Commissioned by the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, We spent 5 summer months filming Lebanon from Above, including its rural, urban, cultural touristic and historical location, as well as the amazing number of festivals.
The idea was to show Lebanon's beauty, diversity and wealth from another angle (above), in order to encourage and promote international and domestic tourism.
My main personal goal is to remind us all that Lebanon is not all about problems, political turmoil, trash...etc but is first and foremost a country that has so much to offer on such a small portion of land, and is still, in spite of everything, truly beautiful.
Maybe by seeing this video, people who lost sight of what Lebanon truly is, will have newfound optimism and strength to participate in steering the country in the right direction, to understand that it is their country to love and protect.
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We filmed from mid June to early November and covered Mount Lebanon, Beirut, Southern Lebanon, the Bekaa, Baalbek and North Lebanon.
We received amazing support from the Ministry of Tourism, as well as the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Defense, the Lebanese Air Force and the Lebanese Army Intelligence.
From the beginning, a social media campaign was created on Instagram, under @riseabovelebanon, which yielded a lot of interest and followers, reaching an organic 12,000 followers so far.
The book, also titled "Rise Above Lebanon", was released on 2 December 2015. it is a hardcover photography book of the highest standard, with 200 pages of images of Lebanon from Above and is available in all major bookshops in Lebanon.
The video, of a duration of 5 minutes was released by Live Love Lebanon and the Ministry of Tourism on 4 February 2016 and immediately went viral, with over about 2 million views as well as over 40,000 shares, 12,000 likes and hundreds of comments (99% of which are positive).
The result is this video of 5 Minutes.
Producer: Two Wheels Across
Director/DOP: Christian Ghammachi
Editing: Sebastien Leclercq
Colour Grading: Belal Hibri(Rez Visual)
Music and Sound Design: Karim Khneisser
