Cinema as Archive: Lebanon Reclaims Its History

Lebanon, a country marked by a tumultuous past and the absence of a national archive, finds its history being actively reclaimed through cinema. Lana Daher's debut feature, "Do You Love Me," serves as a profound act of excavation, utilizing over 20,000 sources to challenge collective amnesia.

The film's creation occurs against a backdrop of regional challenges to historical preservation. Palestinian cinema archives were removed during the 1982 Beirut siege, and Iraqi state archives were confiscated by U.S. forces in 2003. Furthermore, postcolonial states often impose limits on freedom of expression, leading to censorship and cultural erasure, as seen in "Do You Love Me" through censored newspaper sections.

Daher emphasizes that in Lebanon, where the government has repeatedly failed, it is artists—journalists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers—who document history. Since 2018, the nation has endured significant events, including large-scale protests in October 2019 and the devastating Beirut port explosion in August 2020.

The film's editing process was further complicated by recent regional escalations, including the war in Gaza and renewed Israeli military incursions into southern Lebanon in October 2024. These events have profoundly impacted the director personally and influenced her approach to the film.

Instead of a linear chronology, "Do You Love Me" explores recurring themes over the past 70 years of Lebanon's archival narrative, featuring ubiquitous images of the sea and scenes of joy from personal videos. Daher navigated private collections and abandoned archives, likening the research to a "garage sale" of unlabelled materials.

Securing copyright permission involved creative solutions, such as enlisting her mother to obtain consent from a single fisherman whose comments were deemed irreplaceable. The film also draws from past Lebanese cinema, including works by female filmmakers, reframing conventional narratives and transforming Daher's relationship with Beirut and her home.

Ultimately, "Do You Love Me" is described not only as a love letter to Beirut but also to the very idea of cultural work driven by care and love, demonstrating how cinema can archive a nation's memory in the absence of official institutions.