The Digital and the Sacred / West Beirut (1998)

Visual anthropology center - VAC invites you to the screening of two films selected by visual anthropologist Patrick Mitri, currently part of a residency program in Belgrade. On Monday, November 2nd at 7:00 PM, we will watch his ethnographic video installation "The Digital and the Sacred" and the classic Lebanese film "West Beirut", directed by Ziad Doueiri. "The Digital and the Sacred" is an ethnographic video installation that focuses on the relationship between people and media devices used in rituals. The installation explores how objects and media shape human perceptions of the sacred, as well as practices of worship. The video material was recorded during Easter celebrations of the Melkite Catholic community in East Beirut in the post-civil war period. It displays not only the ceremonies themselves, but also the sensory experience and the seductive power of ritual. Patrick Mitri is a filmmaker and visual anthropologist living and working in Germany. His work explores memory, identity, post-war societies, and the relationship between personal histories and broader political and social transformations. He holds a Master’s degree in Visual Anthropology – Media and Documentary Practices – from the University of Münster. He has worked across documentary film, television, photography, and cultural projects in Lebanon and Germany. His current documentary project, "The Long After", deals with memory, generational change, and the lasting traces of the Lebanese Civil War in the Beirut neighborhood where he grew up.