Jean Genet, un captive amoureux

Michèle Collery

September 1982, Jean Genet confronts the massacres in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Chatila in Beirut. Influenced by these events, he writes « Quatre heures à Chatila » after twenty years of literary silence. Soon after that he writes “Un captif amoureux”, an account of souvenirs where he evokes his poetic combats with the Black Panthers and the Palestinian feddayin. A collection of interviews, archival film and photographic footage as well as staged readings the film traces Genet’s poetic and political trajectory since the 70s to his death in 1986.

The film will be followed by a discussion with Michèle Collery and Leila Shahid (tbc)

After she did literature and film studies in France, Michèle Collery spent nearly a decade in Italy where she wrote for different cultural reviews and organised an annual festival in Rome. While in Italy she worked for RAI, bringing together innovative film directors for various audiovisual projects. During the 1990s she traveled to Qatar to produce and direct two television programs for the Qatar Broadcasting Services. She has also directed various documentaries for Canal + and Arte. Since her return to Paris, Collery has been involved with documentary film projects around Arab and Magreb music and cinema.

Born in exile in Lebanon of Palestinian parents, Leila Shahid studied Anthropology at the American University in Beirut and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She was General Delegate of Palestine at the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg from December 2005 till 2016.

This event is part of Processions of the Sun, a program curated by Eye on Palestine.