Tag Archives: Short movie

Beirut Bel Aswad Wel Abiad (Beirut in Black & White) – A Lebanese Short Movie

This Woody Allen-inspired short movie is one of the best ones I’ve seen lately. It’s directed by Alba student Marie-Louise Elia and produced by Marie-Noel Bou Haila (A lot of Maries in one sentence). You can find the former on Twitter here.

It’s a candid, honest, funny, sarcastic and extremely witty portrayal of Beirut – characteristics you rarely find this authentically in Lebanese productions. Many aspire to incorporate such elements in their movies but end up coming off as over-pretentious instead. Not this one.

The director, Marie-Louise Elia, is currently searching for actors for her upcoming movie. So if you’re interested, talk to her on Twitter. If her upcoming work is anything as good as this, it’ll look good on your resumé.

Pink – A Short Movie by Lebanese High School Students Inspired by This Blog

Little did I know back when I wrote about my mother’s cancer diagnosis in October that it would inspire a couple of Lebanese students from Batroun to turn my post (click here) into a short movie of sorts.

But Rita Assal and Steve Khattar, helped by a few of their friends including my brother, did. Rita Assal and Steve Khattar are senior (terminale) students at St. Joseph School – my old school – in Batroun. They both want to get into movie-making and I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

They will also be hosted on LBC this coming Monday on the show “Helwi el Hayet” (or whatever it’s called nowadays) whose producers were very impressed with their work.

The video itself is not perfect but that doesn’t matter. What matters is the ambition behind it – the fact that with limited equipment and expertise, students who had never learned movie-making before were able to shoot, edit and have voice overs done. I am also flattered that mom’s story was the catalyst that led to this.

I leave you with Pink: