Do you feel frustrated at having to sit this Spring out, at home, confined wherever that may be? Now imagine that same frustration and hopelessness transported to a country like Lebanon, where already months before the Covid-19 outbreak, citizens were revolting against their corrupt government.
Tweets from friends pointed to cash shortages, or worse yet, a banking system that wouldn’t allow them to take out more than a certain amount, barely enough to pay the rent. In some cases, not even enough to live, eat, travel across town to go to work. The Lebanese, a resilient people who have lived through civil wars, bombings and systemized corruption, took to the street to protest the measures. It was filmed, shown on CNN and the BBC. Their prime minister at the time Saad Hariri was made to resign and things could have gone better… But they didn’t.
And then the Coronavirus hit. And the whole world turned away what little attention they had devoted to our Lebanese brothers and sisters and started worrying about masks, latex gloves and standing more than six feet apart.
In this pit of desperation, a film community continues to exist. And if the five short films I am about to talk about are any indication, thrive. The Lebanese — and those living in Beirut in particular, have always had the upper hand when it comes to cinema. What is that Orson Welles quote from ‘The Third Man’ — “…In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.” Inspired by their struggles, Lebanese filmmakers have always produced their best work.
The five filmmakers featured in this omnibus of shorts, featuring life in the ghost town and home shelters of Beirut, are the brightest of the new wave of directors, including Lamia Jreij a painter, Carol Mansour an editor/producer/filmmaker, Zeina Sfeir a favorite publicist, frequent Nadine Labaki collaborator and a director, Mahmoud Hojeij a media consultant/filmmaker and Ghassan Salhab a screenwriter/director. That ability to do several cultural activities, blend these disciplines makes their work all the more precious.
Do watch the films, all around five minutes each, made in a week and for which the filmmakers all shared the following vision:
‘Living in Times of Coronavirus’ welcomes highly opinionated stories or statements, counter-narratives where the directors use the whole palette of expressions from collage of everyday life under quarantine over ‘manuals’ for wasting time, to pastiches of propaganda films on hygiene and acceptable social behavior.
My favorites include Zeina Sfeir’s soulful voyage through her apartment, empty both emotionally and physically since the death of her parents, in which she also touches upon a broken healthcare system now made even worse by the virus, as well as Ghassan Salhab’s ‘Rear Window’ a portrait of the emptiness of Beirut. The writer and director of one of my most beloved films ‘The Valley’ made in 2014, combines sound and images that seem still but are in fact filmed to make the viewer feel like they are right there with him. Sitting this one out.
You can watch all five on the Daraj site, a new epicenter for non-biased journalism in Lebanon. The films will be promoted by the IMS, International Media Support, which developed the concept.