Even if I act and look real crazy...

What images do I have of Beirut? Thats a good question, I doubt I have ever really thought of the place outside of hearing about it in the news (especially as of late) and if any images came to mind they would be of your stereotypical third world country landscape filled with violence and strife. I certainly never took it in as a place where film could thrive, let alone in an experimental form...so I was a pleasantly surprised when I viewed the films this past Monday and read Laura Marks "Letters from Beirut". It was nice to see and experience something wholly different that what is displayed on TV. I feel a bit like a fish out of water when trying to relate to what was said and expressed in the films (or at least what I think was being said). Its not that I can't relate on some level, everyone from all walks of life deal with similar situations, but I have never had to live in a war zone, never had to deal with being surrounded by physical conflict, religious conflict, etc. I have on possibly some level but nothing compared to what these filmmakers have had to endure so I can only sit from the sidelines and comment. I am not sure what I am getting at...maybe its that I feel as if I can't really appreciate these films due to this fact. I do want to comment on the form and presentation of In "This House". The idea of dividing the screen into sections, the speech tones, etc is what made this film for me. It took the moving, yet uneventful and slow story and made it into a exciting almost interactive piece that managed to hold my attention, which is a major feat when you suffer horribly from Adult Inattentive ADD (I have this of all things and being forced to sit in a theater chair and watch experimental films for 2 hours is the closet to hell I have yet to experience).
On a side note, I must say that after reading "Letters from Beirut" I was a bit put off by Laura Marks. While I agree with a majority of her political/personal views I thought that it was completely asinine of her to turn down the plane ride that the US had offered to foreigners wanting to leave Lebanon during the conflict. At this point she wasn't sure how she would leave the country (since Canada had yet to do anything with regard to evacuating its citizens). Her excuse for rejecting the plane ride that the US was offering was that they were backing/supporting/supplying Israel (something along those lines). Luckily it all worked out in the end, but my advice to her would be that the next time someone offers her a ride out of a war zone that she take it. Silly Idealist.