Night Vision

Everyone with a TV in the Middle East knows Leila Kanaan’s work. Those hyperactive pink and blue-clad teenagers running around between MBC4 movie breaks to advertise acne remedies? Those are her creations. The Sun White rice ad? Yep, her again.

But don’t judge her too quickly: they’re not exactly intended for NOX readers. And there is considerably more to the 26-year-old Lebanese director than slick commercials. In fact, she is a genuinely three-dimensional creative hurricane, equally adept at packaging pop princesses for our consumption as promoting pampering products to pubescents – and with a passion for avante garde films, post-structuralist literature and the odd HBO mini-series, she is exactly the kind of girl we love to feature. Cute enough to make your stomach flip, smart enough to keep more than one-step ahead of you should you do anything about it and talented enough to know there’s more to life than what you’ve got to offer. And she’ll be so huge in the next ten years, you might even be a little relieved you couldn’t keep up.

A native of the port city of Sidon, Leila now calls the Metn Mountains home, a creative retreat from the terminal hyperactivity of Beirut. In addition to her promos, she has made critically acclaimed short films My Father’s House and After the Storm, and the documentary My Cousin Foufou, she teaches at the Institute of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Studies and, in the remaining three minutes a day she can call her own, she is finalising her Masters. Basically, we’re in awe.

NOX: Hi Leila. Where are you right now and what have you stopped doing to answer these questions?
Leila Kanaan: I’m in front of my computer, it’s dark outside and I stopped reading Guy Debord’s La Société du Spectacle.

NOX: You’re most famous as a director of video clips. As a young Arab woman, is there any sense of conflict in the packaging of other young women as “products”?
LK: I don’t feel I’m “packaging a product” when I create an environment, a set, a storyline and a character for the artists I’m working with, and I’m always trying to reach for their inner, personal qualities to show them at their best. I am bothered by what some young women do with themselves or let others do to them, in the press, on TV… I’m trying my best to take them the other way. I hope it shows!

NOX: So where’s the line between presenting an artist and creating a product? Is it like being an architect, where you have to incorporate the desires of the manager and label?
LK: I think the parallel is closer to that of an interior designer working with the person who’s going to live in the home being designed. But then my work is also about what this person is going to do in their home, who is going to come and visit, and what is going to happen between those people… I don’t think the relationship between a director and young female stars is any different here than to the rest of the world. The star is never my product; it’s always the label, the manager, the production house or the artist’s own creation… But they use me and my skills to present this product to the world in the way I find most appropriate. They come to me because they trust me exactly on this.

NOX: What is the appeal of pop videos, and what do they say about you as a director?
LK: In this region, pop videos give directors the possibility of bringing to reality some of the worlds they have in their own minds. My trademark is simplicity, sensuality, hypnotic moods and emotional imagery. There’s nostalgia in what I do, and I tend to like classic, elegant settings. I like older times where everything was more precious, emotions were different, relationships weren’t as easy as today – there were more intrigues and mysteries. Modern times don’t make me dream. The past and the future do.

NOX: You have aspirations of directing features, so does the career of Nadine Labaki inspire you to move from commercial products – TV ads, video clips – to more serious art? What kind of films would you like to make?
LK: Well, many great directors have shifted from TV commercials and music videos to feature films: Ridley Scott, Luc Besson, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze… It’s a very classical path. When you go to film school, you only learn to make films, but once you’ve graduated, the only way to build up a reel is music videos and commercials. It’s not about the “seriousness” of the art – I personally take everything I do very seriously – it’s just two different media. As for films, I would probably go for an epic timeless romantic drama… 
or maybe a biopic. Recently, I’ve been watching seasons of Twin Peaks, Mad Men and The Tudors… They all impressed me with their atmosphere, art direction and photography, the depth of their characters and their great writing. 

NOX: Did you stay up to watch the Oscars? Isn’t Slumdog Millionaire just a little overrated...?
LK: It’s not a show I would stay all night up for! But I’m looking forward to seeing Slumdog Millionaire – although I’m not a big fan of Danny Boyle’s movies, this one is worth seeing.

NOX: What is in the immediate pipeline for the remainder of 2009? What will be the next project we see?
LK: The audience still hasn’t seen the kids’ medley music video I did for Haifa Wahbe more than a year ago. I really hope it’s going to be released soon, as it’s one of my favourite works so far. There’s also a new Nancy Ajram video that will probably be airing at the time this issue comes out. I’m also waiting for the new Sony Ericsson commercials I’ve just shot to be released and what will follow is still to be confirmed…

NOX: Who would play you in the story of your life 
– and what music would be on the opening titles?
LK: We will see! I also have to make up my mind regarding the opening titles music… Too many options until now!

A full version of this interview appears in NOX32