Founded in 1962 by Badie Bulos, a Palestinian-born businessman, Studio Baalbeck began operating in Beirut one year later and became a central hub of the ‘golden age’ of Lebanese and Arab cinema and music. Over three decades, it produced feature films and countless musical recordings before closing in 1994; its archive is now scattered across universities, private collections, and in the memories of displaced families throughout the Levant.
The People of Studio Baalbeck activates these dispersed archives through hybrid, moving-image forms. At its centre is an immersive web platform – a 3D digital reconstruction of the studio in which users navigate virtual rooms to trigger film fragments, period audio, and oral testimonies. This extends into physical space through scenographic podcasts and urban cinema walks, with audio vignettes accessible via QR codes in Beirut and Tripoli.
Nathalie Rosa Bucher is a features writer specialising in arts and culture, human rights, and environmental subjects. She has been based in Beirut since 2012.
