Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige
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| Born | 1969 (age 55–56) |
| Awards | 2017 Marcel Duchamp Prize |
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are talented Lebanese filmmakers and artists. They create many different types of art, including movies, documentaries, video art, photos, sculptures, and even special talks.
Contents
About Their Lives
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige were both born in Beirut in 1969. Their families were refugees, meaning they had to leave their homes. Some of their family members were Greek, Syrian, and Lebanese, while others were Palestinian and Lebanese. They grew up in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, a difficult time.
They both studied literature at the Paris Nanterre University and learned about filmmaking in New York. Joana and Khalil are married and have worked together since the early 1990s.
They are known for doing deep research for their projects. They often explore hidden or forgotten things, like a space project from the 1960s, strange internet scams, or the ancient layers found deep under cities. Sometimes, their art is inspired by real events in their lives, such as the disappearance of Khalil's uncle or Joana's family history, which she explored in the documentary ISMYRNA.
How They Work
Hadjithomas and Joreige connect their photos, videos, and films through ideas and themes. Their film projects often lead to new art pieces, and their art can inspire their films. They sometimes spend many years on one project and even look back at their older works.
Research is very important to them. They even prefer to call themselves "chercheurs," which means 'those who are looking for something' or 'researchers.' They get ideas from old family papers and found documents. They also work with writers, philosophers, historians, and archaeologists. They believe that meeting and exchanging ideas with others is very important for their art.
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige also teach at universities in Lebanon and Europe. They have written many books and given performances. They helped start Abbout Productions, a film company, and are involved with Metropolis Art Cinema and the Cinemathèque in Beirut.
Their Films
Besides being artists, Hadjithomas and Joreige are also movie directors. They have made many documentaries, like Khiam 2000 – 2007 (2008) and The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Race (2013). This rocket society film won several awards, including Best Documentary at the Doha Tribeca Festival. Another documentary is ISMYRNA (2016).
They have also directed feature films, which are fictional stories. These include Around the Pink House (1999), A Perfect Day (2005), which won the Fipresci Press Prize, and Je Veux Voir (I Want to See) (2008). Je Veux Voir starred famous actress Catherine Deneuve and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Their most recent feature film, Memory Box (2021), is based on Joana's own notes and tapes from when she was a teenager in Beirut during the civil war. This film was shown at the Berlinale film festival.
In their fictional films, they often use styles from documentaries, and vice versa. This makes the line between what is real and what is made-up less clear.
Their films have been shown in special collections at famous places like Tate Modern in London, Cinematek in Brussels, and the MoMA in New York.
Their Art Projects
In 2017, Hadjithomas and Joreige won the important Marcel Duchamp Prize for their art project called Unconformities. For this project, they collected core samples, which are like long tubes of earth, from deep under the cities of Athens, Paris, and Beirut. This art piece makes people think about how humans are changing the Earth.
Since 1999, the artists have collected over four thousand fake emails, which are digital scams trying to trick people into sending money. In their art project SCAMS (2014), they explored these modern scams and their history. As part of this, they created a sound and video artwork called The Rumor of the World. For this, 38 amateur actors read and acted out these scam emails.
In 2016, they showed artworks like I stared at Beauty So Much. This series of videos and photos asked: how can poetry help us deal with the chaos in the world today? It looked at where made-up stories and real life meet. In 2017, they started developing Unconformities, which explores the hidden geological and archaeological layers beneath cities.
Under The Cold River Bed (2020) is their latest art installation from the Unconformities project. It tells the story of the "Nahr el Bared" refugee camp in Beirut. This camp was destroyed in 2007, leaving many people without homes. During the rebuilding, amazing archaeological discoveries were made, some dating back to the Neolithic period (Stone Age) and the Roman city of Orthosia. Because people needed homes quickly, a decision was made to cover the ancient discoveries with a special fabric and concrete to protect them, like sealing them in a sarcophagus. The artists' sculpture shows this thin layer between the past and the future.
From 2016 to 2017, Hadjithomas and Joreige had a big traveling art show called 'Two Suns in a Sunset'. It was shown at famous museums like the Jeu de paume in Paris and the Haus der Kunst in Munich.
Their artworks are part of major art collections around the world, including the British Museum in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. They often show their work in solo and group exhibitions and have participated in many big art events called biennials, like those in Venice and Istanbul.
Awards and Prizes
2017
- The Marcel Duchamp Prize: Won
2012
- Best Documentary Award for The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Race, Doha Tribeca Festival, Qatar.
- Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2008
- Best Singular Film for Je veux voir, French Critics Guild, Paris, France.
- Non-fiction and Documentary Award for Je veux voir, Gijón International Film Festival, Spain.
2005
- Fipresci Prize and Don Quixote Award for A Perfect Day, Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland.
- Bayard d'Or for Best Actor and Special Jury Mention for A Perfect Day, Namur Francophone International Film Festival, Belgium.
2000
- Best Film Award for Around the Pink House, Beirut International Film Festival, Lebanon.
Filmography
- 2021: Memory Box, Fiction, 95 min
- 2016: ISMYRNA, in conversation with Etel Adnan,' Documentary, 53 min
- 2013: The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Race, Documentary, 93 min
- 2008: Khiam 2000–2007, Documentary, 103 min
- 2008: Je veux voir (I want to see), Fiction, 75 min
- 2006: Open the Door, Please, Fiction, 11 min
- 2005: A Perfect Day (Yawmon Akhar), Fiction, 88 min
- 2003: Ashes (Ramad), Fiction, 26 min
- 2003: The Lost Film (Al Film Al Mafkoud), Documentary, 42 min
- 2001: Barmeh (Rounds), Fiction, 8 min
- 2000: Khiam, Documentary, 52 min
- 1999: Around the Pink House (Al Bayt Al Zaher), Fiction, 92 min
