Beirut Diaries - يوميات بيروت

a screenshot from Beirut Diaries

Mai Masri is a remarkable talented director. Her commitment to emphasize on the civil community in the Arab world shines in the documentaries. I'll devote this post to her award winning feature that focuses on the Lebanese youth during the Independence Intifada (unlike to what Western media entitled it!). She focuses on the journey of a young Lebanese girl, Nadine, who was camping in the city center after the tragic death of PM Hariri. The young people were shown vibrant, full of hope and determinant. Despite not belonging to the same political movement, they managed to gather together, and even, with the help of Nadine, get others from opposition to visit the camps where the sit-in was taking place to discuss their different ideas. But soon the mirage fades away, and the youngs start to realize that they were betrayed by politicians who gave orders to dismantle the tents as soon as they achieved their goals, while the objectives of those who were building the true core of the intifada for weeks are far away from being achieved, hence revealing the "truth and lies" behind politics in Lebanon.
Masri's works are very educational and enjoyable. Her unique way in documenting historic events goes beyond the shell unlike TV news reports and other media which rely on lazy journalism. I hope the documentaries of Mai Masri will be broadcasted locally for Lebanese to wash away the political blindness from their eyes, and internationally to wash away the stereotypical image of the people in our region of the world portrayed by Western media.

33 Days - ٣٣ يوم

a Still from 33 days

22 days have passed and the massacres in Gaza are still being committed in ways no human can understand. A mirroring event, 2 years earlier, Lebanon was pounded continuously, brutally, and in the most cruel ways, for 33 days. Mai Masri documented this period of Lebanon history. As in any similar atrocities, war is fought in more than one front, director Masri, in her documentary, focuses her camera on different fronts on how any ordinary Lebanese was living, keeping distance from direct fire line. Without any scripted narration, the documentary reveals itself as a slideshow of events lived by the people trapped in the conflict. One camera follows the work by a TV news producer and her fight to bring to report the war to citizens and being forced away from her home during all the 33 days period. Another persepective direct our attention to a theater director who had done a marvelous job in entertaining displaced kids. A third front emphasize the efforts done by the civilian community in Lebanon to bring relief aids to refugees. Noting that all those storylines are being shown in parallel, we end up concluding that the efforts described in the documentary are ingredients to a successful resistance movement which led to a merited victory.
For Lebanese, this award winning masterpiece will surely unveil some emotions, maybe make a tear or two drop, but will get us firmly attached to our dignity, our pride, our land, and unity. It should be aired as well on most TV stations, western or local to give the side of wars aside what the news reports bring.
Mai Masri is a Palestinian director, I am not sure whether she can produce a similar documentary about the ongoing war in Gaza without being present there. But the tragic events should be documented in the same way it have been done during the war in Lebanon, even if conditions are much more difficult.

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