We Never Left

Country: Lebanon | Running Time: 83 min | Year: 2024

Synopsis:

Set during the Lebanese revolution, WE NEVER LEFT portrays a heart-wrenching duality between Beirut and New York, an impassioned testament to the Lebanese diaspora’s unrequited but irrepressible love for their homeland

Directors: Loulwa Khoury

Loulwa Khoury is a New York based film editor, filmmaker born and raised in Beirut. She edited award-winning features documentaries PARADISE WITHOUT PEOPLE (2019), DUSTY AND STONES (2022). She has also been directing her first feature documentary, WE NEVER LEFT. Her other work includes award-winning documentaries CITY OF GHOSTS (2017), IT WILL BE CHAOS (2018), SOME KIND OF HEAVEN (2020) and ACT OF WORSHIP (2022). She was also one of the mentees of the Karen Schmeer Editing Fellowship Diversity Program of the year 2019-2020 and a fellow in the Sundance Co//ab Art of Editing Fellowship 2020, and is currently in the DOC NYC x VC Storytelling Incubator cohort as well as a winner of the Creative Power Award.

Editor: Marie-Louise Elia

Marie-Louise ‘Malou’ Elia is a Lebanese screenwriter, director and editor. She studied Film Directing and Screenwriting in Beirut and New York. A Film Independent alumna and a Global Media Makers fellow, Marie-Louise wrote and directed several short films and documentaries. Her latest short “Death and Other Fears” is currently having its festival run. She also edited many documentaries and short fiction films. In 2014, she was selected among the editing talents of Beirut Talents.

In addition to co-writing a comedy series “Men Home La Hon”, Marie-Louise is currently developing three films: The Savior, a feature comedy, "Yearning" a short dramatic film and another feature screenplay We Find You Anywhere, winner of the Most Promising Screenplay prize, second place, at the Cinemai’yat Film Festival (2016).

She is also a lecturer at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) and formerly at Saint Joseph University and the Lebanese University