Event
Promenade (2009) and How Beautiful is the Sea (2004)
The Middle East Center is proud to kick-off it's 2010-2011 Artist in Residence Program with an introduction to the work of Sabine El Chamaa, our Fall Resident. This event will feature a screening of two of Sabine's recent films and a discussion led by Prof. Zeynep Turan on the themes of war, memory and objects that are central to Sabine's work.
Sabine El Chamaa is the 2010 Fall Middle East Center Artist in Residence. She is a Lebanese filmmaker and curently a student at Goldsmiths College in the United Kingdom. She has directed a number of short films and also produces a wealth of photographic art. Her work focuses on the themes of war and memory over the ages. As the opening of the Fall Residency, she will present two of her most recent films, 2009's "Promenade" and 2004's "How Beautiful is the Sea.
Zeynep Turan is a research fellow at the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at the City University of New York. She received her Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology from the CUNY Graduate Center and her Master’s in Architectural Histories and Theories from the Architectural Association, London. Her research utilizes video-ethnography to explore the relationship between material objects, collective identity, and remembering among Middle Easterners in the U.S. Her forthcoming publication, "Material Memories of the Ottoman Empire: Armenian and Greek Objects of Legacy," will appear in the edited volume, The Global Memoryscape.
Promenade (2009) - An elderly woman returns home to reconstruct a wall of memories in post-war Lebanon in this live action/partly animated new film from Sabine El Chamaa.
How Beautiful is the Sea (2004) - After an apocalyptic explosion, a woman ventures into the streets and finds herself by the sea. There she meets a man who, much like her, wears a protective uniform. Incapable of sensing nature, or one another, they ponder the possibility of shedding their uniforms.
This program is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Middle East Center in collaboration with the Cinema Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania.