Do You Love Me
Spring Grants 2019 - Development Stage
Lana Daher / Feature Documentary / Lebanon, France, Germany, Qatar / 80 min / Original Language: Arabic, English, French / Interests: History, War, Archive, Art, Society
Synopsis
‘Do You Love Me’ is an archive-based documentary that portrays the lived experiences of generations of Lebanese from the 1950s until today. Through the film, the viewer follows fictional and real characters from a range of mixed media sourced from documentary and fiction films, journalistic archives, TV and pop culture, photography and home videos. The film’s rhythm mirrors Lebanon’s oscillation between moments of war and moments of calm throughout this given period.
Featuring the stories, anecdotes, songs, art, and culture of the people who remained in Lebanon through these years, we begin to see and understand this society’s collective memory, dynamics, and psyche. Rather than recounting a more traditional history, the film attempts to portray an emotional ethnography of the Lebanese people in a country unable to agree on its own past, present or future. The film’s focus is not on a deep nostalgia for the past or the promise of any answers—instead, it lingers on the questions raised about life in these challenging times and how it affects our experience of the present.
Credits
- Director
- Lana Daher
- Screenwriter
- Lana Daher
- Producer
- Jean-Laurent Csinidis
- Production Company
- Films de Force Majeure
About the Director
Lana Daher is a filmmaker living and working in Beirut, Lebanon. She earned a BFA in graphic design from the American University of Beirut and an MA in filmmaking from Goldsmiths, University of London. Growing up, Daher developed an interest in sonic and visual practices and has experimented with different ways of merging the two. Her most recent projects include directing two short documentaries on Icelandic-Danish contemporary artist Olafur Eliasson. Lana has also worked on music videos as well as commissioned documentaries about Lebanese artists and designers. She is passionate about exploring the intersections between documentary and narrative filmmaking, which has led her to direct and co-produce her first feature documentary, ‘Do You Love Me’. The film is currently in production and has been awarded the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung as well as grants from Sundance, AFAC, DFI and IDFA amongst others. Drawing from her life in Lebanon, Daher’s work explores her current environment and themes of society, memory, and history.