With America in a post-9/11 world, the image of the Middle East has confronted many misconstrued views. This is exactly what Akram Khater, director of the Middle East Studies program, is trying to prevent through a Lebanese film series he developed.
“After 9/11, we found that people’s ideas and impressions about the Middle East, including Lebanon, tended to be fairly negative,” Khater said. “We have been working very hard, as part of the Middle East Studies Program to change that.”
The Khayrallah Club, which “serves to research, document, preserve and publicize the history and culture of the Lebanese community in North Carolina,” according to Khater, is organizing the event. The club is particularly interested in showing Lebanese culture, through the film festival, in a way that doesn’t involve violence and conflict, according to Khater.
The film festival is a product of a new and emerging film industry in the Middle East, according to Khater.
“What you’re finding today in the Middle East and North Africa, is there’s a new generation of filmmakers, there’s a revival of cinema,” Khater said. “There’s more funding for filmmaking, the filmmakers, themselves, are better trained, many of them are being trained in Europe and there are a lot more filmfestivals.”
The three films chosen are the best of their genre—documentaries. According to Khater, documentaries are a new style of film for Middle Eastern film writers and cinematographers. Khater traveled to Lebanon and attended film festivals to choose the best three documentaries for the film festival.
“We chose these filmmakers partly because they are focusing on Lebanon but also because they are representing the best of this emerging genre of documentary filmmaking,” Khater said.
After the showing of each of the three films, there is a question and answer session with the director of the film. According to Khater, when he went to the Lebanese film festivals, he interviewed potential filmmakers for the N.C. State film festival. After choosing the filmmakers he thought were best, Khaterinvited them to come to N.C. State.
The first film of the festival was shown Thursday, the Erdahl-Cloyl Theater was packed, with 200 students and members of the community.
According to Khater, they actually had to turn people away.
“I thought it was amazing, so heartening,” Khater said.
The purpose, according to Khater, of the Khayrallah Club is not only to educate the students of N.C. State, but also the surrounding community, which was well represented by the crowd for the first film.
After the screening of 12 Angry Lebanese: The Documentary, which reported on the use of drama therapy in an overcrowded, Lebanese prison, Jocelyne Abi Gebrayel, director of photography, answered questions about the film.
Abi Gebrayel did all of the filming for free and did not get paid for her work until the film began winning awards.
According to Abi Gebrayel, the film wasn’t meant for the public at first, but as proof that drama therapy in prisons was working, for the funders of the program. Drama therapy is a new technique to engage inmates in thespian productions to keep them occupied and as a way for them to express themselves.
“There are a lot of things you can put,” Abi Gebrayel said, “and a lot of things you can’t put in a film [in Lebanon].” According to Abi Gebrayel, she actually had to sneak out of the room they were allowed to film in to get shots of the prison.
“I definitely liked how it showed the different people that participated in the play and the transformations of the prisoners, that it helped them find hope,” Kayla Squicciarini, a junior in international studies, said.
Likewise, Kaila Stout, a senior in criminology, said the documentary reflected the irony of the inmates situation.
“I liked that their play was related to their situation; and I learned that even though these prisoners were convicted of heinous crimes, they could still act civilized.”
Despite one’s interest in Lebanese culture, the films educate students on issues in the Middle East that go beyond preconceived notions on the region. However, according to Khater, the films address very specific issues, making the feature a double benefit.
