Video works

Ghouroub – Clara Kossaifi [17’, Arabic with English subtitles]
With Georges and Mona Bou Khalil – Editing: Mohamed Berro – Sound Design: Toni Geitani

Mona and Georges have been waiting 44 years for their house to be demolished to make way for the Pan-Arab highway. Between lingering and separation, their story evokes the director’s own struggle with those themes and the difficulty of letting go.

Clara Kossaifi (b. 1993, Beirut) holds a BA in Audiovisual Studies from the University of Saint Joseph, Beirut (2015) and is currently pursuing an MA in Sociology at the American University of Beirut. She participated in a documentary workshop at the National Film School of Denmark in 2016 that led her to direct the short documentary M for Martyr, which received the 2016 NDUIFF Golden Olive award for Best Lebanese Independent Film. Through her website projectsafar.com, Kossaifi shares short documentaries looking at culture and society in Lebanon and the Arab world.

Imperfect Unless Performed in Blood – Rami El Sabbagh [50′, Arabic with English subtitles]
With Ahmad Al Akhdar, Khodor Ellaik, Ziad Chakaroun, Mariam Al Ferjani – Camera: Mark Khalife – Sound: Tatiana El Dahdah – Editing: Vartan Avakian – Music: Abed Kobeissy

On the river bank, she sits and battles the world with words.
Like the twilight, someone enters the room.
Someone stands all night, pulling his name out of his father’s grave.

Rami El Sabbagh (b.1979, Beirut) is a filmmaker and film critic living and working in Beirut. He is the co-founder and artistic director at Dawawine, a cultural center, that organizes film screenings and programming, as well as other cultural events.

News from Rmeileh – Marwan Hamdan [27’, English and Arabic with English subtitles]
Camera: Marwan Hamdan and Rami El Sabbagh – Editing: Rami El Sabbagh – Coloring: Belal Hibri – Sound Design: Nadim Meshlawi

News from Rmeileh is an essayistic travelogue exploring exile, utopianism, and communism through two intersecting and diverging journeys. The first journey – by land – is to Rmeileh, a town in South Lebanon that was inhabited by communists between 1985 and 1991. The second journey – by sea – is to Leon Trotsky’s first residing place in exile (1929-1933) on the Princes’ Islands, off the coast of Istanbul.

Marwan Hamdan is a filmmaker born and raised in Beirut. His practice revolves around exploring documents (mainly images and recordings) and stories of Beirut’s political and social modern history, with a special interest in religion, mythology, belief, and power structures.

one sea, 10 seas – Nour Ouayda [40′, Arabic with English subtitles]
Writing and Editing: Carine Doumit and Nour Ouayda – Translation to Arabic: Ziad Chakaroun – Sound Recording: Leil San-Soo – Sound Design and mixing: Shakeeb Abu Hamdan

There are all in all eight tapes dating from 2014 to 2018, each containing footage of the Mediterranean Sea, more precisely a small section of the coast around Beirut. Three women examine the recorded images and sounds, looking for traces of what they call “apparitions”.

Nour Ouayda (b. 1991) is a filmmaker, film critic, and programmer. She is the co-editor of the Montreal-based online film journal Hors Champ as well as assistant director and partnerships executive at Metropolis Art Cinema in Beirut. Her films and writings research the practice of drifting in cinema.

Video Works is a development program, a support grant, and a screening platform initiated by Ashkal Alwan in 2006, to provide a sustainable structure for video production by artists and filmmakers in Lebanon.

VIDEO WORKS 2018 is produced by Ashkal Alwan with the support of Robert A. Matta Foundation.

Project Team: Christine Tohme, Kasia Wlaszczyk, Mohammed Abdallah, Lara Saab, Edwin Nasr, and Zeina Khoury.

With special thanks to Ghassan Salhab, Rania Stephan, Ahmad Ghossein, PenguinCube, Marie Muracciole and the Beirut Art Centre team.

Free entry
Places are limited. Availability on first come first serve basis.