BEIRUT: Few would argue that 2020’s been a great year. It’s been so miserable for Lebanon’s creative community that it’s tempting to imagine that, if we could...
BEIRUT: “Things are very bad here,” says curator Amanda Abi Khalil, “but very calm.”These days, you might be envious of anyone invited to spend five weeks in...
BEIRUT: The Goethe Institute is the latest non-state actor to intervene on behalf of Lebanon’s arts sector. The association’s recently unveiled Emergency...
REVIEWBEIRUT: Lebanon’s relatively brief history is littered with significant dates – an independence day, a massacre anniversary, a liberation, an...
BEIRUT: As this wretched year staggers on, Lebanon’s film sector has been given a shot in the arm from two distinct sources. Naturally both originate from...
BEIRUT: Less than three months after the city’s port blast eviscerated nearby residential districts, killing 200 and displacing thousands more, MBC and its...
REVIEWBEIRUT: There’s a tale that’s circulated locally about how Lebanese wines made during wars are “better” than those produced between armed conflicts.This...
BEIRUT: “Why are you and your friends making so much fuss about this blast? That’s what a friend of mine in Paris asked me. ‘There are many blasts there, many...
BEIRUT: Thanks to the pandemic, film festivals all over the place have been driven online. This country’s latest cinema celebration to seclude itself in...
BEIRUT: Two Lebanese movies have come away winners at the Venice Film Festival, though neither of them is finished.Final Cut in Venice is a workshop platform...
BEIRUT: “You travel to cities around the world and you see the harbors are a place where you can walk, go sight-seeing, meet people. Beirut Port is a...
BEIRUT: “We think the collection is largely unaffected, though the ceiling and one of the walls in the cold storage room collapsed. We think that with the...
BEIRUT: “Gaya had big dreams, big projects,” recalled Stephanie Ghougassian. “She just started her own business line and was waiting for the economic crisis...
BEIRUT: “This morning I woke up crying and angry and my anger’s been growing ever since,” said Zeina Arida, director of Nicolas Sursock Museum. “What the...
BEIRUT: Two Beirut-based organisations devoted to supporting Arab artists and arts institutions this week announced the winners of their Solidarity Fund for...
BEIRUT: Fadi El Chamaa and Semaan Khawam have had enough of social distancing. As Chamaa formulated it for a recent press release, “I’m sick of creating art...
BEIRUT: “People need hope. They need courage. We have to continue with our lives, even in the face of this awful mess,” Nidal Ashkar mused, peering up at a...
BEIRUT: “We’re trying to encourage people to return to the theater,” said an unusually somber-sounding Hisham Jaber, “for a little happiness, something good...
ReviewBEIRUT: Even at the best of times, there’s a danger that an unconventional film won’t find an audience. If you happen to premiere such a movie on the...
BEIRUT: The Cairo International Film Festival announced the resignation of its artistic director Ahmed Shawky Wednesday. A respected film critic and...
REVIEWBEIRUT: “This is the story of a man who lives his life in the background,” a narrator informs you in soulful Spanish tones, “but despite this, he will...
BEIRUT: “Some days I’m optimistic. Other days I’m very pessimistic,” Abbout Productions’ Myriam Sassine mused from the midst of...
BEIRUT: Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has tossed the jigsaw puzzle of contemporary life in the air, the fragility of the Arab world’s art institutions has...
BEIRUT: Even at the best of times, Lebanon has been a relatively hostile environment for its artists. The country’s political class prefers culture that makes...
REVIEWBEIRUT: The security camera is in danger of becoming a thing of nostalgia.Once upon a time, CCTV (not China Central Television, in this case, but...