Two video essays with Charbel Haber

 

Here are two video essays that I made in collaboration with a musician with whom I often work: Charbel Haber. He had already designed the music for “Eté 91” (Summer 91)* produced in 2014.

 

In reality, it was a question of making two video recordings of two of his performances and the first idea turned into a larger project. A diptych on the city of Beirut before and after the explosion.

 

The first film, “Un dessin dans le ciel” (A Drawing in the Sky), was shot just a few weeks before the explosion. It is a film in which Charbel Haber plays in several emblematic places built by a well-known architect in Lebanon: Bernard Khoury. Besides, Bernard Khoury appears in the film. It is he who recites the texts that we hear. “Un dessin dans le ciel”, may well be filmed in Beirut before the explosion. We already guess it in the film. Well, I feel like it.

 

The second film, “Enfin, la nuit” (Finally, the night) was shot just after the explosion in an emblematic place of the nightlife in Beirut, the AHM which was completely destroyed by the explosion.

We are also working on a third part called “Le Liban au Printemps”. The film has already been presented at the “Itinérance” festival in Rennes. But it was in “live” version since Charbel played the music during the screening. I haven’t had time to finish the “official” version yet. This is a film about the Lebanon after. A film where we only see plane journeys, as if to suggest that the aftermath may take place elsewhere.

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« Un dessin dans le ciel », 2020, 10 min

 

Music Charbel Haber
Voice Bernard Khoury

 

First element of the diptych that this film forms with “Enfin, la nuit” (Finally, the night). In this diptych mixing musical film and architectural film, the city of Beirut is captured at two moments of its existence. Shot a month before the explosion of August 4, 2020, “Un dessin dans le ciel” (A drawing in the sky) was supposed to be the recording of a musical performance by Charbel Haber and an urban and architectural ballad in Beirut and in emblematic places designed by the architect Bernard Khoury. But after the tragedy of August 4, this film turned into a farewell letter to the city. A city that was experiencing its twilight at the time of filming, which the artists were unaware of at the time. NT.

 

« Enfin, la nuit », 2021, 13 min 32

music Charbel Haber and Fadi Tabbal

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Filmed 1 month after the explosion of August 4  2020, “Enfin la nuit” (Finally, the night) pays tribute to a mythical place of Beirut nightlife, the AHM, which was destroyed by the explosion. To music by Charbel Haber and Fadi Tabbal, we discover young people dancing when Beirut’s nightlife was in full swing. Then, slowly, these images disappear behind another night, that engendered by a city after its destruction. A few months after the tragedy, we still don't know what night the title of this film refers to. But we know that the night is here.

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Nadim Tabet