MORE INFO HERE ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/461816800636705/
VENUE: GOLDSMITHS UNIVERSITY, NEW CROSS
Small Cinema, Main Building
50 mins. + Q and A with the director Rozy Sarkis, Co -Producer Gillian McIver and editor Jonathan Stirling
Director Rozy Sarkis was inspired by the bizarre world she witnessed around her while growing up in a wealthy village in war-torn Lebanon. She worked on award-winning feature film Tangled Up in Blue’ by Haider Rashid and documentary short The Newspaper House by Sumer Erek featured on The Guardian. Rozy has traveled across the globe with an anthropological interest in different cultures. Image Matters is her first feature.
Co-Producer Gillian Mciver GILLIAN MCIVER began making underground films while studying History at university, starting by simply by picking up a camera and shooting. She has been producer of TV documentaries in Russia and a series of films, including “Postindustrial Baroque” (2009) exploring abandoned urban spaces. Her most recent film is “Taking Over The King’s Land” (2014), about an artist’s project to cover a condemned East London estate with murals.
Editor Jonathan Stirling has worked on tons of factual stuff, from the World Cup to the news, right though to Miley Cyrus’s last tour and Educating the East End. Jon brings his wealth of knowledge about popular culture to editing IMAGE MATTERS.
ABOUT THE FILM
In the midst of war, a group of women indulge in a shopping spree, in the midst of crises, they are busy getting their hair done. And in between all of this, they always make time for a visit to the plastic surgeon. Rozy Sarkis’s documentary Image Matters explores the country’s culture of cosmetic surgery.
With the spotlight on Marinelle, a popular Lebanese soap-opera actress, Image Matters follows her insatiable desire to regain the lost beauty of youth. As she struggles with the dangers of the operation and the complications that ensue, the background features a hub of female family members, each riddled with their own anxieties about their appearance. This family drama plays out against a broader backdrop of considerable social upheaval and instability.
“The two women talking about shopping in the midst of war—there are so many layers of contemporary culture captured in IMAGE MATTERS simultaneously, such as a distracting investment in the surface, a solution to anxiety…” Virginia Blum, Author of ‘Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery’
New Reel Films 