés par les vois de Darwich et d’autres du monde entier lisant sa poésie.

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Quite Quiet by Marc Abiad

Lebanon, 2009 - Fiction

Three main actors, a photographer, a man with a sound recorder and a silent man who mixed the photographer's pictures with the sounds recorded by the other character in order to create a short experimental movie that flips the reality by the end of the film, thus the audience experiences the situation from different point of views allowing it to facilitate the sense of dividing the illusion from the reality.

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Hollow mirrors de Wassim Tanios

Lebanon, 2009 - Fiction

Walid, un jeune homme dans ses vingtaines, appartient à un groupe de jeunes délinquants. en trainant dans les rues de Beyrouth, piquer et agacer les gens, ce groupe attrape une jeune fille...

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Deyrouth de Chloé Mazlo

France, 2010 - Animation

Eté 2006. Paris, France. Chloé a décidé de célébrer le trentième anniversaire de l’arrivée de ses parents en France en partant au Liban par voie terrestre. Tout comme eux l’avaient fait pour fuir la guerre, mais dans le sens inverse.Ce voyage devait être pour elle l’occasion de découvrir ce pays. Ironie du sort, une nouvelle guerre éclate quelques jours avant son départ…

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A day from Home by Samar Kanafani

Lebanon, 2009 - Experimental

Our commitment to dwelling in our home/nation is bound to the persistent possibility of us abandoning it. How does one construct a life here – in Lebanon – even as one recognizes that it might, at any moment, be violently interrupted? Using pregnancy as allegory, this video approaches the uneasy relationship between an individual desiring a modicum of belongingness and an elusive nation. The impossibility of a perfect fit between the two prods a reconsideration of the passion that binds the ‘self’ to the nation as ‘home’.

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Les Arabes aiment les chats by Akram Zaatari & Lilianne Giraudon

Lebanon, France, 2009 - Fiction

These are impressions of a week spent in Tangiers, reflecting on cinéma and poetry, and a portrait of a city, and of friendships.

LFF 2010: Director Close-Up

RAMI KODEIH
LFF 2010 : Al Mathana

Born in a southern small city, Nabatieh in 1983, Rami Kodeih was graded excellent for his senior project, a short fiction film A Sheherazade Tale that made a big festivals’ tour around the world. Currently he's preparing his two short films and his first feature, and at the same time he's working as a Director for TV Documentaries, TVCs and Video Clips, as a Director/DOP in Documentaries.

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Congratulations on being selected for screening at this year's Lebanese Film Festival. Why did you submit your film to this particular festival?

First, I would like to thank the Lebanese Film Festival for selecting my short film.
A Sheherazade Tale was selected at LFF 2007. I think it was the best Lebanese screening for my first short film: it was the best audience quantity and quality wise.
In 2009, while i was working with Né à Beyrouth on a project, I showed Sandra (one of Né à Beyrouth's and LFF's family, hehe) an experimental video called P Like Pranoia. This happened by accident. It was also selected in the festival, in the Video Clip section!
So I think there is quite a good relation with Né à Beyrouth and the LFF family, whether work or festival wise.
Also, I think the audience of this festival is a very good audience.

"Al Mathana" is your second movie, in what doest it differ from "Sheherazade's Tale" ?

"Al Mathana", The Mill, is very different from A Sheherazade Tale... At the beginning, I thought I wanted to try to shoot something with the RED ONE camera. So I wrote a very low budget film, trying a style different from A Sheherazade Tale. Let's say that what happened was quite the opposite. It was a new experience for me when it comes to the story line, the style, the structure and the 'langage cinematographique'. The Mill was for me a big exercise and a tough experience, especially since I tried to direct the movie and play at the same time. That was really difficult.

The film is a criticism of how video games influence young people. According to you, how can we resolve this problem ?

While writing The Mill, I wasn't thinking of what I want to criticize. I just wrote it very spontaneously. I might be one of those influenced by video games, I don't know hehe... But anyway, it could be seen that way. As a result, I think there is no concrete solution, we are already surrounded by violence especially in our sensitive region.

What’s next ?

Now I'm working on some interesting documentaries for Al Jazeera, and I'm re-writing my feature film. Both the documentaries and the feature are also related to the youth living in our country and especially in Beirut.