Week theme: Memory and the Lebanese Civil War

Shelter (2015, 20 minutes) – Tamara Qiblawi 

"Shelter" recreates an underground history of Lebanon, by focusing on an epicenter of communal activity during times of war: the Bomb Shelter. Five war-time characters guide us through life in the Shelter, by means of stories and architecture. The result is an unearthing of societal dynamics, as well as a shocking discovery of state breakdown and neglect, driving people underground and to each other's rescue.  

Sleepless Nights (2012, 2:08 min) – Eliane Raheb 

“Through the stories of Assaad Shaftari, a former high ranking intelligence officer in a Christian right wing militia, responsible for many casualties in the protracted civil war in Lebanon and Maryam Saiidi, the mother of Maher, a missing young communist fighter who disappeared in 1982, the film digs in the war wounds and asks if redemption and forgiveness are possible.”