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Chantal Partamian

Chantal Partamian

History

Native to Beirut, to a Lebanese-Armenian family, I currently live and work in Quebec. Across my work, celluloid, memory, obsolescence and political imaginaries merge to reflect on erasure, denial, repetition and blur. I explore themes of justice, migration, identity, gender and conflict through the combination of a variety of practices. My work includes Chere N. Audience and Jury award winner at the Dresdner Schmalfimtage 2007. Tekrar, presented at Les Instants Vidéo, Marseilles. Epistemic Space, in collaboration with the Armenian-Turkish cinema platform of the Yerevan Golden Apricot International Film Festival. Houbout a poetic essay, that very briefly explores fragments of a long distance relationship, Sandjak an exercise in the dismantlement of the Sandjak refugee camp space in Beirut. The haunting of the present by absences. The fragmentation of history and memory. I am Currently in the development phase of my next film "Odar" which also deals with fragmentation through the material condition of celluloid, a project funded by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec and the Canada council for the arts. I have also collaborated on many different length projects as Director of photography and/or Senior Editor and have worked as a producer, a trainer in Guerrilla film making, social media and film as well as film critique. In April 2020, I started an online project of obsolete collections and temporal assemblages in an instagram profile and blog inspired by vinegar (@Katsakh) syndrome, the chemical degradation that occurs with cellulous acetate film.

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Chantal Partamian

Movies

Director

When the Beirut explosion occurred, my first thought was that of relief that my grandmother had passed a year and some before. The best hours to sit outside among her plants and flowers were those of sunsets. How does one mourn when they are grateful for the occurrence of some deaths as salvation? How does one mourn when in separation, we spare the ones we love the end of their world?

Director

Navigating three types of images, shot in three different periods, the film explores the poetics of haunting through compositions of images that create an entanglement between the past and the present. An intimate but detached voice, a little stoic even, speaking of countless losses. The repeated affirmation of belonging to a place that is no longer.

Director

Set to the black and white footage of a journey, Chantal Partamian's "Landing "is a short poem about lovers in transit. With longing and patience in equal measure, the film shows fragments of a long-distance relationship, and what it’s like to be queer and exist between states.

Katsakh: The Eternal Flame

Katsakh: The Eternal Flame

Director

A capsule from Chantal Partamian’s "Katsakh" project, experiments on and with film originally published on Instagram. “Katsakh” means vinegar in Armenian, in reference to the vinegar syndrome, “the chemical degradation that occurs with cellulous acetate film”.

Katsakh: Quantum Superposition and States

Katsakh: Quantum Superposition and States

Director

A capsule from Chantal Partamian’s "Katsakh" project, experiments on and with film originally published on Instagram. “Katsakh” means vinegar in Armenian, in reference to the vinegar syndrome, “the chemical degradation that occurs with cellulous acetate film”.

Katsakh: 1km to Palestine

Katsakh: 1km to Palestine

Director

A capsule from Chantal Partamian’s "Katsakh" project, experiments on and with film originally published on Instagram. “Katsakh” means vinegar in Armenian, in reference to the vinegar syndrome, “the chemical degradation that occurs with cellulous acetate film”.

Katsakh: Obsolete Frames

Katsakh: Obsolete Frames

Director

A capsule from Chantal Partamian’s "Katsakh" project, experiments on and with film originally published on Instagram. “Katsakh” means vinegar in Armenian, in reference to the vinegar syndrome, “the chemical degradation that occurs with cellulous acetate film”.

Katsakh: On the Day I Left

Katsakh: On the Day I Left

Director

A capsule from Chantal Partamian’s "Katsakh" project, experiments on and with film originally published on Instagram. “Katsakh” means vinegar in Armenian, in reference to the vinegar syndrome, “the chemical degradation that occurs with cellulous acetate film”.

Katsakh: The People Want the Fall of the Regime

Katsakh: The People Want the Fall of the Regime

Director

A capsule from Chantal Partamian’s "Katsakh" project, experiments on and with film originally published on Instagram. “Katsakh” means vinegar in Armenian, in reference to the vinegar syndrome, “the chemical degradation that occurs with cellulous acetate film”.

Assistant Director

Still Burning tells the unexpected reunion in Paris in June 1998 of André, a Lebanese filmmaker living and working in France, and Walid, the very close friend he has not seen for years. In their youth, in Beirut, during the civil war, they were both possessed by the same artistic vocation: Cinema, but also by the same woman: Amira. Their reunion, all night long, will not fail to awaken their old repressed demons for better or for worse.

Director

14Reels is a collective film in Super 8, where 14 directors in 14 cities around the world have filmed and edited in camera one reel each on the theme of the city.