Bonds of Solidarity in Movie Tape
A woman sits at a table in a seaside restaurant, writing a letter while being photographed by a photographer. The wind, the clear sky, and the voice of famous singer Umi Kalsum give the impression of a relaxed atmosphere, contrasting with the voice of the woman who tells us that the atmosphere is critical in the midst of war. The position of the woman, none other than Jocelyne Saab herself, offers a completely different place from that of a war reporter. Jocelyn invites the audience to come to her hometown where she herself begins to feel unfamiliar and catches the restlessness of the locals. It is from her perspective that we walk through Beirut, get to know her friends and understand what is happening. Let’s imagine Beirut today is in a similar state as it was in the film Letter From Beirut made 46 years ago.
Why are things no better today than they were nearly five decades ago? The reality in Jocelyne Saab’s films suggests that the violence, war, displacement, and anxiety that were already recorded in the 1970s persist today. The struggle for freedom and justice in Lebanon’s neighboring territories such as Palestine, Jordan, or Syria is still steep and devastating. Up close, Jocelyne recorded images of the struggle for survival and the refusal to submit to society. Her footage may resemble what people in the same region are experiencing today.
We present three works of Jocelyne Saab in this edition of the festival as one of the many opportunities and channels to empathize and learn from the practices and expressions of solidarity of filmmakers who are geographically close to the Palestinian struggle for independence. The existence of communities in neighboring Lebanon or Jordan is deeply affected by the continuity of the struggle there, both in terms of experiencing violence and destruction, as well as growing and nurturing together the spirit of resistance.
When armed conflict breaks out, we as civilians are often jolted and pushed into the position of being spectators or consumers who either receive or ingest the news. Documentary allows us to look at issues and experiences of conflict in a more complex and, in the case of Saab’s works, more personal way. Through the act of watching, talking, discussing, writing, or sharing news, festival-goers have the option to actively engage in a discourse exchange. As such, a forum like Festival Film Dokumenter provides itself as a connecting and mutually reinforcing platform between the experiences and works of Lebanon and the communities in Yogyakarta.
Finally, when films or documents of the past come to our present, we should remember that this possibility did not just happen. There are those who preserve and bring them to meet audiences and enrich the space where knowledge circulates. If we pay close attention, documents of the past made by subjects from the Asian-African community are still relatively difficult to find, even though there are more accessible digital channels available. This scarcity of access and availability can be explained by the unequal quality of infrastructure, capital and preservation knowledge in the Asia-Africa region. By providing and watching mini-retrospective programs like this, we all take a step forward together to move towards rectifying this inequality.
I would like to thank Festival Film Dokumenter for welcoming the idea of this mini-retrospective as well as the Association Jocelyne Saab (Jinane and Mathilde Rouxelles) team for preserving her films. Moreover, my special thanks go to researcher Nathalie Rosa Bucher who ensured that this program could be made possible and kept the lines of contact open.
–Lisabona Rahman
