Thursday 29 March 2007
By Pierre Hébert,
Thursday 29 March 2007 at 13:30 :: Blog
A totally unexpected news this morning: yesterday, Bob spent the entire day in the passport office and finally got a passport.
By Pierre Hébert,
Thursday 29 March 2007 at 09:45 :: Blog
Yesterday, the practical exercises with the students went better, in a more focused way. It seems now realistic that we will get everything done by the Friday and that I will be able to edit and composite all of the segments so that we can screen this little film I was hoping for sometimes Monday or Tuesday.
Tuesday 27 March 2007
By Pierre Hébert,
Tuesday 27 March 2007 at 10:00 :: Blog
Follow up to Bob’s saga with his passport. Yesterday, I had a meeting with Sharif and we quickly reached an agreement that we would forget about the small symbolic fee that was there for us and that they would put up all the money needed for Bob to come. We sent a e-mail right away telling Bob to proceed. Which he did but just to find out that the American passport system is totally clogged, nothing is workings and the fast track services even less.
Monday 26 March 2007
By Pierre Hébert,
Monday 26 March 2007 at 21:30 :: Blog
I should now briefly give a summary of were thing stands at this time concerning the rationale of our/my presence here in Lebanon to present this piece about last summer war.
By Pierre Hébert,
Monday 26 March 2007 at 09:00 :: Blog
Difficult situation. I got an URGENT mail from Bob last night. He was packing up to take off to the airport and could not find his passport. Then he remembered sending it to the government passport office to get new pages added in…and it never came back. So he could not get on the plane, had to cancel the ticket (not being reimbursed, just getting a credit on British airway for a year) having to spend money to get a quick passport, buy a new much more expensive plane ticket with a crazy itinerary, etc.
Sunday 25 March 2007
By Pierre Hébert,
Sunday 25 March 2007 at 08:30 :: Blog
One of the troubling questions of the last months that Bob and I have been discussing is: What the hell are we coming in Lebanon for? What is the point of coming to Beirut to show to the Lebaneses the bombing of their cities and the corpse of their death children, things they have been experiencing in real life? Are we here just to create a hot profile to the piece and make it easier to sell to promoters. Those are both surprising and unsurprising questions.
Saturday 24 March 2007
By Pierre Hébert,
Saturday 24 March 2007 at 18:30 :: Blog
This is the first entry in my brand new blog, which actually is not even on line yet. But I arrived in Beirut this afternoon and this seems to be the right moment to start writing. This trip is quite unlike any of the many other travel I do. Eight months ago there was war here, the whole country was being bombed by Israeli airplanes. The west end of the country was yet again being invaded. Whole neighborhoods of Beirut were brought down to rubble. Bob (Bob Ostertag, composer and musician, my long time collaborator) and I decided that the piece we were currently working on, that we later entitled Special Forces, somehow had to assess this outrageous situation.
