Boats & Brides (2024)

Waltz with Bashir

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

The Lady of the Palace

Sayedat Al-Kasr traces the history of the Joumblatt family of Mount Lebanon from the 17th century to the present, focusing on early 20th century leader and politician Nazira Joumblatt. Born in 1889, Nazira ascended the throne of the Moukhtara palace in 1923, following the assassination of her husband Fouad and the resignation of her brother Aly Joumblatt. She presided over the region as Lady of the Palace for twenty-five years while raising her son Kamal, preparing him to take his place in a long line of Jumblatt leaders. Famous for her wisdom and strong personality, Nazira boldly entered the Lebanese political scene at a time when this field was entirely dominated by men. Unwavering, she contributed to maintaining peace and stability in Lebanon for many years, earning the respect of men and women, whether Druze or Maronites.

We Loved Each Other So Much

Inhabitants of Beirut talk about their love for the singer Fairuz.

Recovery

Jean-Claude walks his dog in a neighborhood forever stuck in reconstruction. On his trip, he wonders about life, mortality, and 'what if' scenarios while remembering fragments from the direct impact of the second that almost cost him his life on August 4. At the moment of the explosion, the end of the world, bodies, buildings, roads, and cities may shatter. Perhaps the universe itself breaks apart. But the most severe fragmenting remains that of memory. A picture here and a sound there are vaguely reconstituted. Can a future be built from such a memory? Can it rebuild what was lost? Is it time to leave?

Kaab l Dayaa

Intimate discussion with the inhabitants of Kfarbaal, a village tucked in the mountains above Byblos. We hear them share their experiences, deceptions and dreams.

Yalla, Baba!

Lebanese director Angie Obeid embarks on a road trip with her father, Mansour, retracing a journey he made 42 years ago. She tries to reach out to the young Mansour, understand the decisions he made when he was her age, and find common ground. The film explores the challenges and opportunities that arise when navigating the boundaries between tradition and modernity, family and individuality, home and the wider world.

The Lebanese Rocket Society

Lebanon's brief flirtation with space travel in the 1960s becomes a poignant metaphor for the Arab world's utopian dreams in this riveting documentary.

Lebanon in a Whirlwind

A few months after the incident of April 13, 1975, during which Palestinian civilians were machine-gunned by Phalangist militiamen, the toll is most tragic: six thousand dead, twenty thousand wounded, incessant kidnappings, a semi-destroyed capital. This film traces the origins of the Lebanese conflict, the perception of a society that goes to war while singing. A unique document on the Lebanese civil war. Beyond the religious war, the painting of a social and political reality that has not changed much, more than four decades later.

Greetings to Kamal Jumblatt

Tribute to the Druze Kamal Jumblatt, Minister of Economy and Agriculture (1946) and founder of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in 1949. He was one of the architects of the departure of President Bechara el-Khoury (1952), before playing a major role in the events of 1958. From 1960 to 1964, Kamal Jumblatt assumed, under the presidency of Fouad Chehab, various ministerial functions . . After the conflict of June 1967, he gradually approached the Palestinian organizations. In 1969 he became Minister of the Interior; in August 1970, he supported the election of Soleiman Frangié as President of the Republic. Following the Lebanese-Palestinian clashes of May 1973, he took sides against the head of state, established himself as the leader of the National Movement in 1975 and engaged in a revolutionary armed struggle against the Lebanese Front. Hostile to Syria's intervention in Lebanon, he broke with it (March 1976). He was assassinated near a Syrian checkpoint in 1977.

The cats, the sea, and everything in between.

In 2022, when the economic crisis in her native country was at its peak, she decided to visit her family there. She turned her short trip into a collage-like diary in which she reflects on her relationship with her homeland, which is in a state of protracted decay. The film is composed of spontaneous snapshots capturing the author's stay, interspersed with inserted captions serving as personal, often poetically formulated comments and observations. As a result, the film does not hide its strongly subjective perspective, but at the same time builds on it to make an important statement that shows the transformation of Lebanese society in everyday details such as the appearance of the city itself or in the intimate sphere of the author's family life.

Edge of the Valley

A nine-year-old Syrian refugee girl contemplates her increasingly bleak future after being forced to drop out of school in the midst of Lebanon’s unprecedented economic collapse and battle with Covid-19.

World War C

It's war. War against an invisible enemy that is not as deadly as we are told. The world is changing rapidly. Disproportionate measures are taken worldwide that disrupt society as a whole. A dichotomy in society forced vaccinations and restrictions on freedom. Have we had the worst? Or is there something more disturbing to awaiting us.

Kamal Joumblatt, Witness and Martyr

Kamal Jumblatt, the Master of Moukhtara Castle, recounts the major events of his life until his assassination on March 16, 1977. The film takes us on a global journey from Lebanon to India, in the footsteps of Kamal Jumblatt, the founder of the PSP (Progressive Socialist Party), the leader, the rebel, the reformer, the thinker, the poet, the Yogi … Kamal Jumblatt (1917-1977) becomes the last witness... of his own life.

Líban, retrat de l'empoderament

Plot unavailable

We Made Every Living Thing from Water

Directors Karim Eid-Sabbagh and Paul Cochrane investigate the political economy of water in Lebanon after the country's trash crisis began in 2015.

Lovely Day

Alain and Virginie are getting married today, but Alain is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The impending reunion of his divorced parents has plunged him into deep anxiety, only made worse by the shady schemes of his cousin and best man Edouard, who seems determined to get him involved. The groom now has only one ambition: to survive the happiest day of his life.

Perhaps Today...

Oum Karim, a 60-year-old Beiruti lady, is used to preparing Lahm Bi Ajin (Lebanese ham pie) once per week.

Incendies

A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults' voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love.

Nahla

After the battle of Kfar Chouba in Lebanon in January 1975, Larbi Nasri, a young Algerian journalist, was caught in the whirlwind of events preceding the civil war. Linked to Maha, Hind, Raouf and Michel who surround Nahla, he witnesses the construction of the myth of Nahla, a singer adored by the Arab population. One day Nahla loses her voice on stage. The atmosphere of crisis that reigns around her is spreading like an infection. Larbi, fascinated, loses his footing and gets bogged down.

Book of Suffocations

Torn between faith and desire, a young Arab man at a religious facility must confront his queer identity as he navigates the path to salvation and the allure of forbidden love.

Destroy me, please

A Lebanese migrant in The Netherlands receives a haunting voice message from his former best friend in Beirut.

Territory of Rose

Set against the backdrop of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the film explores themes of land, honor, and survival through the story of a family caught between fleeing their homeland or submitting to life under occupation.

Deaf

Beirut, Lebanon. Hassan is assembling wooden boards. His wife is dead. He is building her coffin. Tamara and Rami, the children, in their twenties, are helping him as best they can to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her childhood village, abandoned for more than 20 years.

Alitisal (The Call)

As a deadly explosion shatters Lebanon three immigrant siblings living abroad confront their mental health struggles amid uncertainty about their parents' fate.

Ransomed

In Beirut 1986, during the Lebanese civil war a Korean diplomat is taken hostage without a trace. Two years pass and long forgotten, a young diplomat Min-jun receives a phone call proving that the hostage is still alive. With the given mission, Min-jun is sent to Beirut to save the hostage with a bag of ransom money.

Full Stop

Wajdi and Maia are spending their last days together before Wajdi travels to a new start away from the Lebanese situation.

Memory Box

Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia, from 13 to 18 years old, sent from Beirut to her best friend who left for Paris to escape the civil war. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother’s tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past.

The Boy Who Wore the Sun

David, a 21-year-old guy who wears a scoliosis plastic corset, hides a shameful circular scar on his stomach. one night, before one month of his skin graft surgery, he’s put in an uncomfortable skinny dipping situation with his friends at the beach. what will he do?

In Lights

A music producer faces the relentless pressures of work, relationships, and a high-stakes album over 24 intense hours.

Free Range

Based on actual events, Free Range is the story of a cow that crosses the border from Israel to Lebanon and meets 16-year-old Malakeh and her family.

1991: The Year Punk Broke

David Markey's documentary of life on the road with Sonic Youth and Nirvana during their tour of Europe in late 1991. Also featuring live performances by Dinosaur Jr, Babes in Toyland, The Ramones and Gumball.

Hackers Are People Too

A portrait of the hacking community. In an effort to challenge preconceived notions and media-driven stereotypes Hackers Are People Too lets hackers speak for themselves and introduce their community to the public.

What a Peach Is

Julian has agreed to help Henry make his first film--but, on the day of shooting, Julian shows up having taken four tabs of LSD. Across the streets of Toronto, the two friends battle for control of the frame and struggle towards the meanings of art and communication.

Whale Wisdom

Whales have long been a profound mystery to us. They live in a world so removed from our own that we can barely imagine their lives. Their environment is different, their senses are different, their relationships are different. How might such almost alien creatures see the world?

Beneath the Olive Tree

The departure point for this film is a series of notebooks created during the Greek civil war of 1946-49 and first discovered years later, under an olive tree. Inside their pages, diary-like, deported women recount their experiences in Greek concentration camps. Many of them were active in the resistance under Nazi occupation. Actress Olympia Dukakis, who serves as the film’s narrator, was also the individual who originally called director Toska’s attention to the unique documents.

Froth

From the Barents Sea, a chill wind seems to blow constantly across a semi-deserted town at the edge of the world. Nevertheless, a little community holds out here. In a flawlessly filmed portrait of this extraordinary place, the theme linking the residents is their determination to chart their own course. Bardak was a marine, but his garrison broke up and his comrades sought a better life elsewhere. He stayed behind among the many empty buildings that are slowly but surely being consumed by the elements. Meanwhile, Dima, a young poacher​, flouts as many rules as he can, but gives friendly directions to lost tourists and reads lovingly to his little daughter. Ferryman Alexander is locked in a silent generational battle with his teenage daughter Masha; her eyes are on the outside world. Further along, a little team of ships from the Second World War turns up, and a woman steadfastly runs a weather station.

Opening the Closet

Abrindo o Armário dives into the process of liberation and conquests of the gay movement in Brazil. Through interviews, archival images and artistic performances, the film shows how homosexuals from different generations faced resistance, conquered spaces and fought for the right to construct a political, social and collective identity.

Kino-Pravda No. 8

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: A bet is placed on the outcome of the Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / The verdict / People in streetcars and on the street / A crashed aircraft / Reconstruction of streetcar line 13 / Peacetime use of tanks – airport construction work.

Kino-Pravda No. 9

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Congress of the "Living Church" / Opening of the horse racing season / Demonstration of an American movie camera / Operation of mobile projection units.

Kino-Pravda No. 10

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: International Youth Day and demonstrations / All-Russian Olympiad / Streetcar collision / Construction of automobiles in a Petrograd factory.

Kino-Pravda No. 11

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions / Delegations and diplomats / Renaming of a confectionery factory / Unloading supplies / Komsomol Day / Red Army maneuvers.

Kino-Pravda No. 12

Lost Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel

Kino-Pravda No. 14

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: IV. Congress of the Comintern / Congress of the Profintern.

Kino-Pravda No. 16: Spring Pravda. A Lyrical View Newsreel

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Arts and crafts exhibition / Actions against hunger / Eisenstein's first film "Dnevnik Glumova" ("Glumov's Diary") / Young Pioneers / May 1, parades

Pull Like A Dog

A documentary film looking back at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, including rowing brothers Gary and Paul O'Donovan, who won silver medals at the games. In August 2016 Gary and Paul O’Donovan, two young rowers from West Cork in Ireland, came from nowhere to become household names after bolting their way to silver medal success at the Rio Olympics. Not only did they become the first ever Irish rowers to bring home Olympic medals but within a week Paul also went on to become the fastest singles lightweight rower on the planet by winning gold at the World Championships. With catch phrases like ‘Pull Like A Dog’ and ‘Stheak and Spuds’ these two young men have succeeded in warming the hearts of a nation.

Teenage Superstars

Grant McPhee's sequel to Big Gold Dream picks up where the previous film left off, and continues its thrilling tour of the pre-Britpop, Scottish music scene. It features bands, such as The Bluebells, The Pastels, The Soup Dragons and an early incarnation of Teenage Fanclub; plenty of rich archive footage; and fascinating interviews with some of the key people of the time, including Edwyn Collins, Bobby Gillespie, Jim Reid, Sean Dickson, Eugene Kelly and Alan McGee.

Video Toy Chest

Promotional video that came from local Child World/Children's Palace toy store chains in a box that included a bag of Krunchers potato chips. The video features a mild plot involving mostly all children who are running a video production studio. It also includes a curly haired rapping man named "Robo-T". The video is a giant commercial with live skits in between as a fun bit until the next commercial.