War, migration, child and woman…Saab depicts the atrocities of war in her documentaries

During a talk at Boğaziçi University, Boğaziçi Chronicles’ new guest, Labanese journalist and director Jocelyne Saab exposed the consequences of civil war in Beirut during the last 15 years by the images of children, women, migration, destruction of the city and reminded us of the solid realities of war.

In “Reflections of a Film Maker Plasticienne on Beirut, a City under “Siege” ”, Saab documented the suffering face of war in four different periods.

In her featured documentaries, Joycelyne Saab brings a historical overview by using collective memory and emphasizing on issues such as war, ethnicity and femininity status at war. Saab first met with the Istanbul audience, students and scholars on November 26th together with her colleague, journalist, and film critic Cüneyt Cebenoyan during a public talk on “Reflections of a Film Maker Plasticienne on Beirut, a City under “Siege” ” during which the realities and effects of war on humans were revealed.

Saab pointed out that we see the same images in the Middle East today and in her 1976 documentary “Beirut is no Longer Never” she depicted the realities of war and children with the images taken during the civil war. The film is about children with machine guns, looting and living in exile and migrating from one place to another, destroyed homes, small faces for whom war is a way of life, Labenese people trying to survive on the streets in the middle of war.

In her letter themed second documentary, Saab displays the hunger and misery experienced due to the embargo in West Beirut and people trying to survive without a homeland on the borders as a Palestinean, Lebanese or UN refugee.

In her third documentary filmed in 1982, Saab displays Beirut almost entirely destroyed by Israeli bombardment and shows images taken from her house burned and ruined by bombs. During 1990’s, Saab covered Beirut youth who grew up in a battlefield environment through the research done by two young girls.

Boğaziçi Chronicles’ second event was the screening of Dunia (Kiss Me Not on the Eyes) on December 1st. Filmed by Saab in 2006, Dunia (Kiss Me Not in the Eyes) exhibited some serious issues on female genital mutilation which raised a voice in the international arena both during the time it was filmed and thereafter. This event was organized in collaboration with Women’s Studies Club (BUKAK) with a Q&A session afterwards.