Eliane Raheb is a brilliant director (and a great story teller) from Lebanon. She put me in a dark editing room the other day, and left me alone to watch her great documentary film titled "So Near Yet So Far." It was quite a moving experience for me. I will not give it away here, but this is part of the official information:
"Title: So near yet so far
Nationality: Lebanese
Duration: 59 min
Production: Beirut DC
In co-production with: Al shahed production
Director: Eliane Raheb
Camera: Eliane Raheb, Arlette Giraradot, Muriel Abourouss
Sound: Tania Khoury
Editing: Eliane Raheb
Original Music: Cynthia Zaven".
She has some synopsis for the film but I did not think that it does justice to it. She also made a very intelligent short documentary on the Lebanese reactions to the US war in Iraq. She is an "independent" filmmaker, in the true sense of the word, and not in the commercial sense often used in the US these days. Some "independent" films are not marketed and distributed by large corporations and they use the word "independent" as a mere marketing device. Once I am in the US, I shall post the poster of the film and give my review.
Beware. Eliane is working on a documentary on the recent Lebanese "events" and she has a very original take, and that belongs to her alone. I can't wait to see her documentary.