Chantal Partamian

Chantal Partamian was born in July 1984 in Beirut, Lebanon. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in «Arts du Spectacle-Cinema » at Université Lumière in Lyon, France. She has directed a few short films and documentaries, which have been shown at different projections and events in France.   Most of her work is done with digital video, super 8 mm and 16mm. She is the co-founder of Amorce (amorce.blogspot.com) which is an organization that reveals to young filmmakers the specificities of super8mm and celluloid and helps them produce their short films. More information can be found on spookyprods.blogspot.com

"Lettre a N"

My short film is a letter, filmed in July-August 2006. During my stay in Lebanon, I had an urge to capture what was happening on film. Not digital film but a piece of super8mm film since I have an immense attachment to the esthetics of this support.

Later on, after my return to France, I was told about an event in Paris where they wanted films from Lebanese who managed to capture moments of the war. I decided to record pieces of many emails I had sent to a friend as a voice over on the images of war that I had previously shot and so the film was made.

I was reluctant to have such an intimate portrait be shown at first, and thought many times of changing things, but now I only say "this was my point of view during the events and this is how it should be kept".

So this is all I have to say as a statement because I think the film says most of what I needed to let out during the war.