The Grand Theater

I went to a showing of a documentary tonight, called “The Grand Theater”. It’s a strange film, a 35-minute piece shot single-handedly by Omar Naim as his thesis project. It was never released, but Omar Naim is now a real Hollywood director, so people would like to see it. The film is very meditative, but its topic is the Lebanese civil war during the 1980s. Mr. Naim is Lebanese, and the film was being shown by the MIT Lebanese Club. In a show of hands, about 75% of the audience self-identified as Arab. Mr. Naim was there, and answered questions afterward. It was certainly a learning experience for me, as I have essentially no concept of Lebanese culture. I can’t say much about that culture now, with an additional hour of exposure, but I can say this: it is highly self-conscious. My sample is biased, of course, but this crowd was at least as interested in thinking about Lebanese culture and identity as in partaking in them.