‘Fallen Television’ or Television Waa’e is a Lebanese documentary film that critiques the screen culture featuring the complex array of geopolitical, sectarian, economic and cultural factors in Lebanon. This film examines the sectarian hostilities in the Lebanese television history that have characterized Lebanese religious, social, and political life even before the civil war 1975-1990. Directed by Maya Majzoub, the film highlights the ideological dominance of sectarianism; Majzoub directed the 53-minute film putting the Lebanese TV culture on the map. The film starts by a historical background on Lebanese television presented by series of snapshots drawing the broader image of the cultural environment ruling the Lebanese television. Only one minute into the film, you would grasp the milestone events that helped enforce and institutionalize sectarianism and commercialism within its discourse. “Which one is feeding the other? Is it media or sectarianism?” narrated in the film. Majzoub starts by raising a rhetorical rather on-point question and proceeds with unfolding the history of media discourse in Lebanon. Tackling the status of Lebanese television within three different time periods: pre-civil war, during civil war, and post-civil war offers a clear dichotomy of the effect of television in Lebanon. In the 1950s,…
