The Diary of a Sky

Lawrence Abu Hamdan / Lebanon / 2024 / 45 min

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic brings an acute silence to the world. In that silence, filmmaker and artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan takes to the empty streets of Beirut to document the sound and noise that still exists in the city. Roaring generators keep the city’s faltering electricity alive, coming and going as it suits the city leaders. 

But the noise is mixed with the noise of Israeli drones and Israeli fighter jets that constantly blow over the city, leaving nothing but white scars on the blue sky and a dramatic sound level over the Lebanese capital. Studies show that the noise raises the blood pressure of the people living under it. 

For one month in 2020, the UN Digital Library records that the Israeli Air Force committed 440 violations and infringements against the Lebanese Air Force. ‘The Diary of a Sky’ is an essayistic collage of global politics and misinformation that documents the militarization of the sky and the symphony of terror and violence unfolding above the heads of Beirut’s imprisoned citizens.