Description

I am so pleased to be joined by groundbreaking filmmaker Mira Shaib, director of Arzé, a brilliant first feature comedy-drama about the relationship of a family in Lebanon. (In North America, it should be released early next year.)

Mira Shaib is an alumnus of prestigious film development labs and residencies, including Robert Bosch Stiftung, where she attended the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, Film Independent's Global Media Makers LA Residency, the Red Sea Lodge, and the Torino Film Lab. Her first feature film was among the first recipients of the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation Production Fund. Mira is the cofounder of Cinema For All, an arts initiative with a mission to make cinema accessible in rural Lebanon. The initiative was launched in 2019 in Ain Ebel with film-making workshops and outdoor screenings of Sophie Boutros' Mahbas and Cyril Aris's documentary feature The Swing.

In this episode, we talk about:

• how she got started and the amazing sense of place for this film -- did she ever feel pressure to downplay the Lebanese aspect?
• what they should expect to see when they watch the film;
• how she made a first feature without writing the script and the importance of making it as team with the writers;
• what it's like being a female director with a Lebanese film and the inspiration of other female directors like Nadine Labaki being nominated for the Oscars;
• the strength of her female characters in the film;
• the importance of the sense of place in Arzé and how she showed the colors of Lebanon;
• how she wouldn't feel comfortable making a film in a place she didn't know intimately;
• her thoughts on production grants, Arab film, and the Red Sea Film Festival;
• what the process was like for Arzé to be Lebanon's selection to the Oscars;
• how she feels about where she lives -- Montreal -- and its role in independent film;
• and what her next film will be -- "set in Lebanon...about sisters fighting over a house"

Mira's Indie Film Highlight: TO A LAND UNKNOWN (2024) dir. by Mahdi Fleifel

Links:

Follow Mira On Instagram

Follow Arzé On Instagram

Arzé On Letterboxd

Arzé On Wikipedia