Jocelyne Saab (30 April 1948 – 7 January 2019) was a Lebanese journalist and film director. She is recognized as one of the pioneers of Lebanese cinema. A reporter, photographer, scriptwriter, producer, director, artist and founder of the Cultural Resistance International Film Festival of Lebanon, Saab focused on the deprived and disadvantaged – from displaced peoples to exiled fighters, cities at war and a Fourth World without a voice. Her work is grounded in historic violence, and in an awareness of the actions and images required to document, reflect on and counteract it.

Career Saab was born and raised in Beirut. She studied economic at Beirut’s Saint-Joseph University and then in Paris. In the 1970s, she began to work occasionally for television. Her first job was hosting a pop music program on the national Lebanese radio station called "Marsupilami got blue eyes." She next worked with Etel Adnan for As-Safa newspaper. She then became a television newsreader. Saab was also a war correspondent in Egypt and South Lebanon. She went to Libya in 1971 and covered the October War in 1973. In 1975 she worked as a reporter for French television.

When the Lebanese Civil War broke out, Saab began making documentary films. Her first documentary was called Lebanon in Turmoil. After two years, she stopped doing 'classical' documentaries and began to give her documentaries a more personal perspective. This marked her turn towards a more personal and essayistic mode of filmmaking, as her country was torn apart by conflict. As a curator at Birkbeck, University of London noted: "These beautiful and moving films infuse their powerful documentary footage of daily life amid destruction and displacement with a poetic intensity that transcends the conflict and reaches beyond despair."

After the civil war, Saab continued to make films, in both documentary and fiction formats. She travelled the world with her film Kiss Me Not on the Eyes, which was selected for Sundance, Toronto and many Asian festivals.Mathilde Rouxel, Jocelyne Saab, la mémoire indomptée (1970–2015), Dar an-Nahar, Beyrouth, 2015, p. 37, The film was banned in Egypt shortly before the premiere, Saab received death threats from fundamentalists.

Saab became part of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC). She created the Cultural Resistance International Film Festival of Lebanon in 2013 to promote Asian cinema in Lebanon. She launched the festival in five Lebanese cities, with the intention of promoting peace and understanding.

During her last years, she pursued video art. She released 3 short videos as part of bigger projects. One Dollar a Day was also a photo exhibition. A short film My Name Is Mei Shigenobu was made when Saab was already ill, it became her last project. Initially, she planned to make a full-scale feature entitled Shigenobu: Mother and Daughter about Fusako and Mei Shigenobu, but due to her weak condition, Saab managed to organize only a quick shoot for Mei. My Name Is Mei Shigenobu was completed 10 days before Jocelyne Saab's passing.

Filmography

TV reportages

1970 : The Lebanese House (unavailable) 1970 : Bombing in a Palestinian Neighborhood (unavailable) 1973 : Kadhafi: The Green March (10 min) 1973 : Kadhafi, The Man Who Comes from Desert (60 min) 1973 : Portrait of Kadhafi (5 min) 1973 : Special Middle East: Israel (26 min) 1973 : October War (8 min) 1973 : Middle East: Egypt (8 min) 1973 : War in Orient: Egypt (8 min) 1974 : Palestinian Keep Fighting (10 min) 1974 : Golan, on the Front Line (10 min) 1974 : Irak, War in Kurdistan (16 min) 1982 : Lebanese Hostages of Their City (6 min) 1982 : Lebanon: State of Shock (6 min)

Source:

Documentary 1973 : Palestinian Women 1974 : The Rejection Front 1975 : Lebanon in Turmoil 1975 : New Crusader in Orient 1976 : Children of War 1976 : South Lebanon, History of a Sieged Village 1976 : Beirut, Never Again 1976 : For a Few Lives 1977 : Sahara Is Not for Sale 1978 : Egypt the City of the Deaths 1979 : Letter from Beirut 1980 : Iran, Utopia in Motion 1982 : Beirut My City 1982 : The Ship of Exile 1986 : The Architect of Luxor 1986 : Phantoms of Alexandria 1986 : Copts: Pharaohs' Cross 1986 : Allah's Love 1988 : The Woman Killer 1989 : Al'Alma', Belly 1991 : Fecondation in video 1997 : The Lady of Saigon 2016 : Imaginary Postcards 2016 : One Dollar a Day 2018 : My Name Is Mei Shigenobu

Fiction 1985 : A Suspended Life (Ghazal el-Banat) 1994 : Once Upon a Time: Beirut, the History of a Star 2005 : Dunia, Kiss Me Not on the Eyes 2009 : What's Going On?

Installation 2006 : Strange Games and Bridges (Dubai Art Fair; Singapore National Museum ) 2011 : Le Jardin de la guerre (Les Halles de Saerbeck, Bruxelles) 2013 : Café du Genre (MuCEM, Marseille) 2017 : One Dollar A Day (Institut Culturel Français, Istanbul/Beyrouth; DEPO Istanbul)

Book Jocelyne Saab published a book of photography, just before she died. Zones de guerre () follows her whole career through stills and photographs from her films and work.

Awards Nomination for Grand Prix des Amériques Dunia 2005 Nomination for the Grand Jury Prize of the Sundance Film Festival 2006

References

Further reading Mathilde Rouxel, Jocelyne Saab, la mémoire indomptée (1970–2015), Dar an-Nahar, Beirut, 2015, Stefanie Van de Peer, Negotiating Dissidence, Edinburgh University Press, 2017, Dalia Said Mostafa, "Jocelyne Saab: A Lifetime Journey in Search of Freedom and Beauty" in: Josef Gugler (ed.), Ten Arab Filmmakers: Political Dissent and Social Critique, Indiana University Press, 2015, , pp 34–50

External links

Website of The Jocelyne Saab's Friends Association