Unfiltered // July 2024
Surrendering to and escaping from the summer in Beirut
Unfiltered is a quick study of the latest video I’m working on. It’s a behind-the-scenes of my work-in-progress. Inspirations, the idea I’m trying to capture, maybe even the rough script I’m playing with. It’s the process.
Ever since publishing “I forgot about love” on Instagram, I forgot about filming altogether. In my defense, I’ve been preoccupied with some unconfirmed summer work things: a couple wine bars with event ideas, one commissioned piece about Beirut’s doudou shot, my videos being part of a fundraiser for the South at Beirut Art Center, and some Aanab essays that I’m taking too long to synergize.
Oh, and I’M A FINALIST FOR THE 67 PALL MALL GLOBAL WINE COMMUNICATOR AWARDS! I’ve been going back and forth on whether to spend the money to attend the awards ceremony in London in September. I was unaware how bad summer rates to England have become. Thanks MEA1.
With all that up in the air, I should be GO! GO! GO! but instead I’m this:
I want to blame the heat, the humidity, the fact that I’m sweating faster than I can drink to replenish. I want to say it’s witnessing the horror stories from Gaza that make it hard to harness my concentration afterward. As long as my output is fully dependent on hiding out in an air-conditioned space during an ongoing genocide, that output is going to dip. This is not a productive season and that’s that. I have to surrender to it.
There is a subject I’ve been wanting to look into and it could be interesting to do so through video. If I turn it into a project, I’ll be granting myself permission to go off the deep end in investigating it. I’ve always been curious about…