Nuova Orfeo: New Arab Cinema. A evening screening

On Thursday, June 29, join us at Ocean Space for the third appointment of the public program stream “Rippling, in the air”. TBA21–Academy reaffirms its collaboration with Nuova Orfeo by pursuing the New Arab Cinema cycle, an experimental film and artist moving images programme connected to the Arab world.

Volume I of the cycle, produced in collaboration with TBA21–Academy and the Swiss Institute, was presented in Palermo in October 2022 and focused on the work of Basma Alsharif and Jumana Manna.

For the evening at Ocean Space, the programme is inspired by Etel Adnan in conjunction with Simone Fattal's commission, presenting works by Lebanese film maker Jocelyne Saab and visual artist Lamia Joreige.

• 6pm | Visit of the exhibition "Thus waves come in pairs".
• 7:30pm | Introduction by Barbara Casavecchia and Nuova Orfeo, screening of "Beirut Never again" (1976) by Jocelyne Saab and screening of “Sun & Sea" (2021) by Lamia Joreige.

1976 marks the beginning of Beirut’s calvary. With a child’s eyes the filmmaker follows for six months the daily destruction of the city’s walls. Every morning, between 6 and 10am she roams around Beirut while the militia from both sides rest from their night of fighting.

Documentary, 1976, color, Lebanon, 16/35 mm, 35 min.
Directed by Jocelyne Saab.
Commentary by Etel Adnan.
Image by Hassan Naamani, Jocelyne Saab.
Edited by Philippe Gosselet.
Read for the French version by Jörg Stoecklin.
Copyrights: Association Jocelyne Saab.

In 2011, Lamia Joreige shared some photographs she had taken during the summer on a Greek island, Etel Adnan admired the photos and asked her to create a video based on her first poem, written in French in 1949.

Video, 2021, color, 16 mm, 17 min.
Written by Etel Adnan (1949).
Produced, directed and edited by Lamia Joreige.
With the support of Martch art Gallery, Istanbul.
Voice: Etel Adnan & Lamia Joreige.
Sound & Music: Fadi Tabbal (Tunefork).
Translation to English: Omar Berrada, Sarah Riggs and Lamia Joreige.

Nuova Orfeo is a not-for-profit and collectively-run experimental film, performance and music initiative with a focus on site-specific programming, founded by Beatrice Gibson, Flora Pitrolo, Pietro Airoldi and Stella Sideli in 2021. It takes its name from Palermo's last porn cinema as a symbol of rebirth of the city's cultural life, this time in a feminist, polyphonic and radically inclusive key.

New Arab Cinema is a program of experimental and artist films from the Middle East and North Africa, reflecting and exploring the sometimes unexpected connections between different parts of the Mediterranean.

Born in Beirut in 1948, Jocelyne Saab was a Franco-Lebanese filmmaker, best known for her documentaries about the Lebanese civil war. She is considered a pioneer of Arab cinema, and built up a monumental body of work comprising 47 films and 6 photographic series. Mainly produced for television, her documentary films were, before her death on January 7, 2019, best known to the Lebanese diaspora who had access to her films broadcast on television during the war.

Born in Beirut in 1972, Lamia Joreige is a visual artist and film-maker who lives and works in Beirut. She uses archival documents and elements of fiction to reflect on history and its possible narration, and on the relationship between individual stories and collective memory. In her practice, rooted in her country’s experience, she explores the possibilities of representing the Lebanese wars and their aftermath. Her work is essentially on time, the recordings of its trace, and its effects on us.