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.

For inquiries or further information, please contact us via email at katsakh.project@gmail.com

Katsakh in the press

Le Blog du Festival du film franco-arabe: Rencontre avec Chantal Partamian : autour de son projet KATSAKH

  • 2 décembre 2023

ترميم الذاكرة المصوّرة…شانْتال برتميان: أتلفْ أرشيفاً تَمحُ شعباً, زكي محفوض

  • Al-modon, 2023/06/21

Analog futures | Katsakh

  • Analog Cookbook, Issue #5
  • University of North Carolina Press, 2022

Lingering Traces: Collecting Absence in Family Films and Travelogues

  • International Association of Armenian Librarians and Archivists — In Focus #13 (2025): Invited presentation and talk,
  • Oct. 18th 2025

Film Restored

  • A curated program by Germany’s national film archive presenting newly restored films, highlighting archival preservation, historical context, and contemporary access to film heritage
  • The Deutsche Kinemathek, Oct. 2025

Rumman Music Festival Cineconcert

  • With Ghassan Sahhab and Fadi Tabbal
  • Sept. 2025

Les archives visuelles de la Méditerranée

  • CRIalt - Centre de recherches intermédiales sur les arts, les lettres et les techniques
  • Présentation du projet KATSAKH, 2025

Katsakh: Mediterranean Archives, Le Polygone Étoilé

  • Aflam Festival, Vives Archives
  • Marseille, Avr. 2025.

Home Movie Day

  • La 10e édition du Home Movie Day Paris aura lieu le samedi 12 octobre à la Générale
  • Paris: Ciné Concert

Journal d’une occupation

  • Symposium XP, symposium sur le cinéma expérimental, Montréal
  • Films et images tournées en Palestine (1920-2024)
  • Performance musicale live de Sam Shalabi accompagnée d’images d’archives de la collection ‘Katsakh’ tournées en Palestine, Liban Sud, Jordanie (1920-2011).

Katsakh: In search of mediterranean archives

  • Radical film Network - Madrid Espagne
  • Madrid Espagn, Juin 2024

Projection de films de famille 8 et 16 mm numérisés et assemblés par Chantal Partamian

  • Festival du film franco-arabe de Noisy-le-Sec, nov. 2023
  • Projection de films de famille 8 et 16 mm numérisés et assemblés par Chantal Partamian, accompagnés musicalement au oud par le soliste Damien Sarret

Mediterranean Explorations: Evolving archives and varied perspectives

  • Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery

Katsakh: Reconstruction d’une mémoire imagée

  • Lebanese film festival Canada, Juin 2023

Réactualiser les archives pour une histoire au présent

  • Festival Aflam, Marseille, 2022

Show Us the Money and We Will Resist

  • European Media Art Festival № 34
  • Osnabrueck, Germany

Prophecies from the Sea

  • The curators are showing a programme “about the prophetic nature of cinematic works created in moments of transition”. This includes both recent films that deal directly with the catastrophic explosion in Beirut a year ago, its causes and consequences, and older works that focus on earlier historical upheavals in Lebanon and its conflict-ridden history. Films by Chantal Partamian, Ali Cherri, the Atlas Group and Ghassan Salhab, among others, will be screened.
  • International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 2021