Stephen Gerard Kelly’s first film, IN THE SHADOW OF BEIRUT, is Ireland's official selection for the Oscars for Best International Feature at the 96th Academy Awards 2024  So the film ended up in two categories having also qualified for Best Documentary Feature from a festival award at Doc Edge 2023 where it was awarded Best International Feature Documentary.  The Oscar buzz helps keep the people in the film and the stories they symbolize in the hearts and minds of audiences.  Which makes this long journey more worthwhile :)  And to say this up front, awards and Oscars are the last reason why he made this film.  Massive thanks to our tiny Lebanese-Irish team, especially Lebanese producer Abbout Productions, Myriam Sassine and our Lebanese editor Zeina Aboul-Hosn for helping bring sensitives of the Arab female perspective to the film.  The people in the film had immense ownership of what was filmed and not filmed in what was a collaborative experience.  Brendan Byrne who brought the determination of a bear after hibernation.  Garry Keane the level headed storyteller.  Iseult Howlett the careful, caring eye.  The film captures the stark reality of Beirut’s long oppressed Sabra and Shatila neighborhoods, and feels particularly relevant with the tragic violence currently engulfing the Middle East.  It is not a political documentary; it's a film about the fragility of human dignity and the power of love among ordinary men, women and children surmounting extraordinary odds.

We performed a near miracle in the Oscars campaign.  For a tiny Irish-Lebanese team of indie filmmakers without the marketing and publicity budgets of the streamers, studios and major Oscar campaigners, we came from nowhere to being ranked inside the top 25 films in both categories in the major trade rankings!  

The film was made possible with funding from Screen Ireland, ZDF/ARTE and Hidden Light.

Many thanks to our production partners Abbout Productions, Gebrueder Beetz, Cyprus Avenue Films and Real Films.

“I picked up an old film camera when I was 12 years of age. Immersed in Ireland’s rugged beauty, warm people and tumultuous politics, the art of photography and the dark room changed the way I looked at the world. Personally my work helps me understand the vast inequalities in our world and gets me closer to people I learn so much from, an incredibly humbling experience, and an immense privilege that I remind myself of each and every day. Coming from a history of being a colonized people, a certain comprehension of underlying injustice permeated my world view, while simultaneously learning about the privileges I have as a European with its related equity. The goal of my documentary and non-profit work is not so much empathy, which is the implicit foundation of our humanity. It’s solidarity with friends we are yet to make.” - Stephen Gerard Kelly.