Restoring The Freedom Giver (Kais al-Zubaidi, 1989)
In 2022, in collaboration with EQZE and Nadi Lekol Nas, I restored the feature documentary The Freedom Giver (original title: Waheb al Horriyah), directed by Kais al-Zubaidi in 1989 for the Lebanese National Front of Resistance.
The year-long project has been an experimentation in alternative ways of working with audiovisual archives, using a DIY and collaborative approach as the raison d’être of the project rather than a means to an end.
From research and inspection to manual cleaning, digitizing, grading, digital restoring and mastering, I carried out the entirety of technical tasks needed for the film to circulate again and be preserved, while partnering up with different structures.
This project also included the writing of a book titled Time Displaced, tracing back the restoration processes, as well as the questioning and reflections they provoked, with a particular emphasis on the emotions generated. It explores themes related to Lebanon’s history, small film archives, the ethics of film restoration and its “international standards,” history and memory. The text has a hybrid format, between a journal and a personal essay. Its intended audience is one not necessarily familiar with audiovisual archives, restoration, nor Lebanon’s historical and cinematographic contexts.
In June 2023, I presented this work at the Eye Filmmuseum International Conference Activating the Archive, in a panel titled Digitizing Beyond Institutions.
In November 2023, I read some excerpts from Time Displaced at the Entangled Archives of Wars conversations in Sarajevo, as part of The ARchipelago project.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. Here, the title in Arabic: Waheb al-Horriyah.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. A Resistance fighter in South Lebanon.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. The tear on the 16mm frame was preserved in the restoration process.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. Example of archival B&W footage used in the film, showcasing newspaper titles as historical context and testimonies of the armed struggle.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. Parents sharing their testimony of their 2 martyred children, placing martyrdom as a tool for both private and collective grief at the center of the film.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. This long scratch was preserved during the digital restoration process, instead of removing it and creating extrapolated pixels to cover up a "defect." Tears and long scratches (not due to projections) were preserved as testimonies of the film materialistic history.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. Example of footage originally captured on videotape, then filmed on 16mm to be included in the film
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. Color photograph of Palestinian resistance fighters, an example of how still photographs were included in the film as historical documents
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. An armed Resistance fighter in South Lebanon
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. A market in South Lebanon.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. Still B&W photograph of a protest against the Israeli invasion of the country.
Still from the digital restored copy of The Freedom Giver. A farmer in occupied South Lebanon,
Preview Time Displaced
