As a fourth-generation New Yorker with no connection to the Middle East, Deborah Harse didn’t know a whole lot about Lebanon. But she did know that it was a beautiful place, and when she saw a listing on the Web site www.marathonguide.com for the Beirut Marathon, the dedicated runner knew she wanted to go there and compete.

Then, in November 2006, just five days before the race, chaos broke out. Pierre Gemayel was assassinated, and combined with the fact that Lebanon was still dealing with the challenges of the war with Israel from the summer, canceling the marathon seemed like the smart thing to do.

But the people pushed on and decided to hold the race in the face of all the adversity. Harse, however, decided not to run, but not because she didn’t want to. She was focused on a different task: making a documentary to tell the remarkable stories of the marathon and its contestants.

The documentary, titled “Marathon Beirut, For the Love of Lebanon,” will premiere as part of the closing ceremonies at Lebfest 2008 on Sunday, August 3rd at 12:30 p.m. at the Landmark Maple Art Theatre in Bloomfield Township.

Harse stressed that the story is not political, but rather a first-hand account of the struggles and triumphs of the event’s organizers. She talked about the tough turnaround event organizers faced in putting together the event.

“I was amazed knowing so recently war with Israel, and it’s a major sporting event and to organize it was a lot of work,” said Harse. “Marathons are kind of the ultimate metaphor for the war because they’re all about perseverance and pushing your limits.”

Harse was originally excited about competing in the race, but once she saw the potential for telling a story with an uplifting message that people needed to hear, she made the final transformation to concentrating on making the film.

“I was really reluctant to let go of the idea of running with the camera, then I just kind of had to grow up and let it go and acknowledge the fact that for that experience the film would suffer.”

While she wasn’t able to run as originally planned, she was able to better focus on capturing the spirit of the Lebanese people. Harse chose to tell the story solely from her perspective, a style of shooting not usually done for the type of documentary she was making. But she wanted to give the story a personal touch and utilized her training as a photographer to add an artful touch to the movie.

At the same time, Harse tried to stay out of the way and to let the story tell itself instead of becoming a character in the documentary.

The Beirut Marathon turned out to be a huge success in the end, with more people than expected (about 22,000) turning out despite the turmoil and demonstrations from different factions taking place at the time.

While Sunday’s showing technically isn’t the first time she’s shown it in public, it will be easily the biggest screening to date. The first screening was at a Middle Eastern cultural center in New York in front of 75-80 people, and the reaction was better than Harse had hoped for. Several people came up to her after the screening to buy DVDs of the film. Harse will speak about the film and also offer DVD copies for sale at the Lebfest screening.

She’s hoping for a similar positive reaction at Lebfest, and she’s excited to see Michigan and the Detroit area for the first time. While she didn’t know much about Middle Eastern culture before shooting the film, she looks back at her experiences filming “Marathon Beirut, For the Love of Lebanon” fondly and looks forward to going back to Lebanon as a runner in next year’s marathon. 

Harse thanked the marathon organizers for all of their help in producing her first full-length film in a place she didn’t know anything about before she arrived.

“I’m just grateful for how they welcomed me and gave me access to their lives and their stories,” she said. “I’ve always in my work tried to emphasize common denominators, how human beings just keep going in the face of some kind of obstacle, because everyone has obstacles.”