Cinema Workers For Palestine Presents: Three Films by Jocelyne Saab

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Jocelyne Saab, “Beirut, My City,” 1982

film still (courtesy of the Gallery)

UNIT/PITT is pleased to support Cinema Workers for Palestine (CWP) in screening three films by Jocelyne Saab to raise funds for the Palestinian Youth Movement & the Lebanese Red Cross.

“Until her death in January 2019, Jocelyne Saab remained devoted to what she called her ‘two permanent obsessions: liberty and memory.’"

     — Gerard-Jan Claes & Steffel Debuysere, Sabzien (2021)

Since 2019, restoration work on the films of Jocelyne Saab has progressed with two goals: to make her work more widely available, and to train and pass on knowledge to a new generation of archive technicians in Lebanon. Until now, none of these restorations have screened in Vancouver. This program provides a small window into Saab’s vision of a liberatory cinema—a vision as clear today as it was 50 years ago.

Palestinian Women (1974)

The Ship of Exile (1982)

Beirut, My City (1982)

February 11, 2025. 7-10PM

Total runtime: 65 min.

Sliding scale ticket options: RSVP Here

The Cinematheque

131 Howe St, Vancouver, BC

The films of Jocelyne Saab are presented courtesy of the Jocelyne Saab Association.

Palestinian Women (1974)

runtime: 16 min

screening format: DCP

French narration with English subtitles

“I made Les Femmes palestiniennes for Antenne 2. I wanted to offer images of these women, the Palestinian fighters in Syria. It was just before Sadat's visit to Israel, the situation was very tense. While I was editing the film in the offices of Antenne 2, Paul Nahon, then head of the foreign department of the editorial staff, grabbed me by the collar and took me out of the editing room. Les Femmes palestiniennes remained on the marble floor and was never shown on television.” 

     — Jocelyne Saab, in interview with Nicole Brenez (2015)

The Ship of Exile (1982)

runtime: 12 min

screening format: DCP

French narration with English subtitles

After living in Beirut to escape Israeli attacks, Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), left Lebanon aboard “the Atlantis” for a new exile in Greece and then Tunis. He talks about his destiny and the future of the PLO. Saab was the only person with a camera admitted on the boat. The betrayal of the Oslo Accords (1993, 1995), signed by Arafat, has impacted his legacy; Saab’s film shows the man in a state of limbo, a rare moment in which violence has temporarily ceased, and possibilities have yet to be cancelled.

Beirut, My City (1982)

runtime: 37 min

screening format: DCP

French narration with English subtitles

In July 1982, the Israeli army besieged Beirut. Jocelyne Saab saw her house burn, 150 years of history disappearing into smoke. She then asked herself the question: when did it all start? Each place becomes a story and each name a memory.

“Considered by Saab to be her most important film, "Beirut My City" returns Saab and her collaborator, the playwright and director Roger Assaf, to the shell of her former home following Israel’s 1982 invasion, finding small glimmers of hope in the chaos of refugee camps and the rubble of decimated neighborhoods.”

     — Art of the Real (2019)

NOTE: Beirut, My City includes images of the aftermath of violent bombing, including death.