''Beirut: The Last Home Movie'' is a 1987

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Jennifer Fox. It follows the life of Gaby Bustros and her family, who live in a 200-year-old mansion in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

during the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

. The

Bustros The Bustros family is a prominent Lebanese Greek Orthodox Christians, Lebanese Antiochian Greek Orthodox/Catholic family. One of the “Seven Families”, it is one of the original Beirut families along with the descendants of Sursock, Fernaine, ...

family, one of the noble families of

, remain in their ancestral home despite the endless war that surrounds them.

Exhibition

The film was screened at the

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

, the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...

, and at INPUT, the International Television Conference. It was broadcast on US television as a Frontline special on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

in 1991. The film was awarded the Excellence In Cinematography Award and won the Grand Jury Prize Documentary at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival. It opened at the Film Forum in NYC in 1988 and did a thirty city US theatrical release, distributed by Circle Releasing, before airing as a Frontline Special on PBS in 1990.

Awards

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

Grand Jury Prize Best Documentary *

Best Cinematography * Soc. Civile des Aut. - Multimedia Best Screenplay * Women and Cinema Argentina - Press Award * C.I.N.E. - Golden Eagle Award *

San Francisco Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by SFFILM, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and vi ...

- Golden Gate Award *

Cinéma du Réel Cinéma du réel (Lit. "Cinema of the Real") is an international documentary annual film festival held in Paris, France, since 1978. It is organised by the Bibliothèque publique d'information (BPI), and screenings take place at the Pompidou Cen ...

(

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) - Grand Prix

References

External links

*
''Beirut: The Last Home Movie''
at

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies is a non-profit feminist media arts organization based in New York City. Founded by Ariel Maria Dougherty, Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from ...

1987 films American documentary films Sundance Film Festival award–winning films 1987 documentary films Lebanese Civil War films Documentary films about families Documentary films about war Lebanese documentary films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films English-language documentary films {{war-documentary-film-stub