User:HADY ZACCAK

Hady Zaccak

Biography Born on the 22nd of March 1974 in Beirut, Hady Zaccak studied at IESAV film school (Institut d’Etudes Scéniques, Audiovisuelles et Cinématographiques/ Saint-Joseph University/Beirut). He has a diploma in audiovisual studies (1997) and a Masters in cinema studies/ option film directing (2001). He took part in workshops for film directing, editing and production at FEMIS (Paris-1996), INSAS (Brussels-1999) and HFF Konrad Wolf (Potsdam-2007). Since 1997, he wrote and directed more than 20 documentaries, which have been broadcasted on several TV stations in Lebanon, the Arab world and Europe and presented/ awarded in several film festivals worldwide. Four of his films "a History Lesson", "Marcedes", “Kamal Joumblatt, witness and martyr” and “Ya Omri” (“104 wrinkles”) had also a theatrical release in Beirut.

HZ uses documentary to revive History, record the present, preserve the memory and film the metamorphosis and stagnations. After having written a book in French about the global history of Lebanese Cinema:“Le cinéma libanais: itinéraire d’un cinéma vers l’inconnu (1929-1996)”(Dar-el-Machreq -1997-Beirut), he continued exploring the history of cinema in Lebanon with two documentaries "Lebanon through cinema" and "Cinema of war in Lebanon" (2003). Through the years, he filmed the constant metamorphosis of Beirut ("Beirut…Points of view" (2000) and "Taxi Beirut" (2011)) while also discovering other Arab capitals ("Sindbad in Bagdad" (2003) and "Taxi Sana'a" (2012)). He investigated for the TV the place of religion and religious groups in the Middle East from Lebanon to Egypt and Iran ("The Neo Missionaries" (2004)- "The Copts" (2004)- "The Shiites" (2005)). He studied the Palestinian cause with "1000 and 1000 Nights" (1999) and "Refugees for life" (2006) then documented the 2006 war in Lebanon and its social and environmental repercussions with 4 films: "The War of Peace" (2007)- "The Oil Spill in Lebanon" (2007)-"Shi'a Echoes from Lebanon" (2007) and "Sunni Echoes from Lebanon" (2008). This also led him to explore the question of writing the Lebanese History with the following films: "a History Lesson" (2009), "Marcedes" (2011), “Honeymoon 58” (2013), “Kamal Joumblatt, witness and martyr” (2015) and “Ya Omri” (“104 Wrinkles”) (2017). He received the following awards: “Ya Omri” (“104 wrinkles”): Jury Award Malmo Arab Film Festival, Sweden, 2017- Special Mention of the Jury Asiatica Film Festival, Italy, 2017- Best Cinematography Lebanese Movie Awards, 2018- Silver Award at Festival International du Film Oriental de Geneve, Switzerland, 2018- Award of Merit -Docs Without Borders Film Festival, USA 2017 “Kamal Joumblatt, witness and martyr”: Francophone trophy for the best documentary 2016/ Best Director/Music and Editing-Lebanese Movie Awards 2016/ special mention-Ismailia International Film Festival 2016. "Marcedes": Best Arab Documentary awarded by FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics)-Dubai International Film Festival 2011/ AlJazeera Documentary Channel Award for Best Long Film-AlJazeera International Documentary Festival-Doha 2012/ 2nd Best Documentary Prize-2nd International Meeting for Arab Cinema-Nabeul,Tunisia 2012/Discover Our World Award -7th Monaco Charity Film Festival, Monaco 2012/ The Originality Award-Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival, Assilah, Morocco 2015. "a History Lesson": Golden Hawk (1st prize) at the Arab Film Festival-Rotterdam 2010. -"The Oil Spill in Lebanon": 1st prize- European and Med Festival on Sea TV, Italy 2007 -"1000 and 1000 Nights":1st prize-Docudays-Beirut 1999.

In addition to his work as a filmmaker, Zaccak is a professor at IESAV-Saint Joseph University, Beirut since 1998. He gives courses on researching, writing and directing films, history of cinema and Film Genres. He also gives workshops on documentary and cinema culture in several parts of the Arab world (Lebanon-Jordan-Oman-Egypt) and Africa (Benin, Senegal). Hady Zaccak is the founder of ZAC films.

Selective Filmography -104 wrinkles / Ya Omri (2017-82 minutes) -Kamal Joumblatt, witness and martyr (2015-96 minutes) -Honeymoon 58 (2013-15 min.) -Taxi Sana'a (2012-52 min.) -Marcedes (2011-68 min.) -Taxi Beirut (2011-51 min.) -A History lesson (2009-51 min.) -Sunni echoes from Lebanon (2008-52 min.) -Shi’a echoes from Lebanon (2007-52 min.) -The War of peace, voices from Lebanon (2007-53 min.) -The Oil spill in Lebanon (2007-34 min.) -Refugees for life (2006-48 min.) -Tewfic Salih (2006-27 min.) -The Shiites (2005-52 min.) -The Copts (2004-53 min.) -The Neo-Missionaries (2004-52 min.) -Cinema of war in Lebanon (2003-33 min.) -Sindbad in Baghdad (2003-27 min.) -Lebanon through cinema (2003-15 min.) -Beirut…Points of view (2000-32 min.) -1000 and 1000 Nights (1999-15 min.)

Bibliography -“Le cinéma libanais, itinéraire d’un cinéma vers l’inconnu”(1929-1996),Dar el Machreq, Beirut, 1997. A book on the history of Lebanese cinema written in French. -"Images & Ethique" –édition l'Harmattan, Paris, 2010 A collective book on the images and ethics written in French. -Articles on cinema published in “An Nahar”, “Regards”, “Bidayat”, “Al Film”, “Travaux et jours”.