The film Omar Amiralay… Sorrow, Time and Silence by director Hala Alabdallah offers an in-depth exploration of the legacy of one of the foremost figures in Arab documentary cinema. It weaves together analytical reflections that link Amiralay’s personal life with the social and political transformations that informed his critical vision and shaped his body of work. The film is the result of more than a decade of engagement, built around a series of informal filmed conversations recorded with Amiralay before his sudden passing in 2011.
The film traces his professional journey; from his studies in France and his return to Damascus, through the formative moments that shaped his artistic outlook.
The film will be screened in Arabic with English subtitles. To register, please fill out the form here.
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Projects at the Lab: The Cinematheque | All That We Witness launches this December and continues into January with a series of encounters that look closely at contemporary directions in Arab documentary practice. The program turns to works that approach wider realities through the immediacy of lived experience; following how personal perspectives surface within, complicate, or cast new light on collective events. In doing so, it reopens the question of what the documentary form can offer today: how it examines the past, and how it engages the pressures and urgencies of the present moment.
The program brings together conversations, public discussions, and a workshop, alongside a film-screening series that opens this month with a film on the late Syrian director Omar Amiralay.