Shorts 1 - Simon Fujiwara, Mazen Khaled, Jumana Manna, Moon Kyungwon, Joe Namy, Haig Papazian, Akram Zaatari
past

16 May 2013
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm25 May 2013
Time: 12:45 pm - 2:15 pmEvent Type Video screenings
Location Beirut Art Center CHECK THE MAP
more info
DESCRIPTION OF WORK
The End of Time - Akram Zaatari
Blu-ray| 14’| 2013 | No dialogue with English subtitles

The End of Time is at the same time a choreography for two lovers,
enacted by three figures. It looks at the birth and the vanishing of
desire as an endless chain with successive beginnings and endings.
Cast:
Ali Cherri, Roy Dib, Selim Mrad
Cinematography and Camera:
Bassem Fayad
Editing and Color Grading:
Belal Hibri/ REZ Visual
Assistant Director:
Jowe Harfouche
Production Management:
Abla Khoury, Ginger Beirut Productions
Sound Design:
Nadim Mishlawi/ db Studios
Cast:
Ali Cherri, Roy Dib, Selim Mrad
Cinematography and Camera:
Bassem Fayad
Editing and Color Grading:
Belal Hibri/ REZ Visual
Assistant Director:
Jowe Harfouche
Production Management:
Abla Khoury, Ginger Beirut Productions
Sound Design:
Nadim Mishlawi/ db Studios
Heroes of a Transitional Time - Haig Papazian
Blu-ray | 4’ | 2012 | Armenian with English subtitles

In a prolonged post-heroic transitional time, a man, trapped in a
Sisyphean ideological repetition, still believes he can become a
hero.
Produced in the context of Home Workspace Program 2011-12, Ashkal Alwan.
Produced in the context of Home Workspace Program 2011-12, Ashkal Alwan.
Half Step - Joe Namy
Blu-ray | 1’30” | 2013

A single take, from an improvised rehearsal for a dance, documents
a b-boy’s attempt to breakdance to traditional folklore
music. Organized movements vanish, tracing dance as an art of
erasure.
A Sketch of Manners (Alfred Roch’s Last Masquerade) - Jumana Manna
Blu-ray | 8’ | 2013 | English with Arabic subtitles

Alfred Roch, member of the Palestinian National League, is a
politician with bohemian panache. In 1942, at the height of WWII, he
throws what will turn out to be the last masquerade in Palestine.
Inspired by an archival photograph, A Sketch of Manners (Alfred
Roch’s Last Masquerade) recreates an unconventional bon vivant
aspect of Palestinian urban life before 1948. Posing silently for a
group photo, the unmasked and melancholic Pierrots accidentally
personify the premonition of an uncertain future.
Hypnopompic - Mazen Khaled
Blu-ray | 20’ | 2013 | No dialogue with English subtitles

The word “hypnopompic” refers to the partially conscious state that
precedes complete wakefulness, characterized by “dreaming
cognition trying to make sense” of reality. The term thus describes a
state of being, a transition and a process always taking place in
between two moments, two states. Hypnopompic is a reflection on
this in-between state: exposing self-doubt, vulnerability, and lack of
fixity, and simultaneously bursting with rashness and restraint. The
action in the video depicts a pursuit of solid and concrete meaning
yet projects a yearning for ethereality. The pas de deux ballet
structure comes to mind as a frame for such action. It usually
consists of an entrée, adagio, two variations (one for each dancer),
and a coda (or tail). Hypnopompic is essentially a pas de deux,
albeit an individualistic one, a pas de deux “uns” if you will.
Avyakta - Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho
Tempus was thrown into confusion, and eventually the woman was
banished. This led to others breaking away from the system just as
she had. Tempus, which had been an all-but-impenetrable fortress,
was slowly collapsing. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the
leaders of Tempus decided to take a risk in order to grasp the facts
behind the unproductive acts that had begun with those of the
woman. They decided to make use of the time machine that they
had been secretly developing as a means to travel back in time
before the apocalypse and create a system in which Tempus would
have supreme power. Although the machine was only at an
experimental stage, the Tempus leaders did not hesitate to use it.
They believed that if the roots of such problems could be identified,
then such problems could be completely removed. Tempus chose a
man who was rational and levelheaded enough for the grave
mission to restore its former grand status.
Blu-ray | 17’56” | 2012

What she experienced there is unknown, but from that point on, she
lived a life totally different from her life before. Even within the strict
restrictions she was dignified, and at times rejected what she had
been ordered to do. Also, she drew strange-looking symbols and
made objects with unknown uses. But what was even stranger was
that the citizens of Tempus came to adore the woman who would
habitually act in such a peculiar way. The people would even impart
meaning to her signs and symbols. They worshipped her, looking up
to her as a messenger delivering messages from a mysterious
place.
Studio Pietà (King Kong Komplex) - Simon Fujiwara
Blu-ray | 21’ | 2013; English

Studio Pietà (King Kong Komplex) tells the story of the artist’s attempt to restage
and photograph a lost picture of his mother held in the arms of a former Lebanese
boyfriend taken on a beach close to the Casino du Liban where she worked as a
cabaret dancer in the late 1960s. In what begins as a seemingly simple
reconstruction, the artist begins to understand how his role as director holds
unwanted powers, through which – in the process of casting the models, designing
the set and even the make-up selection – he is drawn into a labyrinth of larger
social and political questions. Lederhosen, water pollution in Beirut,
Michelangelo’s Pietà, King Kong, and the interrogation methods of the CIA are just
some of the characters and plot twists that spin out from this dense and
convoluted tale of the erotic imagination.
GETTING THERE
Off Corniche el Nahr
Building 13, Street 97, Zone 66 Adlieh
Phone: +961 1 397 018 / +961 70 26 21 12
www.beirutartcenter.org
Beirut Art Center
Jisr El WatiOff Corniche el Nahr
Building 13, Street 97, Zone 66 Adlieh
Phone: +961 1 397 018 / +961 70 26 21 12
www.beirutartcenter.org