Philippe Aractingi in 2016

Philippe Aractingi (born 1964, Beirut, Lebanon) is a film director and producer.^[1] He was born in Beirut, Aractingi is Franco-Lebanese.

Early life

At the age of 8, his father gave him his first camera. He lived on the demarcation line, and started capturing scenes through his camera lens that went on to be published in various international news publications.

Around that time, film was not yet a discipline taught in schools. However, Aractingi was not discouraged by this and decided to teach himself. At the age of 20, he filmed his first war documentary, in his hometown, Beirut.

Recognizing his interest in the audiovisual world, he moved to Paris in 1989, where he continued writing, directing and occasionally producing over 40 documentaries and short films in the following years. He shot most of his works in various countries such as Egypt, France, Mongolia, Morocco, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia, among other locations.

Achievements

In the early 1980s and with no available audio-visual programs in a war-ridden country, Aractingi taught himself the art of filmmaking.

Two of his films “Bosta” and “Under the Bombs”^[2] were the only Lebanese entries in the 2006 and 2008 Oscar ceremonies, respectively.

His other releases have been praised and awarded over 40 times at various international festivals, in Venice, Dubai, Thessaloniki, Rotterdam, and at the Sundance Film Festival, among other events in the film industry.

With his passion for the arts and dedication to defending the Lebanese Film Industry, Aractingi is also the co-founder of the Lebanese Cinema Foundation (FLC) and the vice-chairman of the Beirut Screen Institute committee.

In 2018, Aractingi was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Documentaries(1984–2005)

At the age of 25, Aractingi left for Paris, France. He dedicated the following 12 years of his career to directing, producing and co-producing over 40 short-films and documentaries, including “Vol Libre au Liban” in 1991 that won the Best Short Film Award at the Saint-Hilary Film Festival; “Par le Regard des Meres” in 1992 that competed in the “Vision du reel”, Nyons Film Festival and “Beyrouth de Pierre et de Mémoires in 1992 that won the gold medal of the games of La Francophonie. In 1995, he also released “Le Rêve de l’Enfant Acrobat” and it won the Grand Jury Prize at the Beirut Film Festival.

Feature films (2005–present)

Philippe Aractingi alongside former politician Ghassan Tueni (left)

In 2005, Philippe Aractingi released his first feature film “Bosta”. The film was critically acclaimed and broke audience records in Lebanon with more than 140,000 box office admissions. 100% Produced and financed by Lebanese contributors, this playful and realistic musical breaks the traditional depiction of war in films.

“Bosta” also went on to reconcile the Lebanese public with the cinema and opened the door to a new generation of Lebanese films. The film received eight awards including Best Screenplay at the Carthage Film Festival (JCC), the Golden Murex in Beirut in 2006, and the Best First Work Award at the Arab Film Festival in Rotterdam.

In 2006, when another war broke out in Lebanon, Philippe Aractingi was driven to relate the story through the eyes of two fictional characters, filmed at the very heart of the drama. That’s when he filmed “Under the Bombs”, which was later released in 2008. The story accompanies two professional actors throughout the turmoil and they later come face to face with real players who partook in the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli war.

“Under The Bombs” was distributed in 30 countries and was nominated at the Venice, BAFTA, Dubai and at the Sundance Film Festival. It also won 23 awards, including the Best Actress Award and the Golden Muhr at the International Film Festival. The Audience Award at the Dubai Film Festival (DIFF); the Best Music and the Jury's Choice at the Luchon Festival in 2008, the Netpac and Critic's Awards in Antalya in 2007 and the Fipresci Prize at the Bratislava International Film Festival.

Under the Bombs and Bosta were selected to represent Lebanon at the Oscars in 2006 and 2009.

In 2014, Philippe Aractingi went on a limb and decided to write and produce an autobiography, “Heritages”. This autobiography was a revamped documentary with a hint of fiction that helped Aractingi tell his story. It recounted the various exiles that he and his family had to go through over the past 4 generations, summing up to 100 years of history. The film was nominated at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and the FIPA, International Festival of Audio Visual Programs, the film is currently a subject of study in more than 30 schools and universities around the world including Boston University.

In 2017, Aractingi released “Listen”. The film was about a modern-day love story that defied the well-defined social norms. “Listen” is a story of a sound engineer meets and falls in love with a strong and free-spirited girl who suddenly slips away in a coma. It is a story that deals with the emancipation of women in the Middle East nowadays. It is a journey through sound and the importance of hearing.

When it aired for the first time at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), "Listen" moved and shocked audiences. PG 18 in Lebanon, the authorities prohibited its distribution in the rest of the Arab world but the film still went on to win the Best Sound, Best Picture and Best Director awards at the Lebanese Movie Awards (LMA) and represented Lebanon at the Golden Globes in 2017.

Production house

In 1989, Aractingi founded his own production company, Fantascope, which allowed him to direct his feature films in a country where cinema was virtually non-existent.

Fantascope Production has produced to date more than a hundred films broadcast on international TV channels such as the Discovery Channel, France 2, France 3, or Arte. Aractingi also produces many films on commission. Among them are films for the Museum of the American University of Beirut's 150th Anniversary, the Museum of the Central Bank of Lebanon and the in-flight safety regulations instructions for Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) The Museum of Ksara wine in the Bekaa valley.

In 2019, he also directed "Sur les pas du Christ" (“On The Footsteps of Christ”), a film coproduced with the Maronite Foundation. The film retraces the journey of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon. In 2022, he releases "Thawra Soul", a short movie documenting the lebanese revolution, "Thawra", which first began in October 2019.

Photography and videography

From the age of 8, Philippe Aractingi gets behind the camera. When the war broke out, he went out on the streets to capture the scenes. Horrified by what he saw, Aractingi decided to stop taking pictures for quite some time. In 2010, he finally decided to get back behind the camera and develops a series for an exhibit in Paris. The exhibit “Nuit sur Beyrouth” displayed a wide array of shots of Beirut by night. Some of the shots also showed a patchwork of color where the city could be seen, fully lit up on one side but on the other side, it was overcome by darkness due to its infamously frequent power cuts.

His second exhibit “Obsession” took place in Beirut in 2018 and depicted the city’s evolution over time. On one hand, you can clearly see the peaceful care-free days before the war but on the other hand, you can also see how the city was ravaged and disfigured by the war and how today, it’s almost unrecognizable and lies bare for all to see. The exhibition was accompanied by an installation called “Beirut Through Time”. The installation was a setup of three screens showing the city of Beirut from three different perspectives each showing a picture of the same place in different times and stages; life, death and afterlife.

Filmography

Sources

• Fantascope Production: Fantascope
• IMDb: Philippe Aractingi
• AlloCine: Philippe Aractingi

Press releases

• Thawra Soul (2021)
  • Ici Beyrouth: https://icibeyrouth.com/culture/15717 ""Thawra Soul" de Philippe Aractingi: onze minutes et… l’éternité?"
  • Télérama: https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/films/thawra-soul,n6980127.php
• Héritages (2013)
  • L'Orient-Le Jour: « Héritages » de Philippe Aractingi, ou l’histoire en marche
  • Cannes 2013: Philippe Aractingi | Director | Cannes 2013
  • Josyane Boulos, "Mon quotidien dans un chaos organisé": Mon quotidien dans un chaos organisé, Beyrouth.
  • An Nahar: فيلم - ميراث فيليب عرقتنجي: وطن في سيرة
  • Film Review: ‘Heritages’
• Under the Bombs (2008)
  • The Telegraph: Philippe Aractingi: 'I wanted to present war differently'
  • The Daily Telegraph "In a cinematic season of war, with a batch of heavyweight Hollywood films dealing with events in the Middle East, none was made under more treacherous, life-threatening conditions than Under the Bombs." David Gritten (UK / daily)
  • Variety (magazine) "The docu-fiction road movie "Under the Bombs" plays like a cri de coeur. Shot during the fighting, apparently without a script, these improvised scenes score with their emotional authenticity." Alissa Simon
  • Variety (magazine) "Aractingi's pic, partly shot during last year's hostilities, received a lengthy standing ovation following its Lido bow." Ali Jafaar
  • Il Messaggero "Under the bombs has the merit to tell the facts without trading on them and adding something to our perceptive horizon." Francesco Alo’ (Italy / daily)
  • Il Manifesto "Sous les bombes is one of the best film in Venice Days. Maybe the reference could be Germania anno zero (Germany year zero) by Roberto Rossellini. Classifying it as a fiction – or a documentary – is a limit: its substance is in the truth he tells and, at the same time, in the act of destabilizing its representation. An emotional film, without rhetoric." Cristina Piccino (Italy / daily)
  • Il Sole 24 Ore "A bombproof location !" Cristina Battocletti (Italy/daily)
• Bosta (2006)
  • Guardian Unlimited, UK, FEV 2006 "It’s a fast-paced, colourful movie that captures both the beauty and the problems of this country."
  • The Washington Post, USA, MARCH 2006 "It was a breath of fresh air. It did not deal with the war in a blunt way, but indirectly. For once, the healing process that Lebanese society is supposed to go through is the focus."

References

External links

• Philippe Aractingi at IMDb