Doors 7:00p
Program 7:30p
Tickets $12

UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY

UnionDocs is delighted to come together with ArteEast to co-present the second screening from our program TO LEBANON, WITH LOVE, curated by Ginou Choueiri!

On October 6, the program centers on Diaries from Lebanon (2024) by Myriam El Hajj, a sweeping chronicle of four turbulent years of revolt and resilience in Lebanon. The evening opens with a performance/intervention by Perla Joe Maalouly—artist, activist, and protagonist of the film.

In Diaries from Lebanon, El Hajj weaves together the stories of a feminist activist, a revolutionary youth leader, and a war veteran haunted by the past. As their lives intersect with the country’s unraveling, the film becomes both an archive of resistance and an intimate portrait of Lebanon’s enduring contradictions.

Together, the film and live performance testify that despite political collapse and exile, Lebanon endures in the imagination, voices, and visions of its people, at home and abroad.

Come through!

Don’t miss Day 1 of the program on October 5, featuring Alia Haju’s Ship of Fools and Loulwa Khoury’s We Never Left, two films that set the stage for this ongoing testament to Lebanon’s resilience and creativity.

Program

Diaries from Lebanon by Myriam El Hajj

110 mins, 2024

In 2018, a fiery feminist writer, poet and activist named Joumana stands for election to the Lebanese parliament. In doing so, she is defying a political system that has been suffocating her country for 40 years. Joumana is voted in, only to be fraudulently ousted the very next day, leaving her supporters furious. In 2019, the people’s rage turns into a revolution and the streets swell with thousands of voices. One of them belongs to Perla Joe, a fearless woman who rapidly becomes a symbol of this uprising. Her unyielding voice echoes the frustration of a youth struggling to find its place in society. But the past looms like a shadow over their aspirations for progress and change. Georges is the guardian of that mysterious and violent past. A veteran of the Lebanese Civil War which lasted from 1975 to 1990, he lost a leg in the conflict but still clings on to his delusions of “glory”.

In the form of diaries, the film captures four tumultuous years of a nation in turmoil battling to break free from its own chains. As Lebanon is shaken by disruption, personal quests for meaning and survival unfold. How is it possible to continue to dream when everything around is falling apart?

Program Duration: 110 mins

Bios

Myriam el Hajj is a Lebanese director of documentaries and fiction, known for her bold and engaged perspective on Lebanese society. She holds a degree in audiovisual studies from the Lebanese American University (LAU), as well as in film directing and theater from the University of Paris-8 Vincennes Saint-Denis. Alongside her work as a filmmaker, she teaches cinema at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA), where for over 10 years she has been actively contributing to the transmission of creative expertise to a new generation of Lebanese filmmakers. She is also involved in institutions such as La Fémis in France, among others. Her cinema, both intimate and political, explores themes such as collective memory, identity conflicts, corruption, and the complexity of human relationships in a constantly changing Lebanon. She first gained attention with her debut documentary feature Trêve (2015), which follows her uncle and his friends, former militiamen from the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Her second film, Diaries from Lebanon (2024), is produced by Myriam Sassine (Abbout Productions) and Gogogo Films. Through an intimate lens, Myriam tells the recent history of Lebanon through three characters she follows from 2018 to 2022. The film premiered at the Berlinale and has since been featured in over 50 festivals worldwide. Myriam is a member of several cinema juries and commissions, such as the CNC. She is also a founding member of the association Rawiyat-Sisters in Film, which supports female filmmakers from the Arab world and the diaspora.

Perla Joe is an Artivist.
She activates through her expression.

Her work is interdisciplinary, fusing living, poetry, music, film, performance, and intimate interactions. Her projects are influenced by real-time events shaping her life. Having started in cinematography and production, leading as a casting director has offered her a reflection on people, their emotions, and the notion of systems and authorities – presented through her short film “Zugzwang” (Yale Student Festival, Beirut International Women Film Festival, Berlin Revolution Film Festival,…). Her practice creates movement between the being and their mirrors, the conscious and the unconscious – she defines it as her ongoing creative process -> Wujud – Existence. Perla Joe found nourishment through her writings and singing while preserving a visual archive. These mediums, together, radiate radical thoughts and safely surf existential questions around social dogmas, propagating a sense of possibility and maybe even a responsibility. She has performed and intervened through her original work in several cultural venues across the globe, bringing together a breeze of activism and a sense of creative meaning. During the Lebanese Revolution, Perla Joe held a raw voice and touched people through her ardent presence, raising a humanitarian shout – this got the cause noticed internationally, and her story was featured in the New York Times, Arte, Vogue,… A leading protagonist in the creative documentary “Diaries from Lebanon” premiered this year at the Berlinale and has been circulating worldwide ever since. Perla Joe has been igniting safe spaces for collective and individual reflections, disclosing mental health issues relating to global awareness, wars, and displacement. She’s also been leading and curating creative ateliers as a teaching artist with Materials for the Arts, a New York City Department of Cultural Affairs program. She has been invited to numerous universities and reputed forums in the Levantine, Europe, and the USA (The New School, American University of Beirut, Bard College,…). Her journey advocates and re-questions freedom, love, and consciousness through activations, introspections, and interconnections, using multidisciplinary tools of expression, emphasizing the voice and the being, using sounds and images, giving space to emotions, traumas, and senses while researching society and the notion of authority. A body of work that breaths and honors the present and acknowledges the scars, shedding empathy as a mending tool for environmental wellness.