Join us on Thursday, October 17, 2024, for a special screening and discussion of MEMORIES FOR A PRIVATE EYE #1, a film by current Fellow Rania Stephan.
MEMORIES FOR A PRIVATE EYE #1(31′:35’’ | Lebanon – 2015) is the first chapter in a trilogy which investigates Stephan’s personal archive. Evoking the language of film noir, it foregrounds the fictional detective Marc McPherson from the film Laura by Otto Preminger (1943) to explore deep and traumatic memories.
The film spirals around a lost image: the only moving image of the filmmaker’s dead mother. How is absence lived? What remains of war, death, and love with the passing of time? These are the questions that are delicately displayed for contemplation.
While dwelling on the past, the film weaves together images from different sources – private archive, cinema, television, YouTube – unfolding in a labyrinthic maze, to create a blueprint of remembrance itself.
Rania Stephan
Visual Arts, Lebanon
Born and based in Beirut, Rania Stephan is an artist and filmmaker, working with still and moving images. She has directed art videos and creative documentaries. Work on archival material has been an underlying enquiry in her practice. Using editing as a reflective tool, she investigates how still and moving images collide and collude, multiply and subtract, triggering renewed narratives and emotions. Her first feature The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (2011) was internationally acclaimed. Her second feature In Fields of Words (2022) won Best Film at Villa Medici Film Festival.
Thursday, October 17th, 2024
Welcome Cocktail 6:00 PM
Screening starts at 6:15 PM
Q&A to follow
Please RSVP here