TIFF 2012

The Attack by Ziad Doueiri

TIFF selection this year will include some very interesting entries from Lebanese and Arab Filmmakers. Among the notable titles, we may mention the third movie by the prominent director Ziad Doueiri (check the trailer above), and the documentary by the couple Jreige and Hadjithomas about the scientific ambitions of Lebanese researchers in pre-war era. Other interesting Arabic films to be screened during the festival are "When I Saw You" the second feature by Anne-Marie Jacir (director of "Salt of this sea") and "Zabana" by Saïd Ould-Khelifa. We hope one of these movies will enjoy the same glory as "Where do we go now?".

The Lebanese Rocket Society by Jreige and HadjiThomas

Update: The distributors decided to take down "the attack" trailer preventing curious viewers to enjoy few scenes from the upcoming movie. The provided rationale is that "[the trailer] says too much about the story and shouldn't be revealed to the public". Instead of suggesting an accompanying 'spoiler alert' tag to the video, thus, they ended up penalizing fans by removing the video.

Lebanese Film Festival

The Lebanese Film Festival is scheduled between 23-26 August at Metropolis Cinema. The program is rather interesting with some guest entries by Foreign Directors notably by Asghar Farhadi (Whose name was incorrectly misspelled in the programme!). This 10th edition of the festival has gathered a rich collection  of genre from documentaries, music videos, shorts, ...

Unfortunately, even though the only official language in Lebanon is Arabic, the organizers decided to discard the Lebanese official language from the released programme.

Update: The festival was doomed with an unfortunate organization challenged with major technical problems which spoiled some screenings (e.g. The Virgin Butterfly) and few entries were worthy and or politically motivated rather than artistic. The meeting with Nadine Labaki was strangely similar to a press kit of a movie instead of a real interview. We hope that next years bring a better organization and a richer "in competition" selection.

TIFF spotlight on Lebanese Cinema

After the surprise TIFF victory of Where do we go now?, the Lebanese Cinema is grabbing some attention worldwide. The award hosting festival is organizing an event that should interest all International cinema followers, more particularly the middle-east cinema fans. Canada is one main destination of a large Lebanese (and Arab) diaspora, this should give a decent momentum and venue for the proposed program. The selection is rather diverse and should meet all tastes with all participating features are post-civil-war productions. Among the movies on the program: Ok, Enough, GoodBye, Beirut Hotel, Falafel, and many others.
Everyone is encouraged to enjoy the Lebanese flavored cinema which is scheduled starting June 14.

Censorship madness!!

 

Sadly Heels of war is now banned in Lebanon

No one should describe Lebanon as a freedom of speech isle anymore. Once praised as a place of liberty, nowadays, it is becoming more oppressing than any neighboring regime. Today, Heels of war (aka. Tannoura Maxi) got banned in the Lebanese theaters. This sad event follows similar actions which recently prevented Beirut Hotel from being screened, and 33 Days to being rejected on a political background without any sense of reason in any decision (made by theaters owners or the censoring body).

Every Lebanese should voice his refusal against such madness. Everyone should have the right to freedom of expression. All these decisions will contribute to only one thing: shape the Lebanese opinion into becoming more close-minded, therefore, eroding the movie industry that just started to bloom only now. All artists are invited to react sharply against the new oppression rules from gaining more ground and put stop to such insanity.

It is worth-noting that  gulf countries are now more freedom-prone than Lebanon. Films like Beirut Hotel and Heels of war were screened and praised in gulf countries, but rejected in Lebanon.

Update: The movie is now back in theaters, probably after complying to the censorship conditions.

Scrapbook

Trailer for Yamo which will be screened starting June 14

For all Lebanese movies fans, Metropolis is dedicating a Month of Lebanese Cinema, the collection varies from documentaries to fictions. All interested people are invited to watch the movies that match their taste.

Among the notable features, Yamo and OK, enough, goodbye whose screening will start on June 14.