Lynnś Weblog

Finally all the pics are posted, you should be able to access them off of the Flickr link on the left hand side.

Last night Alex and I went to the free film showing of ¨Suspended Dreams¨ at the 15 Years installation. For more info on the installation you can visit the artistś website http://www.nadasehnaoui.com/index.php

Another article on the exhibit here http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/04/lebanon-artists.html

The film ran 50 minutes and centered around 4 Lebanese people who lived thru the civil war. I couldnt find much information online about the movie — this link was the best I could find http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/sus.html

Thankfully they showed it with english subtitles. It opened with Fairouzś ¨Li Beirut¨

English translation cobbled together from elsewhere online:

Li Beirut – To Beirut (to the tune of The Lonely Shepherd)

A greeting from my heart to Beirut
kisses to the sea and to the houses
to a rock, which is like an old sailor’s face
She is made from the people’s soul..from wine
She is from his sweat…a bread and Jasmins
So how does her taste become? A taste of fire and smoke

Glory from the ashes to Beirut
My city has turned out her lamp
From the blood of a child carried upon her hand
She shut her door, and became alone in the sky
Alone with the night
You are mine, you are mine
Ah Hug me you are mine
You are my flag, tomorrow stone
And a travel’s waves
The wounds of my people have blossomed
And mothers tear
You are mine, you are mine
Ah Hug me

The four Lebanese people the film centered around where two guys who during the war shot at each otherś apartment and now work together repairing the war damage, they joked about when the other would pay up for the damage of pots and pans lost during their fighting, a woman whose husband became one of the 17,000 kidnapped and never to be seen again, struggling to repair her home, raise and protect her two young sons and organized a group of Lebanese women to try to get answers to the where abouts of the thousands of family members who disappeared. A quote from one of the many women looking for answers about their missing was ´the word kidnapped burns our hearts.´ The last person was a guy who ran a theater in Southern Lebanon. He was probably the most eloquent and heartbreaking. He sat amidst the wreckage of his theater and spoke of how the piles of chairs now lying scattered, crumbled, tattered, destroyed reminded him of the piles of bodies, lives lost during the war. He spoke of the glitzy reconstruction plans with cynicism. His question was how does one reconstruct the destruction within a survivor? The film touched on the devastation to the environment. Barrels of toxic waste being sent to Lebanon for burial coutesy of america, Italy and Spain. Fishermen had to go at least 2 kilometers out to escape the garbage dump in the water killing their catch. It showed frightening footage of bombs being dropped, people rushed for medical treatment amidst the chaos (much like the scenes you can see on the news covering the US invasion of Iraq.) Of course there was mention of Israeli atrocities…Sucking up the water of the Litani River for their own use, shelling and maiming 5 Lebanese children – the oldest being 12 who were innocently swimming in the Litani. How the Israelis left a lamp behind, some children found it, tried to light it only to have it explode. The vicious laying of land mines, these Isaeli atrocities are of course just a drop in the bucket…america needs to stop going against UN Resolutions with regards to Israel. I am not going to soap box here, and if it seems I have I will stop now before I really begin to rage on.

Watching the movie which was made in the early 90ś and seeing the precarious situation the country is in now makes me wonder if I have fallen in love with a terminally ill patient. Sadly, unlike the opening night event there was only a handful of people that showed up on a cool breezy night to claim a toilet seat and watch the movie. The film makers held a question and answer session afterwards.

The opening night was pretty moving also. A good crowd showed up, the music by Ziyad Sahhab and his ensemble was beautiful. Afterwards microphones were passed around the audience and people spoke of their experiences. Thankfully I was standing near Alex who needed no prompting to lean over and whisper translations to me. We signed forms stating we agreed with the presentation, received free tshirts for doing so. Were offered to sample the great food spread. Finger food and this beautiful woman making handmade bread on the spot and then others filling them with goat cheese, rolling them up and handing them off to who ever passed by. The pics we took of the opening night are posted on Flickr.