A Tribute to Jocelyne Saab

Beirut, Never Again
Jocelyne Saab, Documentary, Lebanon, 1976, 35 min.

1976 marks the beginning of Beirut’s civil war. Through a child’s eyes, the filmmaker follows the daily destruction of the city’s walls for six months. Every morning between 6-10 am , she roams around Beirut while the militia from both sides rest from their night of fighting.

Letter From Beirut
Jocelyne Saab, Documentary, Lebanon, 1978, 52 min.

Three years after the beginning of the civil war, the filmmaker returns to her city. Living between this war-torn country and a country in peace, she tries to readapt to daily life in Beirut. 

Jocelyne Saab uses her camera in both films to capture what the mainstream media did not cover in the Lebanese civil war. Part of the collective memory can be preserved thanks to her films and those from a generation of radical filmmakers from Lebanon.

Mathilde Rouxel is a French researcher. In 2015 she published the first monograph about Jocelyne Saab and recently founded the Jocelyne Saab’s Friends Association to promote, restore and disseminate her work.