Sunday, 2 June at 5pm

White Burden
Director : Andrew Abdo
Nabil, a sick old man who works as a carpenter, and his son Elio, a deaf-mute teenager, are on their way to deliver a white coffin. On their way, the engine falters and stops along a straight route. Nabil checks the engine and realizes that it is not fixable on the spot, so he tries to call for help but has no signal on his phone. Frustrated and being short on time, he decides to carry the coffin and continue their journey on foot, which was fortunately cut short.

My Reason For Being
Director : Julie Kebbi
In this intimate and emotional short documentary, a young French-Lebanese filmmaker has a heart-to-heart with her mother, Kawssar, as they spend time together in her late grandmother’s house. In a space now filled with nostalgia and emptiness, Kawssar recounts how the civil war in Lebanon drove her to exile and how she has had to deal with the loss of family members, all the while going through her mother’s diaries. A transgenerational story, My Reason for Being explores grief, loneliness and motherhood, lifting the veil on things that were left unsaid. A delicate journey of a filmmaker and her mother wrestling within their own relationship and trying to, ultimately, heal together.

All Clocks Stopped in The Drawer
Director : Jane Ghazal
“All Clocks Stopped in the Drawer” follows the journey of Jana as she tries to find a way to bury her younger brother. The film starts at the hospital where she is given one day to get him out.

Toxic Hope
Director : Salim Saab
Does the notion of hope still have its place in Lebanon? Throughout its history, the land of the Cedar has experienced many crises, wars, famines, revolts and social divides. But despite everything, there is still a glimmer of hope. However, sometimes this hope turns out to be toxic. It comes and goes, and we don’t want to believe in it anymore. In his new documentary, Toxic Hope, Salim Saab interviews Lebanese to know their definition of hope. Activists, women Artists and even his own father answered his questions. What symbolizes hope? Do the Lebanese still believe in it? Will the hope that emerged during the October 2019 revolt reappear?

Nebulae
Director : jana Ahmad zeineldeen
Maya, the twenty-years old, impulsively ruins her father Issam's painting only to confront him with the reality of his prolonged absence in her life. As the layers of their strained relationship unravel, Maya discovers that Issam is battling an illness leading her to prioritize what matter's most, her closeness and love for him.

Monday, 3 June at 5:30pm Canada

THE LANDMARKS OF MEMORY
Director : Christina Hajjar
A tattoo ritual and hookah session memorializes a pre-war florist. After seeing its storefront in archival footage of the Lebanese Civil War, a first-generation daughter seeks information and connection to place. Scenes of 1976 Beirut are paired with today’s developed landscape, while roses are etched and coconut coals burn in a snowy diasporic setting.

Still Grieving
Director : Carl Haddad
Left in a 400sqm house, a grieving sixty-year-old lady is forced to let go of her memories and her father's legacy.

Director : Carl Hadaad
Somewhere in between
Director : Dahlia Nemlich
Facing their imminent separation, Elias and Christiane dive into their memories for one final goodbye.

Director : Dahlia Nemlich
Pieces of Time
Director : Perla Fady Eid
Yasmine a 9-year-old girl, who loves to film on her little camera, retraces back memories with her father, together on their road trip to their olive tree land, many events happen, good and bad. However, we realize that the dad was watching memories of his daughter. Then, he goes on a walk with an empty mind yet full of suicidal thoughts. He arrives at a place where the cliff meets the sea and when on the edge of the cliff he hears his daughter's voice and backs off.

Director : Perla Fady Eid
If the Sun drowned into an Ocean of clouds
Director : Wissam Charaf
Beirut, Lebanon. On the waterfront’s construction site, security agent Raed must prevent passing-by walkers from accessing the seaside. Yet as the horizon becomes each day more stifled by the construction, Raed makes peculiar encounters — mere dreams, or symbols of his desires?

Direcetor : Wissam Charaf
Bon Apoutine
Directors : Ludovic L'Heureux Devinat, Bertrand Niquel
Ludovic is from Quebec. He travels the world with his "skouik-skouik" cheese and have one goal in mind : introduce people to a typical meal from his neighbourhood called "poutine". A pretext to meet “ordinary people” - off the beaten track - to open the door to their homes... And eat this extraordinary poutine! It will also be an opportunity to discover destinations from another angle, beyond the clichés. Bon Apoutine aims to promote another vision of travel, humanist, made up of encounters rather than a collection of places. And, why not, break certain preconceived ideas!

Directors : Ludovic L'Heureux Devinat, Bertrand Niquel

Wednesday, 5 June LAU At 5pm

Barefoot From Beirut
Director : Andrew Dawaf
Far away from home, and after becoming auditorily impaired with a tinnitus as a result of the Beirut blast of August 4th, Tahara, a Lebanese immigrant in Europe, tries singing again by feeling musical vibrations through the ground, but homesickness overtakes her every emotion. To her, water is a sensory key element that calms her chaos. It reminds her of home, by the Mediterranean sea, where her heart and mind are at ease.
I Have Dreamed Carthage
Director : Cyril Nehmé
Synopsis: Maïa, a young opera singer, is on stage for her first performance. As she starts singing the main aria from "Dido and Aeneas", she finds herself struck with an epiphany moment.
My mother's voice
Directors : Romy Choueiri, Dolly Choueiri
Facing their imminent separation, Elias and Christiane dive into their memories for one final goodbye.

DAY 4 (MONDAY June 10) at 5:30 Canada

See You Soon
Director : Carly Hanna
Nina, a young Lebanese, bids farewell to her closest people who are leaving the country. Pressured to leave as well, she doesn't find it as easy.
In the Night
Director : Shireen khaled
"In the Night" is about a longtime married couple in New York who realize amidst the still-unfolding COVID-19 pandemic that they have suddenly fallen out of love.They spend their night trying to fall in love – again.

Thursday, 6 June At 5:30pm USJ

Ephemeral You
In "Ephemeral You" a daughter goes on a journey along Beirut's coast, unraveling the emotional ties connecting her to the sea and her father. The film captures the timeless bond between the trio: the daughter, her father, and the sea. Through archives, intimate moments and the natural flow, the sea becomes a silent witness to their shared experiences. The film serves as a heartfelt questioning of why, despite their shared love for the sea, they've never visited it together. Voiced reflections provide a window into the daughter's thoughts, creating a therapeutic exploration of their complex relationship, with the sea as a backdrop for introspection and discovery.
AMAL
Amal, an 8 year old girl, loves making necklaces and bracelets, especially after her mother’s passing in the Beirut blast on August 4th 2020. One day, she hears a man demanding money from her father, so she decide to sell her accessories in the street to support her father in his financial crisis. Along the way, she befriends a homeless man named Younes, who sympathizes with her. However, life's harshness and street life leads him to commit an unforgettable act.
Obscurus
In this modern adaptation of "The Tell-Tale Heart," Nour becomes fixated on a mysterious man with haunting blue eyes. His obsession escalates to murder, leading to a chilling descent into guilt and madness. As Nour grapples with his conscience, the haunting sound of a heartbeat drives him to the brink of insanity.
To you(th)
Alain and Mira, a couple that has been together for five years, decide to have a heart-to-heart about life. They plunge into a thought-provoking conversation in which they question their own relationship and its destiny, while simultaneously reflecting on their collapsed homeland, Lebanon. They seek freedom and happiness, but would they truly reach that by escaping their country? Among all this instability and destruction surrounding them, will love alone be enough to keep them afloat?
Larry & the Boots
In a remote village, a curious lizard becomes an unwitting observer to the sexual tension and power struggle between a narcissistic prop master and her enigmatic ex-lover, a nature photographer, as they navigate a two-day work assignment that sparks old flames and ignites new desires.