Jocelyne Saab: Letters from Lebanon

Jocelyne Saab, who died in 2019, was a journalist, a photographer, and a filmmaker, and in all of these roles she was, crucially, a witness—a conscientious observer of the various conflicts that threatened to tear her homeland to pieces, as well as those that blazed abroad. This eight-film, four-program series focuses on Saab’s films about Lebanon and, in particular, Beirut, including documentary work (Lebanon in Turmoil), her fiction feature debut (The Razor’s Edge), and one film poised somewhere between these two strains (Once Upon a Time in Beirut). Few filmmakers have dedicated themselves so totally to the preservation of a collective memory threatened by strife and turmoil, and it is only fitting that we, in turn, remember Saab.

Presented in partnership with Several Futures, Mizna, and Arab Film and Media Institute.