Lebanon Reopens National Film Archive Amid Ongoing Conflict

Lebanon has officially reopened the Cinematheque Libanaise, a national archive dedicated to preserving the country's rich cinematic history, despite enduring nearly three years of ongoing hostilities. The reopening ceremony took place at the National Library in Beirut and was attended by Lebanese Minister of Culture Ghassan Salame. Alongside the archive's revival, an exhibition featuring a collection of Lebanese film archives was opened to the public. Originally founded in 1999 by former Minister Mohammed Youssef Baydoun following UNESCO's designation of Beirut as the Arab Cultural Capital, the Cinematheque had been shut down for nearly a decade due to bureaucracy and corruption. This initiative aims to safeguard Lebanon's audiovisual heritage, which includes significant contributions from the industry's peak in the 1950s and 1960s with icons like Fairuz and Sabah. Previous attempts to preserve this history, such as Maurice Akl's collection, were destroyed during the civil war. Since the archive's closure, independent entities like Metropolis Cinema Association have worked to maintain film heritage. The reopening represents a crucial cultural effort to protect Lebanon's cinematic memory against the backdrop of current regional instability and past destruction.