The One Man Village (Semaan bil-Day'ia) A film that goes under the skin. (Al-Mustaqbal, Reema Mismar) Thrilling, painful, mature and very well done. It announces the birth of real cinematographer, who combines courage and talent. A film that has no place for hatred. (Al-Akhbar, Pierre Abi Saab) Short Synopsis Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small village Ain el-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. The hamlet was completely emptied and destroyed in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Today, many years after an official reconciliation, its inhabitants which are all from one family regularly go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses and always leave before sunset. In his comforting and humorous film Simon El Habre observes the life in his quasi ghost village and tries to reflect on the collective and individual memory in a country that seems to live in a collective amnesia and is vulnerable to a new civil war. Long Synopsis The One Man Village follows live in the Christian village Aïn el-Halazoun in the Lebanese Mountains that was emptied in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. 1983 the region of the Mount Lebanon, one hour away from the capital Beirut, faced merciless fighting between Christian and Druze militias which ended in reprisals in the form of civilian massacres and the displacement of populations. The Christian inhabitants of Mount Lebanon had to seek refuge in Beirut. Entire villages, including Aïn el-Halazoun, were evacuated and destroyed. Reconciliation was officially declared in 1994 and Christians were allowed to return to their villages. Thirteen years later, Aïn El Halazoun is still a ghost village. Its inhabitants decided to stay in Beirut in spite of the difficult living conditions there. They go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses regularly and always leave before sunset. Only one man decided to return to Aïn el-Halazoun for good: Semaan El Habre. Over the period of year Simon El Habre returned to his village with his film team to observe the daily routine in Aïn el-Halazoun. His portrait of life in a quasi ghost village reflects the collective and individual memory. It calls into question formal reconciliations. Yet, through the story of Semaan el-Habre who decided to return home against all odds it is also, and above all, the story of a healing. Simon El Habre, Lebanon 2008, 86 min, color, HDCAM, Arabic with English subtitles Director Simon El Habre | Writer Simon El Habre | Cinematography Bassem Fayad, Marc Karam | Sound Chadi Roukoz | Cast Semaan El Habre | Editing Simon El Habre | Sound Editing/ Mixing Emile Aouad | Producers Simon El Habre, Jad Abi-Khalil, Irit Neidhardt | Produced by Beirut DC in association with mec film
Observatory Archives 2002
The Observatory Archives
/ CONTEXT 1994 - 2020
Observatory Archives 2002
The AObservatory Archives cover a huge range of works that are very different from one another, but share a commitment to freedom of expression and reflect on our individual and collective fears and pleasures. Together, they offer a multifaceted view, thousands of tiny eyes that probe and explore our world and announce other possible worlds. It is a discourse that above all values heterogeneity, plurality, contradiction and subjectivity, an antidote to the cloning and repetition of the current corporate mass media.
Angst, the forbidden book, Ron Random and the Dead Religion - an introduction to the Animal Obedience Institute. 6th Independent Vídeo & Interactive Phenomena Show
The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people. The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery. We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order's plans. It's not about Left or Right: it's about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves on a Global Plantation. Alex Jones reveals who Obama works for, what lies he has told and his real agenda.
Inside this cd-rom there is a hospital. A stage on which something could happen but apparently nothing does. We move through outbuildings. Suddenly we abandon the architectural journey. Medicines are presented as fetishes. Small objects to worship.
In a world living in fear of climate change, the nuclear industry has put its hand up as a solution. It claims that nuclear power generation produces zero carbon emissions... and people are listening. There are currently 27 nuclear power stations under construction, and projections for another 136 to be commenced within the next decade. The industry sees climate change as its saviour, as a way of making the nuclear industry look environmentally friendly – which, to be frank, it never has. But is there a risk that we might be jumping out of the carbon frying pan and into the plutonium fire? The Nuclear Comeback goes on a worldwide tour of the nuclear industry in search of answers – visiting some of the planet\'s most famous nuclear facilities.
Chomsky covers U.S. policy, focusing on examples of U.S. terror. The content will engender insight and thought not only on the immediate events, but the whole social and economic context, the efficacy of dissent, the desirability of change. Sponsored by the Culture and Technology Forum at MIT.
The Net explores the incredibly complex backstory of Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber. This exquisitely crafted inquiry into the rationale of this mythic figure situates him within a late 20th Century web of technology - a system that he grew to oppose. A marvelously subversive approach to the history of the Internet, and a circling through themes of utopianism, anarchism, terrorism, CIA, LSD, Tim Leary, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, The Net exposes a hidden matrix of revolutionary advances, coincidences, and conspiracies.
UntitledThe Black Panther Party galvanized millions of African Americans against police repression and brutality, upholding the right of armed self-defense. The government launched a campaign of murder, jailings and disinformation to destroy the BPP. This film documents the Chicago police murder of one of the most charismatic and effective Panther leaders, Illinois Party chapter chairman Fred Hampton.
Untitled