L’heure d’hiver Beirut
Introducing
On the occasion of its annual film festival L’heure d’hiver, Cinema Galeries proposes a focus on a Middle Eastern city. The programme aims to reflect the urban, demographic, social and political dynamics that make up the city, but also and above all to tell the story of how these dynamics are lived: what stories they shape, what experiences and what perspectives.
Introducing
On the occasion of its annual film festival L’heure d’hiver, Cinema Galeries proposes a focus on a Middle Eastern city. The programme aims to reflect the urban, demographic, social and political dynamics that make up the city, but also and above all to tell the story of how these dynamics are lived: what stories they shape, what experiences and what perspectives.
For its 6th edition, l’Heure d’Hiver takes you to Beirut. Cinéma Galeries has invited Metropolis, a leading art house cinema that promotes Lebanese independent films, to think about a program based on the largest city in Lebanon and its transformations over the past decades.
With Metropolis, we have built a selection of fiction films, documentaries and short films that focus on the urban, demographic, social and political dynamics of the city. In this context, Bozar and Cinema Galeries will offer a focus on the works of the duo Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige and Mai Masri, while Cinema Palace will release The Sea Ahead, the first feature film by Ely Dagher (Palme d’or for best short film with Waves 98) presented at the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival 2021.
About Metropolis
The Metropolis Art Cinema Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting independent cinema in Lebanon and the MENA region. It was established in 2006 at a time where independent cinema was only very rarely making it to the Lebanese commercial screens. At the core of Metropolis’ mission is the belief that cinema has the power to create communal spaces of shared experiences that allow discussions and new discoveries. Cinema is an encounter; with a story, a character, a different culture, a different language and a different way of thinking. Our purpose is to provoke this encounter between the films we want to defend and the audiences they are made for. The work of the association is divided into four pillars: film programming, young audience activities, industry trainings and film heritage preservation. Through these four axes, Metropolis aims to provide greater accessibility to alternative films locally and regionally.
About The Arab Image Foundation
Arab Image Foundation is an independent association forging new pathways for photography and image practices. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of artistic creation, research, and archiving, we explore, question and confront the complex social and political realities of our times.
Our collection of over 500,000 photographic objects and documents from and related to the Middle East, North Africa
and the Arab diaspora has been gradually assembled over the last 25 years by artists and researchers and through donations.
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The video art works of artists commissioned by the Arab Image Foundation will be visible in the exhibition space of the Cinema throughout the festival. With the works by Monica Basbous, Nadim Choufi, Mark Khalife, Malak Moureh, Salim Mrad, Sabine Saba, and a collective work by the team of the Foundation.
