Lebanese short films’ narrative on the civil war -

Abstract

In this project, I set to explore alternative ways by which the Lebanese civil war has been narrated, imagined and remembered in postwar Lebanese short films. I examine discourses of the war and practices of memory in the narratives of these films, and in so doing I observe the impact of these artifacts in overcoming past tragedies on a societal scale. First, I look at the several factors that make the Lebanese conflict unique and difficult to narrate, which is elemental in every recovering post-conflict context. I study Lebanese short films made by postmemory filmmakers, to better understand how these individuals, who have not lived the war, tell its story and memorialize it, and whether there exists any recurring pattern among them. I aim to observe the discrepancies between the inherited narratives in those films and what happened, to analyze how such stories can pave the way towards a reconciliation project.