Introduced by Curator Jayce Salloum

They Were Here (Enahoum Kanoo Honna) (Ammar Al Beik, Syria, 2000). Coming to terms with the end of the industrial era, Al Beik's elegant and eloquently composed study reverberates with lives lived, fading images, and relics of retrospection. (8 mins, Arabic w/English titles, B&W, From the artist)

Cyber Palestine (Elia Suleiman, Palestine, 2000). Displaying sardonic wit and attention to detail, Suleiman creates a terse but forceful transposition of the biblical story of Mary and Joseph as a framework to illustrate the repressive controls of movement and the abuses of daily Palestinian life suffered under Israeli military occupation. (16 mins, Intertitles in Arabic and English, From the artist)

The Dead Weight of a Quarrel Hangs (Walid Ra'ad, Lebanon/U.S., 1996-99). A videotape in three parts exploring the possibilities and limits of writing and imaging a history of the Lebanese civil wars (1975-1991). (17 mins, From Video Data Bank)

Alone with War (Seule avec la Guerre) (Danielle Arbid, Lebanon/France, 2000). Searching through remembrances of the war for answers that of course are not to be told and not to be found, where there are only people trying to get on with their lives. Arbid tries to construct a history by seeking a truth and finds one at each corner, under each bed, and behind the pockmarks of each stray bullet left from the civil war we all are trying to forget. Best Documentary, 2000 Locarno Film Festival. (59 mins, In Arabic with English subtitles, From First Run/Icarus)

Notes by Jayce Salloum, condensed.