Turtles are always Home | My Father is Still a Communist

Ashkal Alwan and the Sursock Museum are pleased to invite you to the screening of Turtles are Always Home by Rawane Nassif and My Father is Still a Communist by Ahmad Ghossein, on Thursday 14 March at 19:30. The film will be followed by a Q&A session. This screening is part of a longer film program in parallel with the exhibition Home Works 9: Intimate Garden Scene (in Beirut). 

Turtles are Always Home
Dir. Rawane Nassif, 2016
12’, Lebanon, Canada
In Arabic with English subtitles

“Houses have memories too. They hide them under their windowsills, tuck them in layers of paint and sometimes whisper them to birds passing by. I wonder whose memories these houses will keep. I live here but I am unable to leave a trace. I try to attach myself to the walls, dirty them, mark them, but I fail. They are constantly cleaned, watched over, and protected. I caress them instead. And I film, lest I forget. Home is where the heart is, they say. I disagree. My heart is everywhere. I left with the music. Like a turtle, I am always home.”
 
Rawane Nassif (b. 1983, Lebanon) is a curious soul who loves to explore new realms. Her tools are words, films, and systems of transportation. Her eclectic life pushed her to write a book on the politics of memory in Beirut, organize social projects with immigrants and indigenous people in Canada, explore nomadic traditions in Kyrgyzstan, teach anthropology in Tajikistan, create children’s books in Honduras, and undertake research between the National Museum in Qatar and the Doha Film Institute.

My Father is Still a Communist
Dir. Ahmad Ghossein, 2013
32’, Lebanon
In Arabic with English subtitles

All that remains of Rashid Ghossein and Mariam Hamadeh’s relationship is a large collection of messages recorded on audio cassettes over a period of 10 years, and sent as love letters during the time of the Civil War in Lebanon. “When I was a child I invented stories about a father who was a war hero fighting with the Communist Party.”
 
Ahmad Ghossein (b. 1981, Lebanon) is an artist and a filmmaker who works with video, installation, and art in public spaces. He holds an MFA in Visual Art from the National Academy of Art-(KHIO) in Oslo and a BFA in Theater from the Lebanese University in Beirut. His practice looks into the connection between individual experiences and shared historical and political realities.