ABOUT THE FILM: Four families are followed over several years in two incredibly tough Beirut neighborhoods where barriers exist to education, there is no drinkable water and a heavy paramilitary presence permeates everyday life.  Yet there is beauty in the daily rituals – sweeping water over a tiled floor becomes poetic, birds in flight lift us up, a giggling baby gives a moment of relief from the daily battles families endure. “The injustice of oppression can be felt everywhere,” says one father, symbolic of the hundreds of thousands of people living in the most difficult of circumstances in contemporary Lebanon. Impossible choices are made under immense pressure: your young daughter promised as a bride, the inability to secure healthcare for your dying child, having to send your 8-year-old son to work rather than get an education. Yet this film highlights the incredible power of love. At the end we are left with hope for the next generation. - Sabina Barach

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Cinematographer and director Stephen Gerard Kelly is an Ireland-raised artist with a sensitivity around post-colonial power structures and a background in development and conflict research. He spent five years living in Beirut, listening, understanding, and filming issues facing vulnerable communities displaced by sectarianism, conflict, and a lack of economic opportunities, particularly in Sabra and Shatila. After directing and filming his debut feature-length documentary film In the Shadow of Beirut, he is continuing to develop impactful, compelling, cinematic documentaries while working with experienced teams on clever independent fictional films exploring social themes.