Tag Archives | film

The Insult – First Lebanese Movie to Get An Academy Award Nomination

Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri just earned today an academy award nomination for his movie “The Insult” in the Foreign Language Film category! This is big news for us because it is the first movie to ever get an official Oscar nomination since Lebanon started submitting films to the Academy Awards in 1978, and will compete with four other submissions from Russia, Chile, Hungary and Sweden.

Ziad Doueiri stirred much controversy a while ago by the way when he filmed a previous movie, The Attack, in Israel. However, I noticed that almost everybody seemed to agree on praising “The Insult” regardless of their stance on Doueiri and his political views, so I really hope it manages to clinch the trophy!

The Oscars will air on Sunday March 4th on ABC Network and Jimmy Kimmel is once again hosting the event this year. You can check the full list of nominees for all categories here.

0

Marvel Movies Free Screenings in Beirut

If you’re a fan of Marvel or superhero movies in general, then here’s your chance to re-watch or catch up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe films for free. The people at a production company called “Monkey Business Dreams” are planning host screenings for 18 Marvel movies each Tuesday at 7PM starting January 2nd 2018 until “Avengers: Infinity War” is released on May 4th 2018. Each screening will be followed by a discussion and a Q&A on plot and production.

If you’re interested to attend, you can find the screening location coordinates here and below is their schedule:

  • Jan 2: Iron Man
  • Jan 9: The Incredible Hulk
  • Jan 16: Iron Man 2
  • Jan 23: Thor
  • Jan 30: Captain America – The First Avenger
  • Feb 6: The Avengers
  • Feb 13: Iron Man 3
  • Feb 20: Thor – The Dark World
  • Feb 27: Captain America – The Winter Soldier
  • Mar 6: Guardians Of The Galaxy
  • Mar 13: The Avengers – Age Of Ultron
  • Mar 20: Ant-Man
  • Mar 27: Captain America – Civil War
  • Apr 3: Doctor Strange
  • Apr 10: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2
  • Apr 17: Spider-Man Homecoming
  • Apr 24: Thor – Ragnarok
  • May 1: Black Panther

No snacks or drinks are sold on location by the way, so feel free to bring your own stuff.

0

Syria Street – Everyday Life Stories From Jabal Mohsen and Bab El Tabbaneh

Jabal Mohsen and Bab El Tabbaneh are two neighborhoods in Tripoli that got popular over the past 10 years for all the wrong reason.

Following the assassination of PM Rafic Hariri, the residents of the two neighborhoods got into more than 10 armed clashes mainly due to their division among different sects and having different political affiliations, and the rounds of violence eventually intensified with the start of the Syria war in 2011.

The two areas are separated by Syria Street, also known as Bab El Dahab, and it is a proof that while people in general think that their residents are vertically divided, they in fact share so much in common. Many of them run shops on both sides of the street, and they simply just rely on each other to get on with their lives. People from Bab El Tabbaneh go to Jabal Mohsen for good and services that might not be available in their area and vice versa.

What they also share the most though are their problems, concerns, and daily struggles. The residents of both sides suffer from poverty, bad living conditions, and lack of jobs which is unfortunately motivating their youths to search for any source of income even if it was coming from politicians in exchange of firing arms at their neighbors…

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Lebanon recently collaborated with photographer and filmmaker Brandon Tauszik who’s well known for GIF-based storytelling, in order to convey the real image about the people from both Jabal Mohsen and Bab El Tabbaneh. Brandon spent a week listening to residents from both sides and the result was some quite expressive visuals along with interesting stories from their everyday lives.

To explore more about this project, check SyriaStreet.com in hope that these two areas never take part of another rounds f violence, and that their representatives in the parliament stop abusing them every time they want to make some political gain.

0

Like There is No Tomorrow – A 2D Animation by Marilyn Haddad

marilynhaddad

Marilyn Haddad is a 2D animation artist who recently graduated from Vancouver film school and is also a former ALBA student. She sent me this animation she recently did about a Lebanese girl who loves to dance to survive the stress that everybody faces here.

I thought of sharing it on the blog because I found the animation to be pretty impressive, and I hope we get to see more of her work.

0

New Lebanese movie – Habbet Loulou

In modern day Lebanon, in a country divided between those who have too little and those who have too much, three women try to defy their social labeling and incapability. “Habbet Loulou” is a story about illegitimate children, prostitution, and abortion. A heartfelt tale that streams from the veins running under the very streets of Lebanon.

Habbet Loulou is a new movie by Layal Rajha and will be out in cinemas on September 26th. You can check this Facebook page for more information about it.

1

Priceless: Haifa Wehbi goes crazy over a prank by Ramez Galal

Ramez Galal is an Egyptian actor who’s very known there for his celebrity prank shows during Ramadan. Today’s episode of his show “Ramez Ankh Amon” featured Haifa Wehbe who was terrified after getting locked in a dark room with a mummy! Her reaction though was totally priceless once Ramez revealed himself, she started cursing him and the crew together, at some point she even started hitting them!

If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, start at the 11th minute mark.

Ramez by the way also pranked Cyrine Abdelnour last year.

15

I offered you pleasure – Another banned movie in Lebanon

“I offered you pleasure” is a short Lebanese movie by Farah Shaer that follows a shiite woman named Iman, who uses her religious right of performing pleasure marriage (zawaj el mot3a) to gather blessings for her late husband, and eventually creating a lot of controversy in her conservative surroundings.

As per this post by “STOP Cultural Terrorism in Lebanon” on Facebook, the movie seems to have been banned in Lebanon due to the fact that it tackles a sensitive subject after trying to submit it to two local film festivals and getting rejected.

“To all the people living in Beirut who wanted to watch the short film “I Offered You Pleasure” (وهبتك المتعة) of which I was the Director, I tell you this:

Unfortunately, the Lebanese Film Festival circuit seems is as corrupt as our governments, as we’ve presented the film to two local festivals & they both rejected the film.

On the other hand, the World’s Biggest Short Film Festival (Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival) chose it from more than 6150 entries from around the world (& as the only short film to represent Lebanon) …. It toured also to the biggest festival in Asia (Busan International Film Festival) & is now going on a tour between North Africa, Europe, & Latin America … but in Beirut…. well… what can we say… it’s a real shame … seems we will never be able to show it here…”

http://www.clermont-filmfest.com/index.php?&m=134&c=3&id_film=200027897&o=106

Trailer >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=limIyXVZ_Ys

So basically, you can make a movie about anything in Lebanon except politics and religion!

2

My Last Valentine in Beirut to stop showing in Cinemas

After the order of nurses in Lebanon filed a lawsuit against My Last Valentine in Beirut for showing an actress wearing a provocative nurse outfit, it seems that the film director Salim El-Turk decided to stop showing it in Lebanese cinemas instead of waiting for the General Security to take a decision about the lawsuit, as per Lebanon Files a while ago.

Still, I don’t know why I’m feeling like the movie will keep showing, and that the producers are just spreading these news to get as much people as possible to go watch the movie now.

Update:

The movie is now showing again in theaters after it stopped for a while.

3

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes