We often get stuck in a rhythm, a pattern of movement that keep us in one place, tending to one situation, sometimes far longer than we intend. Whether (im)mobilized by convention or war or occupation, creatures desire movement and change: a push beyond the status quo, a changing of the guard, a revolutionary burst of energy to incite something different and new. In this series of short films, each film uses sound an image to explore the place between life and death, memory and forgetting, war and peace, and stagnation and movement.
A filmmaker follows a pigeon fancier in Beirut as he interacts with his birds and narrates his relation to the sky. Now, if you look at the sky is a video that takes the form of a ritournelle, a refrain, where lines, colours, and sound constitute a territory.
Festivals and Awards
Part of the exhibition Cohabitation, silent green Kulturquartier, Berlin, 2021
About the filmmaker
Maissa Maatouk (b. 1992) is an artist living and working in Beirut. Her practice is multidisciplinary, often taking the form of videos and lectures. She develops aesthetic forms derived from real situations in which singular bodies resist the sectarian power structures in Beirut. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree (2014) and a Masters degree (2017) in Product and Global Design from Académie Libanaise des Beaux-arts and was a 2019–2020 fellow at Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Program. She currently works as a studio assistant and production manager with artists in Beirut while developing her own projects.
- Year2021
- Runtime12 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryLebanon
- DirectorMaissa Maatouk
- ScreenwriterMaissa Maatouk
- ProducerMaissa Maatouk
- CastMohamad Nour Baddawi
We often get stuck in a rhythm, a pattern of movement that keep us in one place, tending to one situation, sometimes far longer than we intend. Whether (im)mobilized by convention or war or occupation, creatures desire movement and change: a push beyond the status quo, a changing of the guard, a revolutionary burst of energy to incite something different and new. In this series of short films, each film uses sound an image to explore the place between life and death, memory and forgetting, war and peace, and stagnation and movement.
A filmmaker follows a pigeon fancier in Beirut as he interacts with his birds and narrates his relation to the sky. Now, if you look at the sky is a video that takes the form of a ritournelle, a refrain, where lines, colours, and sound constitute a territory.
Festivals and Awards
Part of the exhibition Cohabitation, silent green Kulturquartier, Berlin, 2021
About the filmmaker
Maissa Maatouk (b. 1992) is an artist living and working in Beirut. Her practice is multidisciplinary, often taking the form of videos and lectures. She develops aesthetic forms derived from real situations in which singular bodies resist the sectarian power structures in Beirut. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree (2014) and a Masters degree (2017) in Product and Global Design from Académie Libanaise des Beaux-arts and was a 2019–2020 fellow at Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Program. She currently works as a studio assistant and production manager with artists in Beirut while developing her own projects.
- Year2021
- Runtime12 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryLebanon
- DirectorMaissa Maatouk
- ScreenwriterMaissa Maatouk
- ProducerMaissa Maatouk
- CastMohamad Nour Baddawi