Jocelyne Saab was a Lebanese journalist and film director. She is recognized as one of the pioneers of Lebanese cinema. A reporter, photographer, scriptwriter, producer, director, artist and founder of the Cultural Resistance International Film Festival of Lebanon, Saab focused on the deprived and disadvantaged – from displaced peoples to exiled fighters, cities at war and a Fourth World without a voice. Her work is grounded in historic violence, and in an awareness of the actions and images required to document, reflect on and counteract it.
Career
Saab was born and raised in Beirut. She finished her studies of economics in the 1970s and began to work occasionally for television. Her first job was hosting a pop music program on the national Lebanese radio station called "Marsipulami got blue eyes." She next worked with Etel Adnan for As-Safa newspaper. She then became a television newsreader. Saab was also a war correspondent in Egypt and South Lebanon. She went to Libya in 1971 and covered the October War in 1973. In 1975 she worked as a reporter for French television. When the Lebanese Civil War broke out, Saab began making documentary films. Her first documentary was called Lebanon in Turmoil. After two years, she stopped doing 'classical' documentaries and began to give her documentaries a more personal perspective. This marked her turn towards a more personal and essayistic mode of filmmaking, as her country was torn apart by conflict. As a curator at Birkbeck, University of London noted: "These beautiful and moving films infuse their powerful documentary footage of daily life amid destruction and displacement with a poetic intensity that transcends the conflict and reaches beyond despair." After the civil war, Saab continued to make films, in both documentary and fiction formats. She travelled the world with her film Dunia, which was selected for Sundance, Toronto and many Asian festivals. Saab became part of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema. She created the Cultural Resistance International Film Festival of Lebanon in 2013 to promote Asian cinema in Lebanon. She launched the festival in five Lebanese cities, with the intention of promoting peace and understanding. During her last years, she pursued video art. She released 3 short videos as part of bigger projects. One Dollar A Day was also a photo exhibition, and My Name Is Mei Shigenobu was an ersatz of her last project.
Jocelyne Saab published a book of photography, just before she died. Zones de guerre follows her whole career through stills and photographs from her films and work.
