Kassem Istanbouli has been on a mission over the past decade restoring abandoned cinema theaters and converting them into cultural hubs for marginalized communities in Lebanon.
Working under the banners of NGO the Tiro Association for Arts (TAA) and his Istanbouli Theater company, the artist, actor and filmmaker has spearheaded the renovation of cinemas in the Northern Lebanese city of Tripoli as well as in Beirut and the Southern Lebanese cities of Tyre and Nabatieh.
Amid the escalating war between Israel and Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, these cinema theaters are being repurposed yet again as shelters for people displaced from Southern Lebanon and the capital of Beirut by Israeli military action.
UN refugee agency UNHCR estimates 1.2 million people have fled their homes in Lebanon since Israel stepped up its bombing campaign targeting Hezbollah leaders and arms cachets on September 23,
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Situated in the Empire Cinema, one of Lebanon’s oldest cinema theaters dating back to 1932, the Tripoli cultural hub is currently home to more than 40 people, left homeless by the military action.
“We have many families from the south and members from our association in Tyre. As well as being a safe space for the arts, it’s now a safe space for people during war,” Istanbouli told Deadline.
“We’re a space for humanity, for people. We host people who are Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian. We even have people from France living here with us in the cinema.”
Istanbouli shares pictures via email showing the 780-seat venue dotted with sleeping bags and personal belongings. He and his team are trying to continue arts and drama workshops for the new residents as well as locals.
“They sleep on the stage and use the space as a home. We host them, bring meals for them and try to continue our activities. Culture is a form of resistance and way to deal with problems we have in Lebanon,” he said.
Opened by TAA in 2022 after decades of lying empty, the Tripoli hub features a functioning cinema screen, library, and a cafeteria.
Its founding mission was to be a place of dialogue, with its program including arts training workshops, aimed at creating job opportunities for youngsters, as well as live events, spanning drama, dance and music.
Istanbouli launched TAA in 2014 as a volunteer-based NGO and has managed to muster the support of a variety of U.N. agencies and European-based donors over the years. TAA’s venues and their renovation are run as grassroots projects aimed at connecting different elements of the communities in which they are situated.
The Nabatieh hub, situated in the former Stars Cinema, which lay abandoned for 30 years until its reopening in 2016, is currently closed after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the city and surrounding villages, ahead of its missile strikes targeting Hezbollah and ongoing ground operation.
The city – which was home to some 40,000 people – lies just 20 kilometers from the Israeli border and towns such as Kiryat Shmona, which have been empty since October 2023, due to missile attacks by Hezbollah.
A handful of people are also living in the organization’s flagship venue in the coastal city of Tyre, which first opened in 2019 under the name of the Lebanese National Theater, in response to the fact that Lebanon does not have a national theater.
It is situated in the storied Rivoli Cinema, which first opened in 1952. In its 1960s heyday, when Lebanon was still a jet-set destination, French stars such as Jean Marais and Brigitte Bardot attended screenings there according to local folklore.
Since its reopening, it has become a cultural hub in the city, organizing a host of artistic and cultural activities, and continued to host workshops for children from the neighborhood up until a few days ago.
Istanbouli says that tragedy struck its community when one of its regular attendees Selana Al-Samra was killed with eight members of her family, when a bomb hit their home in the Kharab neighborhood in the center of Tyre.
“She had been in one of our workshops the day before and drew her last drawing. It’s very sad, the whole family died apart from sister,” said Istanbouli, sharing a photo of the young girl proudly holding up her artwork.
Tyre is now a ghost town with much of its some 135,000-strong population having fled due for fear of being killed in Israeli strikes, although some people remain, and the cinema is sheltering a handful of displaced families at the same time as laying on rudimentary art workshops.
Israel has said its strikes on Tyre are targeting Hezbollah fighters and arms storage facilities, although there are reports that civilians not linked to the armed group have been caught up in the violence.
Low level hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along the Israeli and Lebanese border have been bubbling for more than two decades, but tensions ratcheted up in the wake of the Hamas October 7 terror attacks on Southern Israel.
Hezbollah started firing guided rockets and artillery shells on northern Israel on October 8, in an operation it said was in solidarity with Hamas, causing 60,000 Israelis to flee their homes.
Prior to the flare-up in the violence, TAA and Istanbouli Theatre were transporting children from villages and towns in southern Lebanon to participate in the workshops at the Lebanese National Theatre in Tyre.
“We’d organize puppet, handicraft, storytelling, theater and photography workshops. We can’t use the bus now, we can’t move but we keep on doing our activities with the people sheltering with us.”
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