Arab Shorts - Day I (Monday, Jul 25, 2011) :: Beirut.com

1- Solo, Laila Sami, Egypt, 2009, 6’ (The director will be present for Q&A)
Egyptian filmmaker Laila Sami spends six minutes exploring the crushing pressures of her agoraphobia that she must overcome to satisfy her desire for rich, dark, seductive chocolate. Not a single sliver of sweetness can be found in the entire house and yet she is afraid of going outside. It’s a rueful affliction but one that must be dealt with

2- Subtitles for Stolen Pictures, Rheim Alkadhi, Iraq/U.S.A., 2007, 8’
Constructed using appropriated press images from the occupation of Iraq, this video is derived from a visual experiment using two elements: pictures and subtitles. Photo fragments piece together a narrative of an anonymous civilian whose domestic activities are interrupted by her own death, yet her subtitles mysteriously persist. .

3- Telematch Shelter, Wael Shawky, Egypt, 2008, 4’
The artist artist borrows images of desert landscapes to critique hierarchical notions of civilization. Bedouin children walk in and out of a cave in a desert, attempting to abandon their nomadic lifestyle in favor of starting an agricultural community.

4- Resonances, Ismaïl Bahri, Tunisia, 2008, 7’
Resonances starts with the prospecting of the bathroom from my childhood. Black inked words written in Arabic on the bathtub surface scatter and propagate progressively. They resonate and echo night scene recollections. Transformed in a resonance chamber, the bathtub mixes the fluids
of these evanescent thoughts. By reflecting its surroundings, the ink blurred water surface, overturns and clouds the words. The backward surge of the night reveals the scars of a troubled universe, verging on obliteration.

5- Ça sera beau (From Beirut with Love) Waël Noureddine, Lebanon/France, 200, 29’
Ça sera beau is neither a fictional film nor a documentary. The best description would be a “visual diary,” or “notes on a town.” Don’t expect to “learn” anything about the Lebanese wars in this film; no talking head appears. You are supposed to feel that people have been pushed down this building you see in the sunset. And thanks to remarkable Super-16 photography, you just might. So, if you have half an hour to visit one of the most interesting cities on earth, just go for it: From Beirut is a beautiful love letter with a small dose of corny poetry at the end, like a postcard of a building in the sunset.

6- Aesthetics of Disappearance, Jananne Al-Ani, Iraq/Jordan. 2010, 14”
Shot in the south of Jordan Aesthetics of Disappearance explores the disappearance of the body in the real and imagined landscapes of the region. Al-Ani has a longstanding interest in the power of testimony and the documentary tradition, as well as reversing the way in which the 19th century Orientalist stereotype of the Middle Eastern landscape endures. The notion of exotic and unoccupied space continues to inform Western media representations of the Arab world. The film survey of southern Jordan narrates the history of the area, while documenting the ancient remains, abandoned locations, formal and informal routes of the south, in addition to cattle farms and military locations all of which shape Jordan today.

7- 2 ½, Elie Kamal, Lebanon 2010, 14’
A low-class working mother is trying to make her day through the complexity and diversity of Beirut. Before this long hot summer day ends, she confronts a unfortunate destiny hidden within the alleys and on the rooftops of a city that doesn’t sleep.