ArteEast invites you to a Double Screening Documentary event followed by a discussion with award-winning Directors and Sponsored Artists-in-Residence Myriam El Hage and M. Siam. Moderated by Soyoung Yoon, Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at The New School. This event is Co-sponsored by the Visual Studies Program, Dept. of the Arts, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, and the McDowell Colony.
“Treve (A Time to Rest)” : The filmmaker’s uncle Riad and his friends, all veterans of the Christian militias in Lebanon, revisit their time during the Civil War. Between shared memories in Riad’s hunting shop and their hunting trips from which they often return empty-handed, El Hage questions and confronts them about the origins of regional warmongering and violence at a time when Lebanon continues to live the torments of the past.
“Whose Country”: A young Egyptian filmmaker gets a never-seen first-hand accounts of the dark underworld of the Egyptian police over 3 years – from the Egyptian revolution until after the removal of the Muslim Brothers by the military. As the filmmaker enters into a previously forbidden circle he reflects on his father – who was a criminal investigator – to question the authority, belonging and morality around him in his ever changing country.
Mohammed Siam, the Egyptian director and star of Whose Country, has received several international awards in support of his projects, including from the Sundance Institute, IDFA Academy, La Fabrqiue des Cinemas du Monde, and is also a former recipient of the Robert Bosch Foundation Film Prize, a Docs-In-Progress Award, and the AfriDocs Prize at Durban FilmMart.
Myriam el Hage, the Lebanese producer, director and star of Treve (A Time to Rest), has also been selected for the Sundance Institute, as well as the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand, and Prix Charles-Brabant for Best Foreign Language Documentary.
This event is free and open to the public, but due to limited seating reservations are required to attend. Please send an RSVP to Sihem Mellah at smellah@arteeast.org, or call 646-725-8771.
