Ali Cherri Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Ali Cherri
Directing
Biography
Ali Cherri (b. Beirut, Lebanon) is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Paris. He received a Bachelor of Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut and a Master of Performing Arts from DasArts – Academy of Theatre and Dance, Amsterdam. Cherri is the recipient of Harvard University’s Robert E. Fulton Fellowship (2016). His work has featured in prominent exhibitions including If you prick us do we not bleed? at The National Gallery, London, The Milk of Dreams The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale Venice, Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, 13th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2020); The Gatekeepers at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille – Manifesta 13, France (2020); Comme un parfum d’aventure at the Musée d’art Contemporain de Lyon, France (2020); Phantom Limb at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE (2019); But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and at Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan (2018); Statues Also Die at Museo Egizio, Milan (2018); and Somniculus at Jeu de Paume, Paris and CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux (2017). His films have been shown in International Film Festivals including New Directors/New Films MoMA NY; Cinéma du Réel, Centre Pompidou; CPH:DOX (winner of NewVision Award); Dubai International Film Festival (winner Best Director); VideoBrasil (Southern Panorama Award); Berlinale; Toronto International Film Festival & San Francisco International Film Festival amongst other.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Room 999
In 1982, Wim Wenders asked 16 of his fellow directors to speak on the future of cinema, resulting in the film Room 666. Now, 40 years later, in Cannes, director Lubna Playoust asks Wim Wenders himself and a new generation of filmmakers (James Gray, Rebecca Zlotowski, Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, Nadav Lapid, Asghar Farhadi, Alice Rohrwacher and more) the same question: “is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?”
Ashes
Nabil returns to Beirut with the ashes of his father who died abroad. He tries to overcome his bereavement while his family insists on respecting rites and customs by burying a non-existent corpse.
The Blue Star
It all happened on a dark night. The Man was tired of being a stranger, tired of being insulted by others simply because he speaks Arabic to a wife who speaks French with their beloved mixed race son. He looked at the sky and shouted. But that night, far in the cosmos, a voice answered.
Production
The Dam
Merowe Dam in North Sudan. Maher works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile. Every evening, he secretly wanders off into the desert to erect a mysterious construction made of mud. Despite a disturbing wound in his lower back that seems to be eating away at his skin, he continues his labor day after day. While the Sudanese people rise to claim their freedom, his mud creation starts slowly to take a life of its own.
Gazing at the Catastrophe
In Gazing at the Catastrophe, Ali Cherri reflects on how suffering has become increasingly integrated into his daily life. Witnessing of atrocities, Cherri argues, seems to be an inevitable condition of modernity. The knowledge of war gained by those who have not experienced it firsthand is informed exclusively by mediated images found on the internet or in the media.
The Disquiet
Earth-shattering events are relatively par for the course in Lebanon, with war, political upheaval and a number of social revolts. While the Lebanese focus on surface level events that could rock the nation, few realize that below the ground we walk on, an actual shattering of the earth is mounting. Lebanon stands on several major fault lines, which are cracks in the earth's crust. The film investigates the geological situation in Lebanon, trying to look for the traces of the imminent disaster.
The Disquiet
Earth-shattering events are relatively par for the course in Lebanon, with war, political upheaval and a number of social revolts. While the Lebanese focus on surface level events that could rock the nation, few realize that below the ground we walk on, an actual shattering of the earth is mounting. Lebanon stands on several major fault lines, which are cracks in the earth's crust. The film investigates the geological situation in Lebanon, trying to look for the traces of the imminent disaster.
The Dam
Merowe Dam in North Sudan. Maher works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile. Every evening, he secretly wanders off into the desert to erect a mysterious construction made of mud. Despite a disturbing wound in his lower back that seems to be eating away at his skin, he continues his labor day after day. While the Sudanese people rise to claim their freedom, his mud creation starts slowly to take a life of its own.
The Watchman
Halil spends his nights in a watchtower waiting for an enemy that doesn’t arrive, until suddenly strange lights appear on the horizon. Ali Cherri creates a universe in which a suspended and void time opens the door to ghostly presences from a past made of war. Shot with an extreme and detailed precision of vision and sound, The Watchman is an urgent film that deconstructs the myth of duty, laying bare the absurdity of the omnipresent war rhetoric.
The Watchman
Halil spends his nights in a watchtower waiting for an enemy that doesn’t arrive, until suddenly strange lights appear on the horizon. Ali Cherri creates a universe in which a suspended and void time opens the door to ghostly presences from a past made of war. Shot with an extreme and detailed precision of vision and sound, The Watchman is an urgent film that deconstructs the myth of duty, laying bare the absurdity of the omnipresent war rhetoric.
The Digger
In the Sharjah desert, Sultan Zeib Khan makes the rounds of the ruins of a Neolithic necropolis where the foundations of the nation are kept. Amid the tombs, the vastness of the desert is palpable. Time plays no role in the ritual that Zeib Khan has performed daily for the past 20 years.
Of Men and Gods and Mud
Ali Cherri’s Of Men and Gods and Mud follows a group of brickmakers as they produce building materials from mud at a factory in northern Sudan. The factory is located near the massive Merowe Dam, which is one of the largest hydroelectric projects in Africa. Although it brought much-needed electricity to the region, its construction devastated ecosystems and displaced more than 50,000 people, leading to civil unrest. Cherri’s video is narrated with excerpts from his Book of Mud, read in English and Arabic.
Pipe Dreams
Between dreamscapes and reality, this video is a journey in three chapters, on the backdrop of the uprising in the Arab world. A Rise, a Decline, and a Fall that would create a tabula rasa and a new start. "Sometimes dreams have to hurt before they become a reality"