Distilled from hours of long-distance conversations between Elisabeth in the U.S. and Manal in Lebanon over the past year, the experimental documentary intimately considers the role of the actor during the unfolding global conflict.
Filmed in Beirut on September 22, 2024 just hours before escalated bombing throughout the country, MANAL ISSA, 2024 presents a haunting interiview the acclaimed Lebanese French actress Manal Issa. Distilled from hours of long-distance conversations between Elisabeth in the U.S. and Manal in Lebanon over the past year, the film intimately considers the role of the actor during the unfolding global conflict in the Middle East. Refusing to be seen on camera, Issa reflects on questions once posed to the late French actress Maria Schneider (best known for her traumatic experience on the set of the 1972 film "Last Tango In Paris”), who was a prescient critic of sexism in the film industry. In "Manal Issa, 2024," an apparitional Issa takes the critique much further.
Elisabeth Subrin is a critically acclaimed filmmaker and visual artist. Her 2022 film "Maria Schneider, 1983" premiered at Cannes and won a 2023 César (French Academy Award). Her first feature narrative, "A Woman, A Part," (Maggie Siff, Cara Seymour and John Ortiz) had its world premiere at Rotterdam in the Tiger Awards Competition and US premiere at BAMcinemaFest. It was theatrically released in 2017. Her award-winning short films, video art and installations have screened and exhibited widely internationally, including solo shows at The Museum of Modern Art, The Vienna International Film Festival, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Harvard Film Archives, The San Francisco Cinematheque, The Jewish Museum, NY and Film Society of Lincoln Center. Other screenings and exhibitions include The Whitney Biennial, The Guggenheim Museum, The Walker Art Center, The New York Film Festival (2022, 2006, 1998), The European Media Arts Festival, VOLTA/NY and the Rotterdam International Film Festival (1998, 2001, 2016). In 2012, her film Shulie was included in the British Film Institute’s Sigh & Sound once-a- decade international critics’ poll for “The Greatest Films of All Times.” Subrin attended The Sundance Institute’s Feature Filmmaker and Screenwriter Labs with her first screenplay, Up. She’s received fellowships from The Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Creative Capital, Annenberg and Westernberger Foundations. Her work has been written about extensively in The New York Times, Artforum, The Village Voice, Frieze, BOMB and The New Yorker, among other publications. She’s a Professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University and lives in Brooklyn.
