[spectre] Storytelling and documenting a world in turmoil

Mon Apr 15 21:11:41 CEST 2013

Good news from criticalsecret

10 items will compose the sum of Olivier Hadouchi's Notebooks which
gradually will appear until the end of the month. Each item few to few
will have its translation into English. If you are in Paris do not
miss the two last sessions of Jocelyne Saab's works on the screens of
the movie theater "Cinémathèque Française" in Paris. from April 19th
until May 24th.

L.

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▶ Raconter et commenter un monde en ébullition / Storytelling and
documenting a world in turmoil

In these tumultuous times we confide the notebooks of March and April
to Olivier Hadouchi. He is a film historian, a film critic and
lecturer, a film program planner as curator of filmic events.
Additionally, he is a sessional lecturer in film studies. His Ph.D. in
Arts and Media (University of Paris III, 2012) is entitled : "Cinema
as part of the liberation struggles : genesis, practical initiatives,
and formal inventions around the Tricontinentale (1966-1975)." We
warmly thank him for honouring our proposal...

http://www.criticalsecret.net/olivierhadouchi-editorial-retour-vers-de-tumultueux-printemps-return-towards-the-tumultuous,107.html

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#OlivierHadouchi Nicole Brenez regarding Jocelyn Saab - The Situation
and The Courage / Jocelyne Saab: La situation et le courage
http://www.criticalsecret.net/olivierhadouchi-nicole-brenez-regarding-jocelyn-saab-the-situation-and-the-courage-jocelyne-saab-la,109.html

Nicole Brenez
Louis-Georges Schwartz ( unpublished translation into English)

“The more terrible the situation, the greater was the courage.”
Louise Michel, La commune: history and memories (1898).

Reporter, photographer, writer, producer, director, and artist,
Jocelyne Saab was born and grew up in Beirut. After working in
Lebanese television, she became a war reporter in 1973.
“There was at the time a fabulous tradition of the big story, with
film crews in conflict zones who did not hesitate to take risks to
witness a situation and bring back images. Think of Joris Ivens work
shot in Vietnam for example. The use of films, including
documentaries, to provoke or accompany social change, to denounce or
to provide a basis for action, it was all very present when I started.
The excitement of the 1960s continued to shake up a great many of the
world’s youths. So, probably with energy and probably the
unconsciousness of the young, i found myself covering of wars of great
consequence at the global as well as the regional level.” (Jocelyne
Saab, interview with Olivier Hadouchi, 2010). [ .. .]

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#OlivierHadouchi Une Rétrospective Jocelyne Saab à Paris / Jocelyn
Saab : A Retrospective in Paris
http://www.criticalsecret.net/olivierhadouchi-une-retrospective-jocelyne-saab-a-paris-jocelyn-saab-a-retrospective-in-paris,110.html

Thanks to the commitment of Nicole Brenez the curator and program
planner of the cycle devoted to Jocelyn Saab, entitled "Les Astres de
la guerre," at the National Film Archive “Cinématheque Française,"
Olivier Hadouchi with the filmmaker as dedicated artist have presented
her first filmic retrospective in Paris—i.e. a dozen documentaries and
fiction films included—which reviews much of her cinematographic work
since 1973. The event is taking place from the 29th of March till the
24th of May, 2013. Here is the schedule so that you can keep it for
memory.

N.B. Unpublished translations into English thanks to Michel Belisle.

JOCELYNE SAAB, Les Astres de la guerre
Série Contre-culture générale

du 29 mars au 24 mai 2013

Cinémathèque Française (informations pratiques)

51 Rue de Bercy‎, 75012 Paris
M° : Bercy - Lignes 6 et 14
Bus : n°24, n°64, n°87
En voiture / By car : A4, sortie Pont de Bercy

(Click on titles - cliquer sur les titres des rubriques)

- Le 29 mars 2013

Jocelyne Saab 1 - Vendredi 29 Mars 2013 / 19h 30 -> Closed
Jocelyne Saab 2 - Vendredi 29 Mars 2013 / 21h 30 -> / closed

- Le 19 avril 2013

Jocelyne Saab 3 - Vendredi 19 Avril 2013 / 19h30
Jocelyne Saab 4 - Vendredi 19 Avril 2013 / 21h30

- Le 24 Mai 2013

Jocelyne Saab 5 - Vendredi 24 Mai 2013 / 19h30
Jocelyne Saab 6 - Vendredi 24 Mai 2013 / 21h30

◆

Closed /

Jocelyne Saab 1 - Vendredi 29 Mars 2013 / 19h 30
SALLE GEORGES FRANJU
En présence de Jocelyne Saab et Olivier Hadouchi

- 85’

Les Nouveaux croisés d’Orient / Portrait d’un mercenaire français ⇢
Jocelyne Saab
France/1975/10’/16mm

The Portrait of a French mercenary in Lebanon. Godet served in
Indochina and Algeria. He enjoys the taste of blood.

Suivi de / followed by

Le Liban dans la tourmente ⇢
Jocelyne Saab and Jorg Stocklin
France-Liban/1975/75’/16mm

A few months after the incident of the 13th of April, 1975—when
Palestinian civilians were shot by Phalangist militia—the result was
most tragic : six thousand death tolls, twenty thousand wounded,
incessant kidnappings, the capital city half-destroyed. This film
traces the origins of the Lebanese conflict, the perception of a
company that goes to war singing.
⇧

/ closed

◆ ◆

closed

Jocelyne Saab 2 - Vendredi 29 Mars 2013 / 21h 30
SALLE GEORGES FRANJU

- France / 80’

Les Enfants de la guerre ⇢
Jocelyne Saab
France/1976/10’/VOSTF/Vidéo

A few days after a massacre—1500 death tolls—in the Karantina slum
near Beirut, the director found children who survived. She approaches
them by offering pencils to draw. A link is created between them. They
let her film their games and violent warriors acts : they re-enact the
horror that they saw unfolding before their own eyes...

Suivi de / followed by

Beyrouth, jamais plus ⇢
Jocelyne Saab
France/1976/35’/VOSTF/35mm

In 1976, Beirut sees the beginning of its ordeal. The director,
through the eyes from her childhood, follows daily for six months the
deterioration of the walls of the city. Every morning, between six and
ten o’cloc when the militiamen of both camps are resting after their
nights of fights, she "goes into town." A surrealist movie and an
elegy to the city with a poem by Etel Adnan.

Suivi de / followed by

Égypte, la cité des morts ⇢
Jocelyne Saab
France/1977/35’/VOSTF/16mm

When a Lebanese woman goes to Egypt to realize a portrait of Cairo,
she is looking for the mythical mother city of the world, while
Beirut, her own place, is collapsing under the blows of war. A
surrealist and poetic movie about a cemetery where more than a million
people are living.
⇧

/ closed.

◆ ◆ ◆

Jocelyne Saab 3 - Vendredi 19 Avril 2013 / 19h 30
SALLE GEORGES FRANJU

- France / 1977 / 94’

Le Sahara n’est pas à vendre ⇢
de Jocelyne Saab
France/1977/94’/VOSTF/35mm

Conflicts on the Polisario Front and over the resistance of the
Sahrawi nomads (in Sahara). "I did not seek to adhere to the Algerian
or Moroccan thesis over Western Sahara. It is the funniest or most
surprising fact that both countries have indirectly cooperated into
financing the documentary. In fact I particularly felt close to the
Sahrawis—moreover I was always fascinated by the desert. I made the
movie for them and not for such or such state." (J.S.)
⇧

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Jocelyne Saab 4 - Vendredi 19 Avril 2013 / 21h 30
SALLE GEORGES FRANJU

- France / 114’

Lettre de Beyrouth ⇢
Jocelyne Saab
France/1978/52’/VOSTF/16mm

Three years after the civil war started, the director had returned to
her own city for a few months. She is having a hard time adapting to a
life in a country alternating between war and peace. While public
transportation are no longer functioning, she successfully repairs a
bus bringing back a token of normality within the afflicted city.
People get on the bus where they find themselves entering a safe
heaven. (Ethel Adnan and Jocelyne Saab)

Suivi de / followed by

Le Bateau de l’exil ⇢
Jocelyne Saab
France/1982/10’/VOSTF/Vidéo

After the Israeli siege in 1982, Jocelyne Saab was the only director
permitted to get on the Atlantis ship chartered by France to bring
Yasser Arafat, the charismatic leader of the Palestinians and his
headquarters to a new exile. For forty-eight hours, she films this
historic moment.

Suivi de / followed by

Beyrouth, ma ville ⇢
Jocelyne Saab
France/1982/52’/VOSTF/16mm

In July 1982, the Israeli army besieged Beirut. Four days earlier,
Jocelyne Saab witnesses her house burning down : 150 years gone up in
smoke. This raises the question : when did it all begin ? Each
location will become a story and each name a memory ... history of a
siege. Text and narration by Roger Assaf.
⇧

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Jocelyne Saab 5 - Vendredi 24 Mai 2013 / 19h 30
SALLE GEORGES FRANJU

- 86’

Les Almées, danseuses orientales ⇢
de Jocelyne Saab
France/1989/26’/VOSTF/Video

Busty and all dressed in lamé, oriental dancers—the Almées—are always
present to liven up weddings and circumcisions. They are inspired by
oriental dance stars of the 40s and 50s : Samia Gamal, Tahia Carioca,
Naima Akef... Popular dancers, they come from all corners of Egypt and
secretly dream to become one day queens in various palaces in Cairo.
Dina, star of the 80s, fulfilled that dream.

Suivi de / followed by

La Dame de Saïgon ⇢
 Jocelyne Saab
France-Lebanon-Vietnam/1997/60’/ VOSTF/Vidéo

Portrait of a lady, South Vietnamese Minister of the Revolutionary
Government, Dr. Hoa, whose life is a struggle, and finds happiness in
fight. She was part of the maquis and has been imprisoned during the
war. When the Communists came in Saigon in 1975, another battle
began... A love story.
⇧

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Jocelyne Saab 6 - Vendredi 24 Mai 2013 / 21h 30
SALLE GEORGES FRANJU

- Égypte / 2005 / 112’

Dunia - Kiss me not on the eyes ⇢
Jocelyne Saab
Egypt/2005/112’/VOSTF/35mm

Dunia is a variation on the theme of female desire, a highly tabooed
subject in the Arab society, including Egypt. Based on the erotic
power of the poetic and musical Arabic heritage, the film is about
love and desire through a woman marked by a traditional and
constrictive education. The culmination of the film is the trauma
caused by female genital mutilation (which applies to 97% of women in
Egypt, according to UNICEF reports, Amnesty International, and UNDP).
⇧

Source Jocelyne Saab, Les astres de la guerre, Cinémathèque française.
http://www.cinematheque.fr/fr/recherche.html?recherche=cycle+jocelyne+saad&x=0&y=0

P.-S.

Index of movies being presented
(order follows date and time of presentation)

• Les Nouveaux croisés d’Orient / Portrait d’un mercenaire français
• Le Liban dans la tourmente
• Les Enfants de la guerre
• Beyrouth, jamais plus
• Égypte, la cité des morts
• Le Sahara n’est pas à vendre
• Lettre de Beyrouth
• Le Bateau de l’exil
• Beyrouth, ma ville
• Les Almées, danseuses orientales
• La Dame de Saïgon
• Dunia (Kiss me not on the eyes)

We cœur Jocelyne Saab / We the Heart Jocelyne Saab

    Elisabeth Lebovici in her blog "Beautiful Vice," Tuesday, March 30, 2013 :
    "A shockwave hit the French Cinematheque Friday night between
19:30 and midnight when Jocelyne Saab presented these early films :
(1975) Portrait d’un mercenaire français ; (1975) Le Liban dans la
tourmente ; (
1976) Les Enfants de la guerre ; (1976) Beyrouth, jamais
plus
 ; (1978) Égypte, la cité des morts. [ ... ]"

to follow

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