Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. Le Film perdu and Je veux voir

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige use their work to explore the production of knowledge, the rewriting of history and the construction of imaginaries, but also the forms of contemporary narrative, with reference to the experience of their own country but also others. With its mixture of the individual and the geographic, their investigative approach, involving questioning in the field, results in a singular aesthetic. These questions powerfully inform their cinematic work.

That is why, in agreement with Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Jeu de Paume has decided to present a selection of films in the auditorium that will give visitors the chance to discover or rediscover their work as filmmakers in the company of guests such as Etel Adnan and Antoine Thirion.

Le Film perdu (2003, 44′, Yemeni, French subtitles)
It all began with an email. On 22 May 2000 a copy of the artists’ first feature “Around the Pink House,” disappeared in Yemen in strange circumstances, and on a historic day: the tenth anniversary of the reunification of South and North Yemen. As Lebanese filmmakers, they lived in a part of the world where cinema is not considered important, and were therefore very surprised by this event. Was someone in Yemen so interested in their first feature film that they stole a copy? A year later, for the 11th anniversary of reunification, the filmmakers took a plane to Sanaa and followed the traces of their film.

Je veux voir (2008, 75′, VF)
With yet another war breaking out in Lebanon in July 2006, the filmmakers wondered if cinema still had the power to change the world. They decided to go to Beirut with a true “icon” of cinema, Catherine Deneuve, and, along with the Lebanese actor Rabih Mroué, to travel around the regions hit by the war in an attempt to find a lost beauty amidst the ruins of their country.

Tuesday 13 September, 6 pm, Screening of the films “Le film perdu” (2003, 44′, Yemeni, French subtitles) and “Je veux voir” (2008, 75′, VF) in the presence of the artists and of film critic Antoine Thirion.
Admission: 3 euros or free with that day’s exhibition ticket.