waheb al-horriyah (kais al-zubaidi, 1989)

research / film restoration
2022
EQZE x Nadi Lekol Nas

From research and film 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.

To accompany this work I wrote Time Displaced, tracing back the restoration process, as well as the questioning and reflections it provoked, with a particular emphasis on the emotions generated. The text explores themes related to Lebanon’s history, small film archives, the ethics of film restoration and its “international standards,” history and memory.

The film, commissioned by the Lebanese National Front of Resistance in 1989, depicts the many Lebanese and Palestinian Resistance acts carried out by different groups from 1982 to 1987, against the Israeli occupation in Lebanon. The documentary relies on archival footage as well as interviews with the martyrs and their surviving family members.