39° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
HADJITHOMAS/JOREIGE
AL FILM AL MAFKOUD
by Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
Country: Lebanon
Year: 2003
Duration: 42'
A copy of our first feature film disappeared in Yemen, on the day of the tenth anniversary of the reunification of North and South. A year later we are there, following the track of the lost film. An enquiry that takes us from Sanaá to Aden, a personal quest centering on the image and on our status as filmmakers in this part of the world…
Biography
film director
Joana Hadjithomas Khalil Joreige
(Beirut, Lebanon, 1969) directed films presented and awarded at various international film festivals. Their works have been exhibited in galleries and museums. With the latest feature Memory Box (2021) they participated in competition at the Berlinale, while with their debut film A Perfect Day (2005) they won the Fipresci award in Locarno and with the subsequent Je veux voir (2008) they participated at the Certain Regard section in Cannes. Their documentary The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of The Lebanese Space Race (2012) won first prize at the Doha Tribeca Festival. Several retrospectives of their films have been presented in institutions such as Cinematek in Brussels, the Lincoln Center, the MoMA and the Flaherty Seminar in New York, the Tate Modern in London, Paris Cinéma, the Institut Français and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Harvard Film Archive, the Locarno, Nyon and Gijon festivals, while in 2017 their installation On Unconformities was awarded the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize. Their artworks are part of major private and public collections including British Museum, Center Pompidou, Fond national d'art contemporain, MCA Chicago, Solomon R. Guggenheim and Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Hadjithomas and Joreige are the authors of numerous publications namely The Rumors of The World: Rethinking Trust in the Age of the Internet (2015) e Two Suns in a Sunset (2016). They are often invited as university lecturers in Lebanon and Europe. Both artists are co-founders of the production company Abbout Productions with Georges Schoucair, as well as executive members of Metropolis Art Cinema and the Cinemathèque in Beirut.
FILMOGRAFIA
Al Bayt al Zaher (Around the Pink House, doc, 1999), Khiam (doc, mm, 2000), Barmeh (Rounds, cm, 2001), Al Film Al Mafkoud (The Lost Film, doc, mm, 2003), Ramad (Ashes, cm, 2003), Yawmoun akhar (A Perfect Day, 2005), Open the Door, Please (ep. del film Enfances, cm, 2006), Khiam 2000-2007 (doc, 2008), Je veux voir (2008), The Lebanese Rocket Society, The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Race (doc, 2012), Ismyrna (doc, mm, 2016), Memory Box (2021).
Declaration
film director
“The Lost Film seeks to underline what representation means in this part of the Arab world to which we belong. It is an interrogation on the “image” which attempts to redefine itself far from the often westernised “orientalist” perceptions and common clichés and from the local representations, which usually mirror the iconography and rationale of those in power. Beyond this dual character, what place is there for us? How can we recognize ourselves and be recognized in and by the images we produce? What is the status of the image and our status as filmmakers in this part of the world? This is therefore more of a film shot in Yemen than a film about Yemen, a film made up of interrogations, of fragments, of stories we experienced in the country and which all tend to question our very existence and preconceived ideas. This experience also brought us face to face with our relation to temporal inscriptions, traces, memory and oblivion.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTORS, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND: Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige. FILM EDITING: Tina Baz Legal. VOICE OVER: Fadi Abi Samra, Maha Haddad. PRODUCTION: Idéale Audience. COPRODUCTION: Abbout Productions.
