With art against violence and sectarianism
Documentary filmmaker Monika Borgmann on her cultural work in Beirut
This text from 2012 complements my portrait of Monika Borgmann’s late husband, the Lebanese intellectual and activist Lokman Slim of today, on the 5th anniversary of his assassination. You will read about the couple’s experiences in their cultural center.
In a scene from the film “Massacre”, six men from the Christian Phalangist militia, recount how they participated in a three-day massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila 30 years ago, in the midst of the Lebanese civil war.
The atrocities described by the men were triggered by the assassination of Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel on September 14, 1982. The killings lasted three days and took place under the eyes of Israeli soldiers guarding the camps. Monika Borgmann and her Lebanese husband Lokman Slim were the first to tackle this hot topic in 2005 with their film “Massacre”.
For Monika Borgmann, it wasn’t a political decision, but rather she wanted to work on the phenomenon of collective violence. “Each person exercised their own individual violence, but at the same time they acted in groups,” she explains. Only the perpetrators can talk about what happens psychologically. “If we want to understand violence, we have to give the perpetrators a voice.” Lokman Slim, her husband, also had personal reasons, because his parents’ house isn’t even one mile away from Sabra and Shatila. For Lokman, one of the burning questions was: “How can it be that a massacre is taking place one mile away from me and I know nothing about it”?
After the massacre, Israel set up a commission of inquiry, which led, among other things, to the resignation of the then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. In Lebanon, on the other hand, according to Monika Borgmann, any shared responsibility is still denied to this day. “Because no one was ever held accountable, no one was ever convicted, and the perpetrators - and those who commanded them - are still among us. If anyone wants to search for records, documents, or information, they have to do so privately. There is not a single government agency that can provide any information. That is why it was so important for us to found UMAM”.
UMAM is the name of the documentation and cultural center that Borgmann and Slim have established since completing their film shoot in Beirut. UMAM means “nations” or “diversity”. The name refers to the diversity of religions and ethnic groups in Lebanon as well as the diversity of the center’s activities. At the heart of the non-profit organization is the archive on the history of Lebanon: books, newspapers, leaflets, posters, videos, as well as private and official documents and interviews.
"The official line is always: we shouldn’t remember, because coming to terms with the civil war will lead to a new civil war. And anyway, everyone wants to look to the future and no one wants to look to the past”. Borgmann’s and Slim’s experience is the opposite. “We have a very young audience, and a very diverse audience - and they want to know”. When they screened the film “Massacre” in Beirut, 700 people turned up. Since then, they have been receiving constant requests asking when the film will be shown again.
Monika Borgmann, who studied Arabic in Bonn, Germany, and in Damascus, Syria, and her husband, who studied philosophy in Paris, set up their office and archive in his parents’ house in Haret Hreik. The neighborhood, which is predominantly Shiite, is considered a stronghold of Hezbollah. Nevertheless, the couple has been able to work undisturbed in the seven years since the cultural center was founded—even when it offered alcoholic beverages at events.
“We are being watched very closely but Hezbollah let us do it"“, says Borgmann. It was very important for her and her husband to hold these events in Haret Hreik because they wanted to bring people from other parts of Beirut to this area, which they fear and associate only with Hezbollah. And the couple succeeded: “People came from deeply Christian parts of Beirut who had never been to the southern suburbs in their lives. At the same time—just as importantly—we managed to bring the people of Haret Hreik to our events”.
These public events take place in the so-called “Hangar,” a former warehouse adjacent to the family’s property. Here, Borgmann and Slim organize film screenings, photo and art exhibitions, and discussions. In this way, they aim to artistically process the memory of civil war and war in Lebanon. This experiment was given a boost by a brief period of political openness that began after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
Nevertheless, Borgmann and Slim were only able to show their film “Massacre” once in public at an event organized by UMAM. Officially, the film is still banned in Lebanon. However, it has been released on DVD and can also be viewed on YouTube.
The UMAM archive, which is now also available online, has become a valuable source of information for artists and journalists from all over the world. In cooperation with the political foundation affiliated with German Greens, UMAM is initiating an artist exchange between Beirut and Borgmann’s hometown of Cologne. Since the civil war in neighboring Syria, socio-political tensions have been rising again in Lebanon. This is precisely why the couple wants to continue their activities, says Monika Borgmann.
“Lebanese society is more divided today than ever before. We believe that the only way to prevent a new civil war is through knowledge of history. That is the contribution we want to continue to make.“
This text was originally published on German public radio. German speakers can listen to it on my German website where you also find the original text of my portrait “Voice of reason” of Borgmann’s late husband Lokman Slim.
Voice of reason
He was considered fearless. With words and cultural activism, he fought against sectarian violence, for a democratic and secular Lebanon. This made him powerful enemies in his homeland. On February 3, 2021, Lokman Slim was murdered.