The influential French movie critic Serge Daney in a dialogue with Palestinian historian Elias Sanbar, who attempts to archive the photographic memory records of his people. The recording was made in Paris on July 4th, 1991, shortly after the end of the Gulf War. A meeting between 2 cultures and 2 different visual approaches, a parabola of North/South-relations.

starring
Elias Sanbar, Serge Daney

a film by Simone BITTON, Catherine POITEVIN

France | 1993, documentary | 48 minutes | Betacam SP

Type: documentary
Format: Videotape (Videotape (on reel)), Betacam SP
Color system: PAL
Color: b&w
Year (shooting): 1991
Year (release): 1993
Duration: 00:48:00 (48 minutes)
Language Spoken: French
Country: France


Themes: Portrait, Cultural identity, Photography, Elias Sanbar, Serge Daney (1944-1992), Cinema, Archives, Conversation, Discussion, Palestine, North-South relations, Communication, Non-verbal communication, Picture, Photo (document)

DIRECTORS'NOTE
During the Golf War, Serge Daney wrote that conversation was a "typically French-Arabic art" but that it couldn't happen anymore between himself and his Arabic friends. Therefore, we decided to offer Daney a cinematographic, as well as realistic, opportunity to recreate that interrupted dialogue.
He had no problem choosing his guest : Elias Sanbar, director of the "Revue Études palestiniennes" (Palestinian Studies magazine). Elias Sanbar is a Palestinian historian and picture collector, a man in exile who decided to preserve the memory of his people through recording press photographs, family photo albums, postcards, etc. Picture are for Sanbar a proof of his own identity.
Daney has spent most of his life watching movies but has always refused to save still pictures.
There was, from both side, the strong desire to confront the two different positions towards the pictures and to create therefore a comparison with the North-South relationship.

DIRECTORS
Simone Bitton, Catherine Poitevin

SCREENWRITERS
Simone Bitton, Catherine Poitevin

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Jean-René Duveau, Antoine Roch

SOUND
Philippe Donnefort

EDITING
Mireille Abramovici

PRODUCTION
Ardèche Images Production
Cités Television

PARTICIPATION
CNC

DISTRIBUTION
France: Ardèche Images Production
Belgium: ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts

BROADCAST
Cités Television

DIGITIZATION
This work has been digitized in the frame of DCA Project (‘Digitising Contemporary Art' - DCA, Belgium)
* https://2019.argosarts.org/page.jsp?id=1157&lang=en
* www.argosarts.org/work/1f5a7b3c7697416eb5511ee7ee8455c2


WATCH THE FILM?
- Ardèche Images Production, France
- Club du Doc (Permanent video library, managed by Maison du documentaire / The Documentary House, accessible on site or remotely and reserved exclusively for Audiovisual professionals), France.

WHERE IS THIS FILM?
- Ardèche Images Production, France
- La Maison du doc, France
- BIFI (Bibliothèque du Film), France
- ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts, Belgium
- Point Culture, Belgium


LINKS
* www.film-documentaire.fr/4DACTION/w_fiche_film/76_1
* www.argosarts.org/work/1f5a7b3c7697416eb5511ee7ee8455c2
* www.pointculture.be/mediatheque/documentaires/serge-daney-vhs-tq1811#