In 1962, Oscar Niemeyer was invited to conceive an international fairground in the city of Tripoli, Lebanon, which was never completed. The documentary كیف لا نغرق في السراب / To Remain in the No Longer (CCA, 2023, 38min) directed by Joyce Joumaa, 2021–2022 Emerging Curator, looks at how architecture operates in this failed state. By examining the precarity of the project site that remains to this day, the film reflects on the country’s current socio-economic crisis. Employing archival materials, interviews, and 16mm and digital film, the experimental documentary explores the political and cultural forces that have come to bear on the site—from its halted construction to its imposed abandonment and attempted reappropriations. 

To Remain in the No Longer celebrates its World Premiere on 7 May at the 18th edition of the international documentary film festival Écrans du réel in Beirut. A Q&A with film director, Joyce Joumaa, will follow the screening. An additional regional screening of the documentary as part of Écrans du reel is scheduled for 10 May in Tripoli.

Sunday 7 May, at 6pm, Galaxy Grand Cinemas (Beirut, Blvd. Camille Chamoun)

Wednesday 10 May, at 5pm, Al Rabita Al Sakafia, Tripoli

Purchase tickets here