Mare Nostrum — The Arab World

Directed by Stanislas Giroux (stanislasgiroux.com)
Music by Fran Soto (fransotomusic.com/)
Narration by Nathan Cahen (http://twitter.com/nathancahen)
Thanks to Maison Carnot (maisoncarnot.com)

Much love to my amazing girlfriend Aylin who helped me much to give this project such a storytelling feeling and left me unforgettable moments in Lebanon.

Watch the bonus video : Cool Kids of Tel Aviv (http://youtu.be/dTEk1KEIhMc?list=PLcKCwaxnhz4VgAyPJqnZvI_PXpq155TGw) from the « Cool Kids » series

I’ve been fortunate to travel the most misunderstood part of the world for a month, and this is what i got in return : A head full of beautiful thoughts, feelings and experiences ; enough to break the western cliché that the mass media wants to set about the Arab World.

This project is a condensed mix of 6 mediterranean countries in 4 minutes of video, and has been shot in a little bit more that 4 weeks.
I travelled with my usual light backpack half filled with my gear, and half with my surviving items.

In the background, you can hear an excerpt of the speech by Yasser Arafat to the UN in 1974, that means :
« Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. »

Narration :
The Arab World. In this land far away, lives a generation, that inherited from bright and powerful civilizations. This is their story.
Throughout this misunderstood world, a young generation dreams about peace, unity and modernity. Give this generation hope.

Tech :
Shot with a Sony a7s, s-log2 (PP7), and a Came-TV Single Gimbal. Some Canon (50mm f1.4), Zeiss (10-18mm f4), and Asashi (135mm f2.5) lenses. A gorilla pod and some DIY rigs. All fits in my lowepro AW350 backpack!

Warm hugs to :
Hafid, Rachid, Marwan, Kaadori, Saied, Seyf, Belgacem, Ahmed, Abdullah, Mohammad, George, Sari, Christ, Asam, Shouha, Boudy, Ali, Amishai, Lawi, Mohammed, and all the amazing peeps i met and forgot names! Keep you hospitality and hope for a peaceful future in the land of the cradle of civilization.

Cast: Stanislas Giroux and Nathan Cahen

Tags: travel, middle east, algeria, tunisia, egypt, lebanon, palestine, israel, jordan, kuwait, religion, muslims, christians, jews, portraits, glidecam, epic and timelapse