A Frown Gone Mad is set in a beauty salon in Beirut, where clients seeking cosmetic fixes come and go. Mismar’s film—developed out of his 2022–2024 VLC Fellowship project as part of the center’s Correction* Focus Theme—consists entirely of close-ups of faces undergoing Botox injections and other manipulations from an out-of-view beautician named Bouba. Talk of war, past and present, in Lebanon and neighboring Palestine is painfully evoked, as is the quiet resolve etched into the faces of those submitting to Bouba’s touch. The pervasive culture of Botox and fillers is reinterpreted here as an extension of conflict and the ongoing cycles of violence, prompting deeper questions about the aesthetics of disaster. The work explores the sensuous body as a site of discourse, examining the anesthetization of the body politic and its potential re-aestheticization. The film had its North American premiere at the Museum of Moving Image’s First Look Festival on March 15, 2025, following its IDFA 2024 world premiere, where it received the Outstanding Artistic Contribution award.

Join us for a private screening of this stark yet tender portrait of defiance, followed by a conversation with the artist and a reception.