WHAT EXISTED YESTERDAY MIGHT DISAPPEAR TOMORROW
Curated by Hind Mezaina
The past haunts the present in this film program about photography and cinema, featuring four short films by Hisham Bizri, Akram Zaatari, Meyar Al Roumi, and Joana Hadjithomas/Khalil Joriege. These films delve into a distant or recent past and their consequences today on what was and what could have been.
WHAT EXISTED YESTERDAY MIGHT DISAPPEAR TOMORROW is co-presented by ArteEast and Tribe. This screening is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents over 17 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. In addition to the online screening on artearchive.org from October 13-18, the program will be screened in-person at Alliance Française in Dubai on October 12, with an introduction and post screening discussion with curator Hind Mezaina and Nezar Andary, professor of cinema and literature, curator of film and book festivals.
A Silent Cinema (Sinama Samita), Meyar Al Roumi (2001)
Arabic, French with English subtitles
Meyar Al Roumi returns to his native Damascus, eager to start making films, but he is censored. He draws inspiration from it to paint a portrait of the Syrian filmmakers most affected by censorship.
About the filmmaker
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1973, Meyar Al Roumi studied and worked as a photographer before traveling to Paris where he studied cinema at the University Paris VIII and FEMIS from which he graduated in 2001. He has worked as a director of photography on a number of documentary and fiction films in France and in Syria including: Flood in Baath Country (Omar Amiralay, 2003), Blue-Grey (Mohammad AL-Roumi, 2004), Contre la Montée (Damien Bertrand, 2003), Transit (Bani Khoshnoudi, 2004), among others.
He has also directed a number of documentaries, including, A Silent Cinema (Sinama samita, 2001), Waiting for the Day (Thilal al-Ayyam al-Ramadiyya, 2003), and Le Club de l'avenir (Nadi el-Mustaqbal, 2006). In 2007, he Al Roumi completed a feature-length documentary that paints the portrait of a few taxi drivers in Damascus: Six Ordinary Stories. And The 1001 Faces of PALMYRA, 2020, broadcaster at Arte. Award of "Archaeological film" at the 11th International Archaeological Film Festival "AGON" (Greece), 2022
Al Roumi has also directed fiction films, including The Voyage of Rabeya (Rahlat Rabeya, 2005) and Journey (Rahleh, 2011). first feature-length fiction film, Round Trip premieres at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2012. He recently completed his second feature-length fiction film The Return, 2022.
- Year2001
- Runtime29 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountrySyria, France
- DirectorMeyar Al Roumi
- ScreenwriterMeyar Al Roumi
- ProducerMeyar Al Roumi, FEMIS
- CinematographerMeyar Al Roumi
- EditorBanjamain Weil
WHAT EXISTED YESTERDAY MIGHT DISAPPEAR TOMORROW
Curated by Hind Mezaina
The past haunts the present in this film program about photography and cinema, featuring four short films by Hisham Bizri, Akram Zaatari, Meyar Al Roumi, and Joana Hadjithomas/Khalil Joriege. These films delve into a distant or recent past and their consequences today on what was and what could have been.
WHAT EXISTED YESTERDAY MIGHT DISAPPEAR TOMORROW is co-presented by ArteEast and Tribe. This screening is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents over 17 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. In addition to the online screening on artearchive.org from October 13-18, the program will be screened in-person at Alliance Française in Dubai on October 12, with an introduction and post screening discussion with curator Hind Mezaina and Nezar Andary, professor of cinema and literature, curator of film and book festivals.
A Silent Cinema (Sinama Samita), Meyar Al Roumi (2001)
Arabic, French with English subtitles
Meyar Al Roumi returns to his native Damascus, eager to start making films, but he is censored. He draws inspiration from it to paint a portrait of the Syrian filmmakers most affected by censorship.
About the filmmaker
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1973, Meyar Al Roumi studied and worked as a photographer before traveling to Paris where he studied cinema at the University Paris VIII and FEMIS from which he graduated in 2001. He has worked as a director of photography on a number of documentary and fiction films in France and in Syria including: Flood in Baath Country (Omar Amiralay, 2003), Blue-Grey (Mohammad AL-Roumi, 2004), Contre la Montée (Damien Bertrand, 2003), Transit (Bani Khoshnoudi, 2004), among others.
He has also directed a number of documentaries, including, A Silent Cinema (Sinama samita, 2001), Waiting for the Day (Thilal al-Ayyam al-Ramadiyya, 2003), and Le Club de l'avenir (Nadi el-Mustaqbal, 2006). In 2007, he Al Roumi completed a feature-length documentary that paints the portrait of a few taxi drivers in Damascus: Six Ordinary Stories. And The 1001 Faces of PALMYRA, 2020, broadcaster at Arte. Award of "Archaeological film" at the 11th International Archaeological Film Festival "AGON" (Greece), 2022
Al Roumi has also directed fiction films, including The Voyage of Rabeya (Rahlat Rabeya, 2005) and Journey (Rahleh, 2011). first feature-length fiction film, Round Trip premieres at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2012. He recently completed his second feature-length fiction film The Return, 2022.
- Year2001
- Runtime29 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountrySyria, France
- DirectorMeyar Al Roumi
- ScreenwriterMeyar Al Roumi
- ProducerMeyar Al Roumi, FEMIS
- CinematographerMeyar Al Roumi
- EditorBanjamain Weil