With the ‘Arab Spring’ focusing the world’s attention on the Middle East, an international arts festival supported by British Council Scotland has been showcasing some of the best new films, poetry and music from Syria and Lebanon.
Reel Festivals 2011, organised by charity Firefly International presented an exciting programme of events at venues across Edinburgh.
Many of the works on show offered insights into the daily lives of people in Syria and Lebanon by getting to the stories behind the headlines of civil war, foreign intervention and military oppression.
Director Dahna Abourahme's film Ein El Hilweh (The Kingdom of Women) tells the story of the women of Ein El Hilweh refugee camp following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
For Syrian filmmaker Reem Ali the showing of her film Zabad (Foam) which tells the story of a Syrian family, told from the point of view of a disabled man, the festival offered the first opportunity to present her work to a wider international audience.
Throughout the week Lebanese, Syrian and Scottish poets performed new translations of each others’ work while artist and musician Bill Drummond, founder member of The KLF, spoke about his work and collaborations with Lebanese musicians.
Ryan Van Winkle, reader in residence at the Scottish Poetry Library said:
'To be able to invite these poets to Scotland and for us to be able to work together to expose new audiences to new work was a real privilege for us and a rare opportunity. To witness the poets from Syria, Lebanon and Scotland working together was very special and the sense of camaraderie, friendship & respect was evident.
'Poetry can often seem removed from real life, but the Arabic poems were so alive and so fresh which made them so powerful and relevant. There was a palpable sense that everyone in the room was witnessing something unique with such integrity, and something that we don’t often get to see in Scotland.'
Reel Festivals 2011 follows a successful week-long show in Beirut where Scottish music, poems and films won plaudits from Lebanese fans. Unfortunately proposed events in Damascus had to be postponed due to the current civil unrest in Syria.
Dan Gorman, Director of Firefly International and organiser of Reel Festivals, said:
‘The festival was an intense, inspiring experience in both Beirut and Edinburgh. We saw fantastic collaborations along the way, a jam session in Beirut bringing Scottish musicians Shooglenifty together with Syrian and Lebanese traditional players, Bill Drummond brought people together for his 'Divide and Combine' score, and there were some wonderful new translations of work being presented by Syrian, Lebanese and Scottish poets at the Scottish Poetry Library'
'Now we're looking forward to continuing the festival through the creation of new works, including a film and an e-book of the poetry translations. We aim for these boundary crossing collaborations to continue and develop, there will be more!'
For more information on our work in the arts please contact Dana MacLeod on +44 (0)131 524 5732 or email dana.macleod@britishcouncil.org.
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