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about the project
 Lens on Lebanon is an international grassroots documentary initiative formed during the Israeli bombardment of 2006. The documentary material, photo-narratives, and video diaries of daily life gathered here have been conceived, produced, and contributed by residents of Lebanon from all walks of life.
During the thirty-four day Israeli-Lebanese war of July and August 2006, swathes of Beirut’s suburbs were razed and a large part of south Lebanon was destroyed. Extensive damage to civilian infrastructure has irrevocably transformed neighborhoods and villages and the spaces in which people lived and worked. While the international media reported on the Israeli bombardments, the continuing impact of this conflict on the social, economic and psychological life of affected communities has been less well documented. Lens on Lebanon (LOL) is a non-partisan, media initiative that seeks to redress these imbalances, by creating a crucial space for expression for those whose lives have been disrupted in villages across the south, the southern suburbs of Beirut and in the Beqa’a Valley. Providing equipment, technical training and artistic support through collaborative workshops with local and international filmmakers, photographers and artists, LOL invites participants living in affected communities to creatively document their experiences in the shadow of war.
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project goals
Both the conflict and the reconstruction effort have made visible the deep sectarian tensions that fracture Lebanese society, and which continue to isolate the south from much of the rest of the country. The vulnerability experienced by communities in this region is linked in crucial ways to the perception that they are marginalized and misrepresented in local and international media. Lebanon’s nascent blogging culture was galvanized by the war, opening up a novel space for civil resistance, solidarity, and dialogue, yet ironically one which occluded the very part of the country most affected. Lebanese and international perceptions of the conflict have been quietly shaped by the fact that the very infrastructure of cultural production is located in Beirut. LOL seeks to promote the cultural enfranchisement of these communities through innovative visual storytelling techniques that give agency and voice to those directly affected. By delivering digital cameras and mini digital video recorders into the hands not of outside professionals but of local people, LOL has sought to bring sustained attention not only to specific crises, such as the unexploded munitions left by cluster bombing, but also to the more mundane realities of daily survival. Through LOL’s workshops, mobile exhibits and community website, participants are encouraged to represent their experiences on their own terms and to engage in dialogue across sectarian and cultural divides.
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workshops
Since it was first conceived at the onset of hostilities in July, Lens on Lebanon has been structured as a collaborative endeavor in which Lebanese in the south and the southern suburbs of Beirut have been invited to team up with networks of activists, artists and filmmakers, both locally and abroad, to develop media projects in their communities. Workshops in photography, digital video, editing and web design have been held in affected communities since November 2006. Generally conducted over four consecutive weekends, workshops are designed to provide basic training in media practices and to foster creative partnerships between local participants and professional practitioners. Each workshop explores a different theme. For instance, conceptions of motherhood; memory mapping; visual storytelling with the elderly; print zines; how the idea of “home” is being reconceived; self-portraiture; the meaning of borders. In addition to developing technical and creative skills, workshops are intended as critical spaces for dialogue and debate, where the concerns and needs of the communities might be discussed. Participants are encouraged to critically engage each other’s work; to collectively develop innovative strategies for disseminating the materials to a broader audience and to explore how the work produced might be effectively employed in campaigns and advocacy work around specific issues. Workshops are scheduled to continue until December 2007.
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lensonlebanon.org
When LOL was first initiated in July 2006, a website was created as an online forum and archive to which photo and video diaries, podcasts and other visual testimonies on unfolding events could be uploaded. The LOL website is now being redeveloped to serve as an interactive, virtual gallery where digital videos and photographic work produced in the context of workshops – and independently – can be exhibited, and where facilitators and participants can share works in progress. LOL also plans to develop locally managed websites with participants in each of the communities in which it is active, to help support ongoing, sustainable media networks. LOL's online gallery and the community websites will function both as a much-needed forum for reflection and debate for communities in south Lebanon, and as a public record of this period of historic transformation.
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exhibitions
A series of exhibitions, screenings and installations of work produced in LOL’s workshops is scheduled to start on the anniversary of the war in July 2007, and to continue until the end of the year. A principal concern of LOL and its implementing partners is that the material first be exhibited in the communities in which it was made. Where the exhibitions and screening events are held, and the manner in which works are presented, will be decided collectively by workshop facilitators, LOL coordinators and local participants. Exhibitions and installations of the work produced in LOL's workshops will also be exhibited in Beirut in July and August 2007.
LOL is currently seeking partners and sponsors interested in helping to organize exhibitions of the work elsewhere in the region and abroad over the coming year.
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how you can help
Online donations can be made through Paypal on our donations page.
For more information about any of LOL activities, or for those who would like to make a donation, but require a 501c(3) tax deduction form, please contact us directly at: info@lensonlebanon.org.
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supporters and implementing partners
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