Artist in Focus: Nour Ouayda: Programme 1
Every Morning (في كلّ صباح); Fly, Fly, Sadness (Vole, vole tristesse); Towards the Sun (نحو الشمس); Neither Saint nor Santa Maria (Sin Dios ni Santa María), The Birth of a Flower; ouarda ouarda: yet another flower film; The Secret Garden (الحديقة السريّة : قصة من ثمانية فصول)
Run time: 77 min
Cinéstesia
For all ages
Experimental
Nature Shorts Female Director Guests at the Screening Mystery
Cinéstesia
Screenings:
Conceived in collaboration with Nour Ouayda, this selection of shorts weaves together recent films by the Lebanese artist with historical and contemporary works by others that resonate with her practice in thematic and/or methodological ways. The core of the programme is found in Ouayda’s 2023 film The Secret Garden, which plays with science-fiction tropes to evoke a political allegory of transformation, renewal, and estrangement by pairing images of existing flora in Beirut with a voiceover fable of the city’s mysterious rewilding.
The programme expands outwards to consider speculative approaches to political actuality and the picturing of plant life, challenging anthropocentric approaches and pointing to the rich possibilities of docufiction. Breaking with the monographic format, this programme offers an opportunity to engage deeply with a single artist’s work, while also putting her practice in dialogue with the work of others, including Haitian-Canadian filmmaker Miryam Charles, Spanish duo Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón, and French-Canadian artist Samy Benammar.
Curated by Erika Balsom
Films in the screening:
Nour Ouayda: Every Morning (في كلّ صباح) (Canada, Lebanon 2021; 2 min, no dialogue, on-screen text in English and Arabic)
A postcard produced for Des Nouvelles du Front’s “nos amitiés” series.
Miryam Charles: Fly, Fly, Sadness (Vole, vole tristesse) (Canada 2015; 6 min, in French with English subtitles)
Following a nuclear explosion that transforms the voice of all the inhabitants of an island, a Finnish journalist goes there in order to find a hermit with mysterious powers.
Nour Ouayda: Towards the Sun (نحو الشمس) (Canada, Lebanon 2019; 17 min, in Arabic with English subtitles)
You are now in the main hall of the National Museum in Beirut. A guard reminds you that you are encouraged to touch the archeological objects. A voice in your headset suggests that you lick the stone. You are now facing a hole in the wall on the lower left corner of a mosaic. The voice in your headset indicates that it was made by a sniper. Out of curiosity, you dial 1-9-9-1 to listen to the rest of the story.
Samuel M. Delgado & Helena Girón: Neither Saint Nor Santa Maria (Spain 2015; 12 min, in Spanish with English subtitles)
Since airplanes did not exist, people moved around using prayers; they went from one land to another and returned early, before dawn. In old audio recordings, the voices of pastors speak of the mythical existence of witches and their travels. In the daily life of a woman, the magic of her tales begins to materialize as night falls. Night is the time when travel is possible.
F. Percy Smith: The Birth of a Flower (United Kingdom 1910; 7 min, no dialogue)
"The Birth of a Flower (1910) was the film that brought Percy Smith firmly into the public eye. Mesmerising time-lapse photography captures the poetry of flowers opening their petals to the light. This was something new and exciting for cinemagoers of the time and it is reported that the film received riotous applause and requests for immediate repeat screenings." – Jenny Hammerton, BFI screen online
Samy Benammar: ouarda ouarda: yet another flower film (Canada 2026; 5 min, no dialogue)
Flowers flicker along a 16mm strip, just before or right after the flames. You can hear them weep, scream, and resist. In response to this stridency, there is the burst of light from a black petal. Working from scientific audio recording, the film is designed as an act of appropriation and resistance, refusing to let flowers burn.
Nour Ouayda: The Secret Garden (الحديقة السريّة : قصة من ثمانية فصول) (Lebanon 2023; 27 min, in Arabic with English subtitles)
The inhabitants of a city awake one morning to find that never-before-seen trees, plants, and flowers suddenly erupted throughout the streets and in the squares. Strange and mysterious events start taking place as Camelia and Nahla investigate the origins of these new and peculiar creatures.
The programme expands outwards to consider speculative approaches to political actuality and the picturing of plant life, challenging anthropocentric approaches and pointing to the rich possibilities of docufiction. Breaking with the monographic format, this programme offers an opportunity to engage deeply with a single artist’s work, while also putting her practice in dialogue with the work of others, including Haitian-Canadian filmmaker Miryam Charles, Spanish duo Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón, and French-Canadian artist Samy Benammar.
Curated by Erika Balsom
Films in the screening:
Nour Ouayda: Every Morning (في كلّ صباح) (Canada, Lebanon 2021; 2 min, no dialogue, on-screen text in English and Arabic)
A postcard produced for Des Nouvelles du Front’s “nos amitiés” series.
Miryam Charles: Fly, Fly, Sadness (Vole, vole tristesse) (Canada 2015; 6 min, in French with English subtitles)
Following a nuclear explosion that transforms the voice of all the inhabitants of an island, a Finnish journalist goes there in order to find a hermit with mysterious powers.
Nour Ouayda: Towards the Sun (نحو الشمس) (Canada, Lebanon 2019; 17 min, in Arabic with English subtitles)
You are now in the main hall of the National Museum in Beirut. A guard reminds you that you are encouraged to touch the archeological objects. A voice in your headset suggests that you lick the stone. You are now facing a hole in the wall on the lower left corner of a mosaic. The voice in your headset indicates that it was made by a sniper. Out of curiosity, you dial 1-9-9-1 to listen to the rest of the story.
Samuel M. Delgado & Helena Girón: Neither Saint Nor Santa Maria (Spain 2015; 12 min, in Spanish with English subtitles)
Since airplanes did not exist, people moved around using prayers; they went from one land to another and returned early, before dawn. In old audio recordings, the voices of pastors speak of the mythical existence of witches and their travels. In the daily life of a woman, the magic of her tales begins to materialize as night falls. Night is the time when travel is possible.
F. Percy Smith: The Birth of a Flower (United Kingdom 1910; 7 min, no dialogue)
"The Birth of a Flower (1910) was the film that brought Percy Smith firmly into the public eye. Mesmerising time-lapse photography captures the poetry of flowers opening their petals to the light. This was something new and exciting for cinemagoers of the time and it is reported that the film received riotous applause and requests for immediate repeat screenings." – Jenny Hammerton, BFI screen online
Samy Benammar: ouarda ouarda: yet another flower film (Canada 2026; 5 min, no dialogue)
Flowers flicker along a 16mm strip, just before or right after the flames. You can hear them weep, scream, and resist. In response to this stridency, there is the burst of light from a black petal. Working from scientific audio recording, the film is designed as an act of appropriation and resistance, refusing to let flowers burn.
Nour Ouayda: The Secret Garden (الحديقة السريّة : قصة من ثمانية فصول) (Lebanon 2023; 27 min, in Arabic with English subtitles)
The inhabitants of a city awake one morning to find that never-before-seen trees, plants, and flowers suddenly erupted throughout the streets and in the squares. Strange and mysterious events start taking place as Camelia and Nahla investigate the origins of these new and peculiar creatures.