Jocelyne Saab Shorts · Images Against Erasure: Conflict Reporting as Memory of Resistance

In a context of war, images do not only inform: they also document, bear witness and preserve the memory of peoples. Through three short films by the Franco-Lebanese director Jocelyne Saab, we approach the war documentary as a form of resistance against oblivion and against the erasure of the experiences of those who live through conflicts. Images that, decades later, still address us by portraying a history whose wounds remain open and a conflict that continues to shape the present. A gaze that also invites us to reflect on our relationship with images of war, their constant circulation and the risk that continued exposure to violence may end up making us insensitive to its consequences.

LAS MUJERES PALESTINAS
France, 1974, 15'
Direction: Jocelyne Saab

Palestinian women, often overlooked victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are given a voice in this short film by Jocelyne Saab, commissioned by French public television but never broadcast.

BEIRUT, NUNCA MÁS
France, 1976, 35'
Direction: Jocelyne Saab

Beirut's ordeal begins in 1975. Through the eyes of a child, Jocelyne Saab follows the deterioration of the city's walls over five months. Every morning, between five and ten, she wanders through Beirut while the militias on both sides rest after their nightly clashes. A surrealist film and an elegy to the city, accompanied by a poem by Etel Adnan.

EL FRENTE DEL RECHAZO O LOS COMANDOS SUICIDAS
France, 1975, 12'
Direction: Jocelyne Saab

When peace seems impossible, any means may appear justified in the defence of a political cause. Along the border separating Palestinian territories that refuse to recognise the State of Israel, the idea of suicide commandos emerges. Jocelyne Saab films teenagers aged twelve to twenty training relentlessly at a secret underground base to become suicide commandos.