Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know.
He has disappeared since.
Ten years ago, I caught a glimpse of his face while walking in the street, but I wasn’t sure it was him. Parts of his face were torn off, but his features had remained unchanged since the incident. Yet something was different, as if he wasn’t the same man.
Ghassan Halwani lives and works in Beirut. After a short film Jibraltar (2005), and due to the 2006 Israeli atrocious war on Lebanon he gave up his artist career to work as an illustrator/animator to sustain his economies. He got involved in collaborations with Lebanese and Arab filmmakers, playwrights, contemporary artists, publishers, musicians, and sustained his political engagements. Among his collaborations: a long contribution with playwright and artist Rabih Mroué, Takhabot, a music video with Musician Tamer Abu Ghazaleh, a short animation for the feature documentary Lebanese Rocket Society by Joanna Hadgithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lucena: Obedience Training with Zoukak Theatre company, a short animation for the feature film 1982 by Oualid Mouaness. In 2012, he decided to work on a renewed political discourse on the matter of the disappeared and mass-graves in Lebanon that was completed in 2018 with the film Erased,___Ascent of the Invisible. Additionally, he has contributed to the creation of a national archive dedicated to the disappeared in Lebanon.
More about Ghassan Halwani
The Global Platform for Middle East Arts
© 2003 – 2024 ArteEast Inc. All Rights Reserved.
