︎



Jocelyne Saab


Jocelyne Saab (Lebanon/France) was an trailblazing artist, photographer, filmmaker, producer, and journalist born in Beirut in 1948. She is considered a pioneer of Lebanese cinema. Her filmmaking practice focussed on the disadvantaged—from displaced people to exiled fighters, cities at war, and a Fourth World without a voice. Her work is grounded in representations of historic violence and an awareness of the actions and images required to document and counteract it. Saab studied at Saint-Joseph University (Beirut) and received a BScEcon from Sorbonne University (Paris), before being invited by poet and artist Etel Adnan to contribute as a journalist to As-Safa newspaper. In 1973 Saab became a reporter for French television, covering the Lebanese War from her home country for fifteen years. Her 50-plus feature-length and short documentary, fiction, and essay films, as well as multimedia installations, have been exhibited extensively at festivals and museums around the world, including Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Cairo Film Festival, National Museum of Singapore, Sundance Film Festival, Art Fair Dubai, and DocLisboa. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including an Arab Critics Prize, a Jury Prize from International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, and a Province of Milan Award from Milan Film Festival. A censorious injunction was pronounced upon her film Dunia (2005) by Egyptian religious authorities for its portrayal of female sexuality. In 1992, Saab began a multi-year commitment to reconstitute the Lebanese Cinematheque, eventually organizing a cycle of screenings, “Beirut, a Thousand and One Images,” at Institut du Monde Arabe (1993), presenting more than 200 films. She was decorated with a Chevalier de L’ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1995) from the French Republic for this immense archival achievement. In 2013, she founded the International Cultural Resistance Film Festival in Lebanon, of which she was artistic director, and taught at Institute of Cinematographic and Audiovisual Studies in Beirut. She was promoted to Officier de L’ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2016. Association Jocelyne Saab was founded in 2019 to restore and promote the artist’s work. Saab died in Paris in 2019. Her absence remains deeply felt.




Beyrouth jamais plus, Jocelyne Saab, Lebanon/France, 16mm > digital, 37 min, 1976

In 1976, the city of Beirut experienced the beginning of its ordeal. The director followed the deterioration of the city for six months, day by day. Every morning, between six and ten, she surveyed Beirut at a time of day when the militiamen from both sides were resting from their nights of fighting.

From the moment I decided to stay in Beirut, to bear witness to everything that was happening there, my way of filming changed. I took my camera and took images where I felt the echo of this garden disappearing. Even today, all my work is dominated by the search for this childhood garden, its idealized memory, which inhabited me and still inhabits me entirely. This is why I particularly love Beyrouth jamais plus: I filmed the walls, the streets, the places that are familiar to me with love and pain, the pain of seeing that everything I loved is disappearing, but driven by the desire and the need to preserve a memory of it. I entrusted the text to Etel Adnan, the great Lebanese poet who wrote the words which are, in my opinion, the most accurate text that has been written on commitment, for oneself, not for others—and it is very important to assume this position in order to never betray yourself. I claim everything I have done in my life, because I did it freely.
–Jocelyne Saab, as interviewed by Mathilde Rouxel

This film is now streaming globally online. Click here to view.



Pour quelques vies, Jocelyne Saab, Lebanon/France , 16mm > digital, 18 min, 1976

A portrait of Raymond Eddé, candidate for the Lebanese presidential elections, and great opponent of sectarian war. During the conflicts of 1975–1976, he actively searched with his team for those missing in war, whether Christians, Druze, or Muslims.

This film is now streaming globally online. Click here to view.

These films are co-presented with Association Jocelyne Saab and Three Fold, Detroit.

Image credits: all artworks and stills courtesy of Association Jocelyne Saab © the estate of Jocelyne Saab.



View next: Mona Hatoum, as part of Media City Film Festival 27th Edition: Spotlight Series



Founded in 2020, Three Fold is an independent quarterly based in Detroit that presents exploratory points of view on arts, culture, and society in addition to original works in various media, including visual art, literature, film and the performing arts. We solicit and commission contributions from artists, writers, and activists around the world. Three Fold is a publication of Trinosophes Projects, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the historic Eastern Market neighborhood in downtown Detroit. Click here to check out Three Fold’s events page and view a schedule of the publication’s on-site activities.

Three Fold recognizes, supports, and advocates for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. We operate on occupied territories called Waawiiyaataanong, named by the Anishinaabeg and including the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewatomi (Potawatomi) peoples. We hold to commit to Indigenous communities in Waawiiyaataanong, their elders, both past and present, and future generations.