2021, 82′, directed by David Henry Gerson.
Sunday 19 February 2023 at 20:00 Beirut / 19:00 CET
Online screening (Zoom Platform)
Followed by a discussion in English with
David Henry Gerson, film director.
Online event
Film
THE STORY WON’T DIE, from Award-winning filmmaker David Henry Gerson, is an inspiring, timely look at a young generation of Syrian artists who use their work to protest and process the world’s largest displacement of people since World War II. The film is produced by Sundance Award-winner Odessa Rae (Navalny).
Rapper Abu Hajar, together with other celebrated creative personalities of the Syrian uprising, a Post-Rock musician (Anas Maghrebi), members of the first all female Syrian rock band (Bahila Hijazi and Lynn Mayya), a breakdancer (Bboy Shadow) and choreographer (Medhat Aldaabal), and visual artists (Tammam Azzam, Omar Imam and Diala Brisly), use their art to rise in revolution and endure in exile in this new documentary reflecting on a battle for peace, justice and freedom of expression. It is an uplifting and humanizing look at what it means to be a refugee in today’s world, and offers inspiring and hopeful vantages of a creative response to the chaos of war.
Film Director
DAVID HENRY GERSON is a filmmaker whose work has won prizes from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Sundance Film Festival, and has been acquired into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NY. He is a graduate of Columbia University and the American Film Institute, where he was the recipient of the AFI Richard P. Rodgers Award for Creative Excellence. His film, ALL THESE VOICES, tells the story of a young Nazi soldier encountering an avant-garde theater-troupe of survivors celebrating the end of WWII. It won the Student Academy Award®.
David’s spec screenplay, ABOVE KINGS, was nominated to the Tracking Board Hit List and was a semifinalist for the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship. His short film, AMERICAN STANDARD (“Dynamite!” – Abel Ferrara, “Truly excellent” – John Patrick Shanley), about a US Veteran returning home to his undocumented immigrant girlfriend aired on the American Forces Network at every US military base around the world. His film ULTRA VIOLET FOR SIXTEEN MINUTES (“Totally engaging” – Al Maysles), a documentary about the late Ultra Violet – Salvador Dali’s Mistress, Andy Warhol’s muse, and a born-again Mormon – screened at over a dozen festivals worldwide, the Pompidou Museum in Paris, and was acquired into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NY.
As an actor, David has worked in Film, TV, and on Stage with Doug Liman, David Mamet, James Lapine, and opposite Al Pacino. He trained at the British American Drama Academy in London, as well as in the Method and Meisner techniques in NY and LA. He produced and starred in Matthew Lessner’s feature AUTOMATIC AT SEA and short film CHAPEL PERILOUS, which was a Vimeo Staff Pick and won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Beirut Art Film Festival 