Balagan continues introducing Boston audience to the experimental films and videos from around the world. This program features experimental films and videos by the filmmakers from the Arabic countries. Among the filmmakers featured are: Walid Ra'ad (Lebannon), Souheil Bachar (Lebannon), Tawfik Abu Wa'el (Palestine), Hakim Belabbes (Morocco), Ateyyat El Abnoudy (Egypt), Afif Arabi, Akram Zaatari (Lebannon).

Horse of Mud 12min, video, 1971
Director: Ateyyat El Abnoudy

In one of her earliest and most poignant works, veteran documentarian Ateyyat El Abnoudy captures the dignity of Cairo's poor. In this beautifully photographed document the primitive process of brick making is examined, revealing the monotonous choreography of a nonetheless meaningful social task. The sad dance of their fluid movements intermingled with personal stories deeply resonates.

A Family Portrait 10min, video, 1995
Director: Akram Zaatari

A portrait of a profile on a young, modern Lebanese family who are having their family photos taken, this multi-layered work examines the differences and similarities between real life and the synthetic world of TV and film.

Akram Zaatari is a filmmaker and a video artist living in Beirut. He was born in Saida, Lebanon. Zaatari earned his Bachelor in Architecture from the American University of Beirut in 1989 and was awarded a Masters degree in Media Studies from the New School For Social Research, New York in 1995. He worked as the executive producer of a daily morning show "Aalam Al-Sabah" at Future Television in Beirut where he produced most of his video works, amongst them Majnounak/Crazy of you (26mn, video 1997) and All is well at the border (43mn, video 1997) . He has also taught Photography and Design at the American University of Beirut between 1991 and 1996.

My Beard Forever USA, 1999, 17min
Director: Afif Arabi

A few minutes after the Oklahoma bombing, U.S. major news networks reported that three Middle Eastern men were seen fleeing the scene of the explosion. Fingers across the nation began to point towards Arabs and Arab Americans. In this video, Arabi explores Arab Americans' mounting feelings of discomfort towards the news hegemony in American television. The film presents a collage of media coverage of Middle Eastern wars, terrorism and political turmoil. My Beard Forever pays homage to hundreds of thousands of men living in the states who are stereotyped as Islamic Fundamentalists and terrorists - just because they were born in the Middle East and have beards.

Hostage: The Bachar Tapes 17min, video, 2001
Director: Souheil Bachar

Hostage: The Bachar Tapes (English Version) is an experimental documentary about "The Western Hostage Crisis." The crisis refers to the abduction and detention of Westerners like Terry Anderson, and Terry Waite in Lebanon in the 80s and early 90s by "Islamic militants." This episode directly and indirectly consumed Lebanese, U.S., French, and British political and public life, and precipitated a number of high-profile political scandals like the Iran-Contra affair in the U.S. In Hostage: The Bachar Tapes (English version), the "Western Hostage Crisis" is examined through the testimony of Souheil Bachar.

Mr. Bachar was held hostage in Lebanon between 1983 and 1993. What is remarkable about Souheil's captivity is that he was the only Arab to have been detained with the Western hostages kidnapped in Beirut in the 1980s. In fact, Souheil was held for 3 months in 1985 in the same cell as five American men: Terry Anderson, Thomas Sutherland, Benjamin Weir, Marting Jenco, and David Jacobsen. In 1999, Bachar collaborated with The Atlas Group (a non-profit cultural research foundation based in Lebanon) to produce 53 videotapes about his captivity. Tapes #17 and #31 are the only two tapes Bachar makes available outside of Lebanon. In the tapes, Bachar addresses the cultural, textual, and sexual aspects of his detention with the Americans.

Diary of a Male Whore 15min, video, 2002
Director: Tawfik Abu Wa'el

Based loosely on For Bread Alone, the 1972 classic of modern Arabic literature by Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri, Diary of a Male Whore can be read as a metaphorical account of the Palestinian-Israeli "dialogue" or so-called "peace process." A haunting tale of a young man's sexual awakening and commodification, this short feature by Palestinian filmmaker Tawfik Abu Wael depicts libidinal scenes and violent episodes without any sense of guilt.

Born in 1976, in Um Al Fahm, Palestine, Tawfik Abu Wa'el lives and works in Jaffa, Israel, where he mainly makes documentaries ("Once Again, Five Human Rights Stories from Palestine", 2002).

The Dead Weight of a Quarrel Hangs 17min, video, 1996-1999
Director: Walid Ra'ad

The Dead Weight of a Quarrel Hangs is a three-part video project: Missing Lebanese Wars (in three parts), Secrets in the Open Sea and Miraculous Beginnings (in two parts). The work investigates the possibilities and limits of writing a history of the Lebanese wars (1975-1991). All parts are short fake documentaries, hysterical symptoms of sorts, that present imaginary events conctructed out of innocent and everyday material.The tapes document fantastic situations that beset a number of individuals during the civil wars. The tapes do not document what happened, but what can be imagined, what can be said, what can be taken for granted, what can appear as rational, sayable, and thinkable about the wars.

Walid Ra'ad grew up in Lebanon and now lives and works in the US. He is the founder of The Atlas Group (a non profit cultural research foundation based in Lebanon). His works include textual analysis, video and photography projects, and concentrate on the Lebanese civil wars, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and documentary theory and practice. His video and photography works have been exhibited widely in the US, Western Europe and the Middle East including the 2002 Whitney Biennal and Documenta11.

Whispers 15min, video, 2001
Director: Hakim Belabbes

Hakim Belabbes' Whispers follows a man's obsessive search for his lost childhood through the dark alleyways and desolate cemeteries of the director's Moroccan hometown, Boujad.