Chantal Partamian

Adumbration

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:27:29 -0400

In production

Description

Adumbration is a formal and narrative exploration at the intersection of experimental cinema, cosmic horror -which evokes existential dread and the incomprehensible-, and visual essay. Developed during a residency at Main Film with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), the project continues my artistic research into memory, unstable imagery, and temporal disruption.

Haralez: Noisy Beginnings of the Cradle

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:27:27 -0400

In production

Description

Ghosts linger in the margins of history, inhabiting spaces that appear empty but are heavy with erased narratives. Mythological creatures emerge as echoes of cultural memory, carrying the remnants of ancestral lineages lost to time. Cemeteries are repurposed into parks, parks become spaces of resistance, and the dust of the past lingers in fountains sculpted from the marble of forgotten gravestones.

Traces آثار

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:27:24 -0400

8min 45sec, Lebanon & Canada, 2023
16mm D2F & Super 8mm, Found Footage, Stereo

Description

The project explores the cinematic gaze towards queer bodies as well as their constant absence from the recurrent narrative or collective memory. It started with the discovery of 80s pornographic found footage and so we asked ourselves the question, what if this was found in a dilapidated house? What if instead of the process of the image disintegrating, we bring it to life as if the disintegrated lives of queer women that were meant to stay unseen or disfigured or left to rot slowly come to life and assert their presence within the context of the 80s in Lebanon, a period so overtly represented by war and violence and from which all narrative about personal lives and intimacy is removed.

L’Arbre

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:27:21 -0400

2min 28sec, Canada, 2021
Super 8mm & 16mm, Stereo
Arabic audio, English & French subtitles

Description

Sandjak

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:27:16 -0400

8min 23sec, Lebanon & Canada, 2021
Smartphone, DSLR & Found Footage
Armenian audio, English & French subtitles

Description

In 1939, following an agreement signed by France, the Alexandretta Sandjak in Syria was annexed to Turkey. Thousands of Armenians, including my grandmother, flee Alexandretta for Aleppo or Beirut. In the fall of 1939, a small number moved inland to an already established “quarantine” zone near Burj Hammoud, which at the time was farmland. The camp takes the name of their homeland, Sandjak. Navigating three types of images, shot in three different periods, the film explores the poetics of haunting through compositions of images that attempt to create an entanglement between the past and the present. An intimate but detached voice, a little stoic even, speaking of countless losses. The repeated affirmation of belonging to a place that is no longer. It is an exercise in the dismantlement of the Sandjak camp space. The haunting of the present by absences. The fragmentation of history and memory. The experience in the margins and the historical anachronism of a people evolving in temporal landscape.

Houbout هبوط

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:02:08 -0400

2min 8sec, Beirut, Tunis, Montreal & Istanbul, Lebanon, 2020
16mm D2F & Super 8mm, B&W, Stereo
Tunisian audio, English & French subtitles

Description

To linger between states, between nation-states. A poetical essay that very briefly explores fragments of a long distance relationship, when two lovers meet, when they are caught in transit.

Screenings

2025

Chère N.

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:02:03 -0400

7min, Beirut, Lebanon & France, 2007
Super 8mm, Stereo
French audio, English & German subtitles

Description

A letter-documentary shot in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, during the Israeli attack on Lebanon. A point of view that moves from Dahieh in Beirut toward a nearby bridge under reconstruction.

Screenings

2026

TENK France | Online Platform

2025

Solace عزاء

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:02:00 -0400

1min, Lebanon, 2021
Super 8mm, Stereo
Arabic, English subtitles

Description

When the Beirut explosion occurred, my first thought was that of relief that my grandmother had passed a year and some before. The best hours to sit outside amongst her plants and flowers were those of sunsets. How does one mourn when they are grateful for the occurrence of some deaths as salvation? How does one mourn when in separation, we spare the ones we love the end of their world?

14 Reels

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:01:57 -0400

52min, Lebanon & Italy, 2016
Super 8mm & Digital, Stereo

Description

14 Reels distributed to 14 Directors in 14 Cities around the World to celebrate the Super8 50th Anniversary.

Each of the 14 participating authors received one round of film tape and one hint: city. City as a movie character, venue or starting point for an intimate journey on a large canvas that invites you to collective reflection on our attitude towards the city.

Aporie

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:01:34 -0400

30sec, Canada, 2022
Digital, Stereo

Description

Invited response to Program 4 of the BURNT Video Art and Experimental Film Festival’s 3rd edition. A declaration of doubt or a state of puzzlement.

Binge

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:01:31 -0400

41sec, Lebanon, 2016
Digital, Stereo
English

Description

Bipolar disorder is characterized by its sudden manic surge. It is now 3 a.m. A collage of found footage and stop motion.

Screenings

2017

Roma Cinema Doc | Roma, Italy
Chouftouhounna Feminist Festival | Tunis, Tunisia
Miniature Film Festival | Vancouver, Canada
FliQs-Montreal | Montreal, Canada

Epistemic Space

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:01:27 -0400

14min, Lebanon, Turkey & Armenia, 2016
Digital, Stereo
Armenian audio, English & French subtitles

Description

Developed during the “Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform (ATCP) Project Development Workshop” in Yerevan (July 13–14, 2015), as part of the 12th Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival.

Epistemic Space (2015) a documentary short film developed during the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform Project Development Workshop at the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival. Set in April 2015, the film reflects on a mass march along Istiklal Street, where thousands gathered under the slogan “We are here.” Layering this charged moment with the contested history of Kamp Armen, it traces the presence of Armenian lives in the city. Through this palimpsest of protest, memory, and buried histories, the film constructs an epistemic space evoking the ghosts of past violence while questioning how collective histories are continuously negotiated and made perceptible.

In Memoriam

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:01:22 -0400

1min 28sec, Lebanon & Armenia, 2014
Super 8mm, Digital, Stereo

Description

The Armenian Genocide memorial complex (Armenian: Հայոց ցեղասպանության զոհերի հուշահամալիր) is Armenia’s official memorial dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. The 44-meter stele symbolizes the national rebirth of Armenians.

Twelve slabs are positioned in a circle, representing the 12 lost provinces in present day Turkey. In the center of the circle, at a depth of 1.5 meters, there is an eternal flame dedicated to the 1.5 million people killed during the Armenian Genocide. x The quote is by William Saroyan.

Tekrar تكرار

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:01:16 -0400

2min 16sec, Lebanon & Armenia, 2014
Super 8mm & VHS, Stereo
French audio

Description

A collage of archival footage, super 8mm and pal formats exploring the redundant repetitive trap of war.

Screenings

2017

Festival Images Contre Nature | Marseille, France

Distributor

Vidéographe | distribution@videographe.org | Vithèque (La Collection de Vidéographe)

About

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 11:31:30 -0400

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.

KATSAKH Archives

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:17:44 -0400

Katsakh | քացախ is the Armenian word for vinegar.

The “Katsakh: Mediterranean Archives” project is a personal collection of non-fiction films shot on Super 8mm and 16mm cameras in towns and villages across the eastern Mediterranean from the 1920s to the 1970s. This collection aims to capture the region’s diverse life and culture, serving as a rich historical archive that invites viewers to connect with our past.

Each film in “Katsakh” represents a fight for memory, preserving moments that might otherwise fade. I hope these films spark new stories and conversations, creating a dialogue between the past and present. They serve as a form of resistance, celebrating life in a world that often erases us. They remind us that memory is crucial to our identity and our journey toward liberation.

Press

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:16:57 -0400

Chantal Partamian: Reviving film archives

Bakhchinyan, A. (2025, August 21)
The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, Arts & Culture

Շանտալ Փարթամյան. Կինոարխիվներ վերակենդանացնողը

Bahchinyan, A. (2025, July 25)
ԱԶԳ շաբաթաթերթ, Մշակույթ

Chantal Partamian, Traces, 2023, 8'45, Canada

Samson, D. (2025)
In Catalogue du festival Traverse Vidéo – Programmation 2025

Éclats des RIDM – Amour sans cesse et malgré tout

Lehoux, C. (Winter 2025)
Hors-Champ, revue de cinéma en langue française

RIDM: Le glitch art au service du récit

Caron-Pelletier, A. (2024, December 2)
Le Culte.ca

Talking Archives: Season 2, Episode 1 – Chantal Partamian

Gagnon, M. K., & Lex, E. (Producers). (2024)
Counter Archive

Entrevista | Chantal Partamian

Sitjá, J. (2024, April 10)
Retransmisión.mx.

Rencontre avec Chantal Partamian: Autour de son projet KATSAKH

Rouxel, M. (2024, April 11)
Cinématrianon

Analog futures: Katsakh.

Analog Cookbook , Issue #5. (2022)
University of North Carolina Press

ترميم الذاكرة المصوّرة… شانْتا-ل برتميان: أتلفْ أرشيفاً تَمحُ شعباً.

Mahfoud, Z. (2023, June 21)
Al Modon

Ghalia AlSaheb interviews filmmakers: Kinda Yousef, Chantal Partamian, Nour Chami & Murad Abu Eisheh

AlSaheb, G. (2022)
Toronto Arab Film Festival

Mémoire du cinéma arabe. Le Courrier

Haddad, E. (2022, March 31)

Short films on a shifting landscape

Quilty, J. (2021, July 1)
The Daily Star

Les Écrans du Liban se rallument

Khalaf, C. (2021, June 24)
The Online Lebanese Journal (OLJ)

67th International Short Film Festival Catalog

Oberhausen Film Festival, 2021

La chronique “Off” du Journal de la Culture de FRANCE 24

Meddeb, H. (2007, February 16)
France 24

Les clés du Moyen-Orient: La deuxième guerre du Liban (2006): Ten years later

Rouxel, M. (2016, August 16)

Media-Crisis / Liberation

Media-Crisis (2007, February)

Publications

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:16:29 -0400

Conversation, Presence, Politics

World Records Journal, Roundtable 2
December 2025

L’instinct des archives : entretien avec Lana Daher

Hors-Champ, revue de cinéma en langue française
Éclats festivaliers, Autumn 2025

My Armenian Phantoms (Tamara Stepanyan)

Found Footage Magazine | Issue 11
December 2025

Par deçà les images : Pratiques et réflexions autour de la conservation des films

Hors-Champ, revue de cinéma en langue française
Co-director | Winter 2025

In Les films de Jocelyne Saab : Beyrouth ma ville; Pour quelques vies; Les femmes palestiniennes

TENK Canada | Fragments d’une œuvre
August 2025

À propos de Frente a Guernica

Cinémathèque québécoise (Ricci Lucchi / Gianikian, 2023)
Aril 2025

The Sacrality of the Mundane: On Archival Encounters and the Diasporic Trace

Azad Archives Zine
September 2024

Entre politique de censure et dispersion archivistique : Awlad al-Zawat (1932), le premier film parlant égyptien

Hors-Champ, revue de cinéma en langue française
January/February 2024

Rencontre autour de traces cinématographiques algériennes : Une conversation avec Nabil Djedouani

Hors-Champ, revue de cinéma en langue française
July/August 2023

Traces: Analog Cookbook

Analog Erotica | Issue #8
University of North Carolina Press, 2023

La comptine de Madame Jarrar; Le Spectre Numérique.

Zoom-Out / Là-bas (online film platform)
May 2023

Les archives ne font pas histoire par elles-mêmes : Topologie d’une absence.

Convergence — Association des archivistes du Québec (AAQ)
February 2023

Nous

Hors-Champ, revue de cinéma en langue française
September/October 2021

Artist Response

Burnt Video Art and Experimental Film Festival: Edition 3 | Program 4
November 2021

Location

Fragmented Magazine | Issue 01
December 2020.

Unlayering the Other: A Queer Armenian Experience

Kohl Journal | Vol. 2, No. 2
Winter 2016