Chantal Partamian is an experimental filmmaker and archivist with a focus on super 8mm and found footage. Her films, recognized and awarded at numerous festivals, are distributed through Vidéographe, Groupe Intervention Vidéo (GIV), and the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center.

As an archivist, Partamian specializes in preserving and restoring film reels from the Eastern Mediterranean through the project: Katsakh Mediterranean Archives, while also conducting research on archival practices in conflict zones. Her written works are primarily published in the Revue Hors-Champ.

Chantal Partamian’s work spans both the artistic and archival realms, merging experimental cinema with preservation efforts to safeguard the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean region.

Contact

chantalpartamian@gmail.com

A grainy blue tinted image of a camera lens framed by a ornate white oval shaped frame.

Distributor

University Lecturer

  • University of Toronto: University of Toronto: Department of Anthropology: Ethnographic Approaches to the Middle East and North Africa. Class by: Maya El Helou, October 2025
  • Université de Balamand: Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts: TEA0243-1: Arts étranges/ Esthétiques de la déviation et autres Défiances. Class by : Nasri Sayegh, May 2025
  • IESAV - Saint Joseph University, Found Footage Futures, 5-day seminar-workshop on reuse practices, March-April 2025
  • Concordia University, Film and moving image cultures: Media of resistance, Class by Farah Atoui, March 2024
  • Mount Allison University, Archives, affect and gaze, Class by Anna Shah Hoque, March 2024
  • Université du Québec en Outaouais, “Images et Societé,” Class by Mirna Abiad Boyadjian, March 2024
  • Université de Montréal, Guest Speaker and Commentator on Unarchived, alongside Graven Brilmyer and François Dansereau.
  • Université du Québec en Outaouais, “Moving Image, Expanded Cinema” Class by François Lemieux, November 2023
  • Université de Montréal, “Archival Practices and Reuse in Filmmaking,” Class by Annaelle Winnand, 2023
  • Lebanese American University, “Representation of Women in Arts and Media,” Class by Yasmine Nachabe Taan, 2012
  • American University of Beirut, “Social Media and Video,” Journalism Program, 2011
  • Université Lyon 2 Lumière, Association Amorce, “Super 8mm Workshops and lectures”, 2003-2006

Speaker / Round Tables

  • Knowledge Workshop - Beirut: Archive for Ecology: Can archives be regenerative technologies of movements. Mar. 2025
  • Main Film, Montreal – Archival Creation: Discussions and Practices – with Chantal Partamian, Moïa Jobin-Paré, Razan AlSalah, Mathilde Capone, Miryam Charles, Yen-Chao Lin, Muhammad ElKhairy, and Nicolas Renaud, February 3, 2025
  • Semaine de la Critique de Montréal – Program: “Album de Famille,” Discussion moderated by Dennis Vetter (Film Critic, Co-Founder, and Programmer of the Berlinale Critics’ Week), 2024
  • CRIalt – “Les archives visuelles de la Méditerranée” – Presentation of the KATSAKH project, 2024
  • AWID, Thailand – “Feminist Archiving, Ethical Practices, Decolonization, and Continuity through Documentation,” 2024
  • Global Audiovisual Archiving Conference, Toronto – “Archiving LGBTQ Narratives in Lebanon: Challenges, Ethics, and Future Preservation in the Case of Meem,” 2024
  • Radical Film Network, Madrid, Spain – “Katsakh: In Search of Mediterranean Archives,” June 2024
  • Main Film, Montréal – Exploratory Cinema: Reactivating the Archives, with Chantal Partamian, Nadine Valcin, and Rémi Belliveau, May 30, 2024.
  • Cinematheque Beirut, Lebanon – “Traces: Researching scattered archives”, March 2024
  • Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery – “Twelve Faces of Armenian Feminism: Archiving between Preservation and Erasure,” March 2024
  • La Lumière Collective and Feminist Media Studio – Political Aesthetic Series – “Aftermaths of Displacement”, February 2024
  • Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery – “Mediterranean Explorations: Evolving Archives and Varied Perspectives,” Feb. 2024
  • Lebanese Film Festival Canada – “Reconstructing an Imagined Memory,” June 2023
  • Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery – “Qalqalah,” Moderated by Emma Haraké, 2022
  • Spira Magazine – Discussion on the film Every Angel is Terrifying by Shahin Pahrami, with Katrie Chagnon (Magazine Spirale), Setrag Manoukian (McGill), and Claudia Polledri (Université de Montréal), 2022
  • Dawawine – “Those Females Who Can Wreck the Infinite: Gender & the Abject in Cinema,” Film Discussions, 2016

Exhibitions & Retrospectives

  • 2025: IN SITU: Curated by Emma Roufs, IN SITU (featuring Chantal Partamian, thisquietarmy, and Guillaume Vallée) focused on unique audiovisual works and live sound performances by local artists passionate about cinematic material, experimental moving images, and sound art, January 9, 2025.
  • 2022: Institut du Monde Arabe: Habibi, les Révolutions de l’Amour, Paris
  • 2021: Oscillations, The Plumb Gallery, Toronto: Films by MAEV: Mokhtabar for Arab Experimental Film & Video Art
  • 2020: 3rd NICHT-MUSEUM ZEITGEMÄSSER KUNST, Dresden, Germany
  • 2020: 33rd Digital and Poetic Video Instants, Marseille
  • 2019: artRISING: Visions of Revolution, Roslin Art Gallery, California
  • 2017: The New Normal, UMAM Documentation & Research, Beirut
  • 2017: Mayrig: Direct Approach
  • 2008: Rails, Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art, Yerevan
  • 2007: Nafas Beirut, Espace SD, Beirut
  • 2006: Centre Pompidou, D’encre et d’exil 6, le Liban, entre rêve et cauchemar: 6e rencontres internationales des écritures de l’exil
  • 2006: Aktiv: Résonances des conflits dans la sphère de l’art

Collaborations

Music Video Director

  • Heroshinema | the co-host (feat. Paul Thomas) | 2024
  • Liberté Anne |  La Valse | for reasons of tone and economy | 2023
  • Liberté Anne | L’abandon | for reasons of tone and economy | 2023
  • Kid 14 | One Day I’m Gone | 2020
  • Sofia b. | Do it like a Dude | 2015

Film Editor

  • Khzanet Oummi | Sawsan al Saraf | Experimental Short |  2024
  • De quel amour |  Liberté Anne - for reasons of tone and economy | Music Video | 2023
  • Nur El Qulub | Sawsan al Saraf | Experimental Short |  2021
  • Broken Dinners, Postponed Kisses | Nigol Bezjian | Documentary | 2018
  • Temple of Light | Nigol Bezjian | Documentary |  2016
  • After This Day | Nigol Bezjian | Documentary | 2015
  • Shelter | Tamara Qiblawi | Documentary | 2015
  • Thank You Ladies and Gentlemen | Nigol Bezjian | Documentary | 2014
  • The Same Gate | Nigol Bezjian | Documentary | 2014
  • Bank Black Presents |  Ashraf Mtaweh, Jamal Awar |  2012
  • The final dwelling | Milad Tawk | Short Film | 2011

Camera Work

Assistant Director

Other

  • Mayrig: Direct Approach, a project based on conversations about violence in film and reality. 2017
  • The New Normal, Curated by Hiba Farhat and Murat Adash, Supa Salon Istanbul

Corporate collaborations include: TV5 Monde, QEPC, Fade In, Arki Quebec, Sheertex, Mattel, UN ESCWA, Amideast, Abaad, Oxfam,  Al Arabiya, Alchimies Créations Et Cultures, Festival du Monde Arabe Montreal, Orientalys and many more.