videos/stories
ELECTION DAY IN LEBANON (JUNE 2009)
Great expectation in Lebanon for the outcome of the general election in which the Lebanese had to elect the new country rulers, after four years of tough internal and external confrontations. The electoral round opposed the two blocks that, in their struggle for internal power, paralyzed the country for almost 4 years, leading the country almost to collapse and civil strife. On one side the March 14 block and on the other side the March 8 block, the so-called muarada, the opposition. However, Lebanese turned out massively to vote and decide the future of their country.
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ASHURA
Every year thousands of Shiites all around the world celebrate Ashura, a festivity to honour the martyrdom of the Imam Husayn, the grandson of Muhammad. Imam Husayn and his followers, cornered by the troops of Yazid, resisted until the tenth day, but then succumbed. On the tenth of Ashura, Shiites express their griefs to Husayn in different ways: performing a theatre piece, donating blood, hitting their chests. In the Southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh, the community followers still celebrate the festivity in its more traditional form; by hitting their head with a blade or a knife, provoking though a copious spilling of blood.
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THE EIGHTH MARTYR (SEPTEMBER 2007)
On September 2007, the umpteenth car bomb in Lebanon took the life of MP Antoine Ghanem, member of the 14th of March bloc and of the Kataeb party. Ghanem was soon labelled as the “Eighth Martyr”, with reference to the political assassinations that have been undergoing in Lebanon since the blast that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005. The assassination took place few weeks before the planned Presidential elections. Despite mainstream media report that “huge crowd” participated at the funeral, only few hundreds people turned out in the street to mourn Ghanem.
[Riportag on MP Antoine Ghanem assassination: article (Italian) / photoriportag ]
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ISHAK
“Ishak” tells the story of a Kurdish guy living in Ayazma, a gecekondu of Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul process of urban “modernization” supposes the destruction of the area and the reallocation of its inhabitants, mainly of Kurdish origins, in the new unfriendly and soviet-style “towers” located in a nearby area. The doc follows Ishak first trip to his family land, highlighting new generations lost of identity mainly due to process of forced migration.
(doc participation: ASSISTANT DIRECTOR; CONTENTS RESEARCH ON THE FIELD; POST-PRODUCTION ADVISER)
[Riportag on Ayazma gecekondu (photo/articles)]
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NEWROZ – CIZRE (2007)
Cizre is a town in the Turkish Kurdistan close to the border with Syria and Iraq. At the beginning of the 90’s it has been at the center of the fight between the Kurdish guerrilla of the PKK and the Turkish government. In those years, the celebration of the Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, was giving Kurds the opportunity to express their mistreated culture. But as still is nowadays, the celebrations also represent a joyful occasion for the community. These images were taken in Cizre, in 2007.
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METN ELECTIONS – LEBANON (AUGUST 2007)
On August 2007, by-elections have been scheduled in Lebanon order to fill the parliament seats left vacant by two members of the majority previously assassinated: Pierre Gemayel and Walid Eido. The run for Pierre Gemayel seat in the Metn region provoked a fierce confrontation between the main Christian parties in order to show Lebanese the predominance within the sect. The opposition member finally won for few votes; as usual both parts claimed (and celebrated) the victory…
[Riportag on the election day (article/Italian)]
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WALID EIDO FUNERAL – BEIRUT (JUNE 2007)
On June 13, 2007 a booby trapped car bomb placed on Beirut corniche, killed MP Walid Eido, his son and several other bystanders. The day after, shebeb from the mainly Sunni al-Moustaqbal movement massively turned out to bid farewell to Eido and his son. Walid Eido too, as the previous assassination targets, belonged to the 14th of March majority bloc.
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// MUARADA // (DECEMBER 2006)
Few days after the assassination of Minister Pierre Gemayel, the Lebanese opposition, muarada, organized on December 1st a huge demonstration in Downtown Beirut in order to tear down Siniora government. Therefore, the muarada installed a no-end sit-in in order to achieve its goal, which will last only after almost one year an half, as consequence of the Doha Agreement of May 2008.
Beside the political connotation of the demonstration, the sit-in reproduced the situation staged by the then opposition after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, and which led to characterize a specific space of Downtown Beirut with a specific political force. Following the same logic, on December 1st 2006, the demonstration of the opposition aimed to conquer their own part of public space, thus publicly staging their own vision of the Lebanese nation.
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THE DIVINE VICTORY (SEPTEMBER 2006)
In the aftermath of the 2006 July War between Hezbollah and Israel, the Lebanese movement celebrated its own “divine victory” in the Southern suburb of Beirut, al-dahya. The celebration marked the first public appearance of Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, since the beginning of the war.
[Riportag on the "Divine Victory"(article Italian 2006/ article Italian 2007]
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JNOUB (AUGUST 2006)
In the summer of 2006, Southern Lebanon became a war-torned region after the month-long battle between the Tsahal, the Israel Defence Forces, and the Lebanese guerilla Hezbollah. Few days after the ceasefire the region presented a disarming landscape made of rubble, silence and gloom. This ride moved from the outskirts of Tyre, the capital of South Lebanon, toward Naqoura, passing by town and villages such as Qana, Siddiqine, Tibnine, Bint Jbeil, Ainata, Aita ech Chaab and Marwahine.
