WIP with Jocelyne Saab

France

Editing: Catherine Poitevin

Year: 2011

Beta Num, Colour, 24 min, French Version

A daring teacher of literature, also a lover of cinema, made his 5th year of secondary school at College Edouard Belin in Vesoul study the work of a Lebanese director for a year: Jocelyne Saab.

The college boys and girls investigate into the director’s life questioning her past as war reporter, thinking about her exhibitions, decrypting her fiction films and trying to understand her country ‘s history with complex roots, with customs unrelated to their own culture. Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Indochina… unknown names until then materialize through landscapes, voices, revolts, suffering and love while, at the very moment, they discover the Arab Spring on their TV sets. They screen films, express themselves, write, but this is not enough for the film-maker when she comes and meet them: and if they got into the creation process…

What about if they could tell their own stories; if, in their turn, they became directors, actors, technicians? This work in process reveals the place that Jocelyne Saab’s films have taken. They discover that in countries at war fighting for freedom, the artistic creation is an act of faith in human genius, that any making becomes a material and intellectual challenge. Each of them asserts, becomes, and demonstrates. They are in the process of discovering the happiness of living together. They learn by themselves while learning from others. After analyzing so many films, they film. After the ardent patience of those watching others exist, they exist.