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<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Remembering the Lebanese Civil
War<br><br>
Wednesday 23 February 2005<br>
Three screenings<br>
6-9:30 pm<br><br>
Guerre Civile (Mohamad Soueid, 83 mins, 2002) starts at
6<br>
Objets de Guerre I (Lamia Joreige, 67 mins, 2003) starts
at 7:30<br>
Here and Perhaps Elsewhere (Lamia Joreige, 54 mins, 2003)
starts at 8:45<br><br>
Harvard Film Archive<br>
Carpenter Center<br>
Room BO4<br>
(24 Quincy Street Cambridge)<br><br>
Lamia Joreige will be on hand after the screenings for Q &
A<br><br>
Civil War (Harb Ahliyyah)<br>
In late 1999, Mohamed Do‘aybess, a well known Lebanese assistant director
and<br>
production manager, left his home never to return. Several months
after his<br>
disappearance, he was found dead in a deserted building in the southern
suburbs<br>
of Beirut. This film tells Mohamed's story through his film career,
as well as<br>
his tragic death.<br><br>
Objects of War (1)<br>
Objects of war is a series of first-person testimonials as to the
Lebanese civil<br>
war. Each person featured has chosen a familiar, oft-banal object
to serve as a<br>
starting point for his/her story. The testimonials, while helping
to create a<br>
collective memory, also manifest the impossibility of telling one
authoritative<br>
"History" of this war. In fact only fragments of this History
are related here,<br>
held as truth by those expressing them; they are sincere and/or
invented<br>
versions of an event that cannot possibly be narrated.<br><br>
Here and Perhaps Elsewhere<br>
Joreige’s journey takes her along the Green Line that separated West
Beirut from<br>
the East. As she traverses the line, she asks inhabitants the same
question in<br>
methodical fashion: "Do you know anyone who was kidnapped here
during the war?"<br>
Here, Joreige triggers the process of memory and history making,
finally<br>
revealing the diversity of discourses surrounding the war. Hers is
a map of<br>
the city that is at once personal, and immensely universal in its
fragility.<br><br>
In collaboration with the Harvard Middle Eastern Cultural
Association<br>
Inquiries: email dallan@fas.harvard.edu or
Negar_Azimi@ksg06.harvard.edu<br>
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