1. AS ABOVE, SO BELOW in Argentina, Brazil, Russia and the USA
2. BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER online worldwide via Cairo
3. IN VITRO in Germany, France and the USA
4. PANOPTIC online worldwide via Cairo
5. NATION ESTATE in France
6. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in France
7. DVD of the month
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1. AS ABOVE, SO BELOW in Argentina, Brazil, Russia and the USA

Sarah Francis’ feature documentary shows in October at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York (USA), the Pacific Meridian International Film Festival Vladivostok (Russia), the International Film Festival Sao Paolo (Brazil) and the Latin Arab Film Festival in Buenos Aires (Argentina).

Content
A group of people roams in a bare landscape around a set of swings as their only settlement, as if mapping, exploring, reorganizing the open territory they are in. As they move, changes in soundscapes make them virtually cross geographies. In the sky, a moon-like satellite roves above their heads, following them like an omen. The moon, once symbolizing cyclical times, myths and new beginnings, is now the satellite waiting to be conquered and colonized. Reality and fantasy intertwine in an existential quest. Is a new beginning really possible? As below, so above.
documentary, Sarah Francis, Lebanon 2020, 70 min, b&w and color, Arabic with English subtitles
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2. BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER online worldwide via Cairo

Sarah Francis' extraordinary city portrait of Beirut is showing on October 9th and 10th, 2020 online at the Between Women Filmmakers Caravan, a festival in Cairo (Egypt).Sarah Francis' extraordinary city portrait of Beirut is showing on October 9th and 10th, 2020 online at the Between Women Filmmakers Caravan, a festival in Cairo (Egypt).

Content
A glassed van roams the streets of Beirut, home to a camera that explores the city behind the glass. Along the way, several people are invited to share a personal moment in this moving confessional. Each one comes as a face, a body, a posture, a voice, an attitude, an emotion, a point of view, a memory. Their confessions are true, blunt, and intimate. However, soon enough, the van empties again, and roams Beirut; restlessly looking for something, for someone.
documentary, Sarah Francis, Lebanon/Qatar 2013, 99 min, digital, Arabic with English subtitles
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3. IN VITRO in Germany, France and the USA

Larissa Sansour and Soren Lind’s Sci-Fi shows in October online online at the Boston Palestine Film Festival (USA) and at Imagine Science (USA). Offline the film can be watched at Kino der Kunst in Munich and Nuernberg (Germany) as well as at the Institut du Monde Arabe and the Festival Ciné Palestine, both in Paris (France).

Content
In Vitro is set in the aftermath of an eco-disaster. An abandoned nuclear reactor under the biblical town of Bethlehem has been converted into an enormous orchard. Using heirloom seeds collected in the final days before the apocalypse, a group of scientists are preparing to replant the soil above.
In the hospital wing of the underground compound, the orchard’s ailing founder, 70-year-old Dunia is lying in her deathbed, as 30-year-old Alia comes to visit her. Alia is born underground as part of a comprehensive cloning program and has never seen the town she’s destined to rebuild.
short Sci-fi, Larissa Sansour & Soren Lind, Palestine/Denmark/UK 2019, 28 min, 1:2.66, Arabic with English subtitles
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4. PANOPTIC online worldwide via Cairo

Rana Eid's acoustic portrait of Beirut will be streamed worldwide at the 12th and 13th of October 2020 at the Between Women Filmmakers Caravan in Cairo (Egypt).

Content
Panoptic is a letter from a daughter to her deceased father in an attempt to reconcile with her country’s turbulent past. Panoptic delves into Beirut’s underground to explore Lebanon’s schizophrenia: a nation that thrives for modernity while ironically ignoring the vices that obstruct achieving this modernity. While the Lebanese population has chosen to turn a blind eye to these vices, Rana Eid, an ordinary citizen, explores the nation’s paradoxes through sound, iconic monuments and secret hidings.
In a rare case where the sound landscape of a film dictates the visual landscape, Panoptic is a depiction of the turbulent Lebanese past and the way society copes with trauma.
documentary, Rana Eid, Lebanon 2017, 69 min, Arabic with Engl. ST
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5. NATION ESTATE in France

Larissa Sansour's short Sci-Fi is invited in October to the Festival Film Femmes Mediterranées in Marseille (France).

Content
Nation Estate is a 9-minute sci-fi short offering a clinically dystopian, yet humorous approach to the deadlock in the Middle East. The film explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood: One colossal skyscraper housing the entire Palestinian population - now finally living the high life.'
short Sci-fi, Larissa Sansour, Palestine/Denmark 2012, 9 min, digital, no dialogue
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6. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in France

The multi-awarded film by Ghassan Halwani shows in October offline in the program of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (France).

Content
Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know.
He has disappeared since.
Ten years ago, I caught a glimpse of his face while walking in the street, but I wasn’t sure it was him.
Parts of his face were torn off, but his features had remained unchanged since the incident. Yet something was different, as if he wasn’t the same man.
essay-documentary, Lebanon 2018, color and black & white, 76 min, Arabic and English with English subtitles
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7. DVD of the month

Erased,___Ascent of the Invisible (Tirss, Rihlat al Sou’oud ila al Mar’i)
 
Price (homevideo rights): 20,00 EUR
 
Erased is a powerful, thoughtful film on death, trauma, and nationhood. (Scene Creek)
Halwani's exemplary structural intelligence and moral sophistication allows him to avoid the pratfalls of cinematic archivality: every minute counts. (Cinema Scope)

Content
Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know.
He has disappeared since.
Ten years ago, I caught a glimpse of his face while walking in the street, but I wasn’t sure it was him.
Parts of his face were torn off, but his features had remained unchanged since the incident. Yet something was different, as if he wasn’t the same man.

DVD-Info
Ghassan Halwani, essay-documentary, Lebanon 2018, color and black & white, 76 min, Arabic and English
subtitles: English, French, Italian, Spanish
PAL, no regional code
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