Screening in Beirut

6 July 2024

Beryte Theater, USJ, Beirut

What do we actually do in the workshops –  and what are their visual results? How do the participants film? What is so special about the TAABIR workshops and community?

On 6 July 2024, the first annual screening of selected works gave a glimpse into the project. A one-hour compilation with a selection of the video diaries produced during the first five workshops was screened at Beryte Theater/USJ in Beirut.

The workshop participants and their community, representatives of the local cooperation partners, Lebanese actors from culture, education and civil society were attending the screening – some 90 persons including the TAABIR team and representatives of the donor, the Federal Foreign Office. The screening event was characterised above all by the very intensive exchange, networking, getting to know each other and reuniting with the workshop participants, their community and the other guests.

The video diaries express the thoughts, ideas, wishes, dreams, fears and realities of life of the workshop participants in their very individual visual language. They are thematically orientated towards the individual practical tasks of the video shoots during the workshops – with topics such as ‘Who am I?’, ‘Family’, ‘Nature’, ‘Body’, ‘Night’, ‘Reclaiming a Space’, ‘Neighborhood’ or ‘Visual Fingerprint’. Only some of the participants had extensive experience with film/video/cameras, a few had never even held a semi-professional camera before.

The video diaries of these first five workshops were filmed between July 2023 and March 2024 in:

1. Chouf, with participants from a small local community in Batloun, in collaboration with Sarmada
2. Beirut, with a very diverse group with various backgrounds from and around Beirut, in collaboration with Sawt w Soura/Beit Aam
3. Saida: with participants from Saida and the workshop relocated to Beirut due to the local situation, in collaboration with Ishbilia and Fabrika
4. Dbayeh Camp: taking place with and in a small refugee camp and other participants from the area, in collaboration with Dbayeh Camp Popular Committee
5. Tripoli: taking place in a special atmosphere during Ramadan in a city which highly welcomes cultural initiatives, in collaboration with Sada and Marsah

At the annual screening in Beirut, a wonderful atmosphere and a sense of community developed, which – as many guests told us – showed ‘the diversity of society’, ‘the variety shown through the video diaries’ and the ‘deep sense of respect for this diversity and plurality’ shown to them.

Corine Shawi, filmmaker and one of the workshop trainers, shares her impressions with us: “The annual screening was delightful. Seeing the participants and collaborators come together from five different regions was heartwarming. We welcomed them, introducing them to each other even before the screening, and the positive energy spread quickly. After the screening, the smiles and enthusiasm encouraged everyone to talk with each other.”

The formation of a small but constantly growing TAABIR community, its spirit and its network within the Lebanese civil society, which was already evident last year, and the exchange among them were thus further strengthened.

“Participants were very excited to meet fellows from other workshops and we noticed they rapidly sympathized and connected also through their personal social media pages”, commented Yara Nashawaty, workshop trainer and expert,“When invited on stage at the end of the screening, participants shared very heartwarming impressions on their workshop experiences. After the screening, we all gathered on the esplanade for drinks and finger food. Many participants generously expressed their admiration to each other’s diaries. Some stayed quite long in the evening telling us they are so happy of this gathering that they feel unable to leave.”

In the days following the screening, the team in Lebanon also received feedback from various guests expressing their thanks and interest in the project and its workshops.

Soon the video diaries will be available on our social media channels and website. We will keep you updated.

The project “Creative Expression through Films” is implemented by elbarlament e.V. and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. Find out more about it here.