Concrete Forms of Resistance

Filmed in Tripoli, Lebanon, Concrete Forms of Resistance is a documentary centred upon the city’s abandoned ‘Permanent International Fair’, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in the mid-1960s. The film presents themes of progress and crisis, labour and capital, material and memory, contrasting the utopian vision of the original plans with the stark realities of sectarian divisions, regional conflicts and rising economic inequalities. Interwoven throughout the film are sequences that feature Tripoli’s artisan carpenters and wood carvers, who provided a key role in the site’s original construction. Reflecting upon pressing global issues from a plurality of voices, the documentary includes audio interviews with architect and activist Wassim Naghi, alongside archival recordings of Oscar Niemeyer.