Program Director

The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon's Civil War

Film Society at Lincoln Center, May 2010

Presented at Film Society of Lincoln Center in collaboration with ArteEast, The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon’s Civil War was a major film series curated by Rasha Salti, examining the legacy of the Lebanese Civil War through cinema. The program brought together more than twenty films spanning several decades—from works produced before the war to films created during the conflict and in its aftermath—offering audiences a rare opportunity to explore how Lebanese filmmakers have grappled with questions of memory, trauma, and reconstruction.

The series highlighted the remarkable body of independent filmmaking that emerged despite the absence of a formal Lebanese film industry, foregrounding directors whose work reflects on the social and psychological aftermath of the conflict. Through screenings and discussions, the program positioned cinema as a vital medium for understanding Lebanon’s recent history and the ways artists have attempted to process and represent the complexities of war and its enduring impact.

Press:

Michael Atkinson, “‘The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon’s Civil War at Walter Reade,” The Village Voice, May 4, 2010

Kristin M. Jones, “Bombings, Exile, Return: Cinema of a Scarred Land,” Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2010

Stephen Holden, “The Week Ahead, May 2-8,” New York Times, May 2, 2010