Beirut: Hana Tubi
Salim Saab is a Lebanese director and rapper who has released several films titled “Beirut Street”, which deals with the art of “hip-hop” in Lebanon, and “Strong”, which tells regarding Arab women in alternative art and graffiti, and “hip-hop” in the Arab region. And “The Tishreen Cedar”, which documents the civil movement during the October 2019 revolution in the Lebanese street, and finally released his movie “Poisonous Hope”, which was hosted by a “club and association” concerned with cinema, to be shown in Beirut.
* Let’s start from the title of your new movie, “Poisoned Hope”, which prompts us to ask how hope is poisoned?
Hope is poisoned in the sense of addiction. We as Lebanese are professionals with hope, but our relationship with it is like the relationship between two people who love each other, but the relationship between them is toxic. We always have hope that the situation in our country is going for the better, such as the October Revolution in 2019, which gave us a great dose of hope. Moving towards the best, but we were disappointed and our hopes were shattered, especially as a result of the Beirut port explosion, the deterioration of the economic situation, and the ensuing crises, whose pain we swallow, but we do not lose hope, and we regain the feeling of it and work for the best.
* Between disappointment and hope, how would you classify your film?
The film is a 41-minute documentary that tells regarding hope through the experiences of male and female activists in the Lebanese revolution, young women and artists telling their stories and their view of hope, freedom, and taking to the streets, and my father, the journalist and film critic Walid Saab Shmait, who lived the history and present of Beirut, narrating his experience between hope and disappointment.
* Have you adopted self-projections so that your personalities reflect your points of view?
– I left the speech to them, each one documented his experience and his description of hope from his point of view, and I relied on conveying my message in documenting the events that we live through through speech, scenery and images, the film’s heroes performed their realistic roles spontaneously and spontaneously.
Documentary cinema
* Do you find yourself as a film director in the documentary, or do you intend to diversify?
– Until now, my works belong to the documentary cinema, because I have a desire to focus on people’s stories. I want to document their stories and tell regarding them, and for them, but in the future I may present various works, and test the novelist.
* How do you see the audience’s relationship with cinema, and are you satisfied with people’s interest in watching films?
Despite all that we live in Lebanon, people’s relationship with cinema is still good. People in Lebanon may have different ways of watching. There are those who love the big screen and the interactive viewing and discussions regarding films as a social experience, and those who prefer watching online, “Netflix” and “Amazon” and others, but what makes me happy is that we have cinematic productions and films that reach people, and participate in festivals at home and abroad. Cinema is present and has a promising future.
For you, do you prefer that your films be in cinemas or independent festivals?
I would like to combine the two, but if I am put in front of a choice and a trade-off, I am interested in participating in festivals, as the participants in them are cinema lovers and filmmakers, and festivals concerned with Arab cinema are widespread in the world and motivate directors. I find a suitable place for presenting their ideas, and they do not stand idly by waiting for large funding and material support, because the mainstay of cinema today is ideas, not technologies.
* Do you believe in the ability of cinema to change society for the better?
Certainly, art in general is monitored by the authorities, and gradually achieves a transition towards the better. Cinema, although it presents problems and does not directly present solutions, undoubtedly urges people to think and evoke awareness.
* Through your experiences, do you think that cinema has a greater share than other arts in terms of freedom and dealing with prohibitions?
– I believe that publishing available today via the Internet, through communication sites, and through large mobile screens expands the circle of reach. For me, when I choose my topics, I do not think that there is a limit to freedom, so I choose my topics freely. I leave the decision to choose to myself, and I shoot without limits
