Co-presented by Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, GLAAD & Arab American National Museum
find yourself through forming connections with others. The The The The The This year's Queer Lens program highlights the importance of relationships and community building for young LGBTQ+ Arabs. Featuring a diverse set of award-winning shorts from the Levant, North Africa, and the diaspora, each of these films contend with what it means to find yourself through forming connections with others. The filmmakers explore how Queer Arab youth seek out one another across space and time: by connecting across countries, finding solace in older generations, or through exploring hidden queer narratives in Arab history. Despite the obstacles of social stigma, physical distance, and historical distortion, Queer Arabs remain steadfast in their efforts to establish a community of acceptance and understanding with and for each other.
In the 19th century, in the Levant region, Salma Zahore, along with her parents and neighbors, participated in a photoshoot using a long exposure technique. At the end of it, Salma decided to take off her coat, revealing her body. Unaware of the chaos this gesture could cause within her circle, she did not know it could lead to shame (عيب).
About the filmmaker:
Hadi Moussally is a Lebanese-French filmmaker. He acquires a first master’s degree in “Fiction Cinema” then a second one in “Documentary and Anthropological Cinema” in Paris universities. In 2015, he co-founded the production company “h7o7” whose main objective is to enable the making and promotion of films and photos with "hybrid" vocation where is privileged the mixture of genres between fashion, experimental, documentary and fiction. In 2020, he founded “Hybrid Wave” with more than 30 hybrid artists from all around the world.
- Year2024
- Runtime5 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryFrance, Spain
- PremiereNorth American Premiere
- GenreExperimental, LGBTQ+
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorHadi Moussally
Co-presented by Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, GLAAD & Arab American National Museum
find yourself through forming connections with others. The The The The The This year's Queer Lens program highlights the importance of relationships and community building for young LGBTQ+ Arabs. Featuring a diverse set of award-winning shorts from the Levant, North Africa, and the diaspora, each of these films contend with what it means to find yourself through forming connections with others. The filmmakers explore how Queer Arab youth seek out one another across space and time: by connecting across countries, finding solace in older generations, or through exploring hidden queer narratives in Arab history. Despite the obstacles of social stigma, physical distance, and historical distortion, Queer Arabs remain steadfast in their efforts to establish a community of acceptance and understanding with and for each other.
In the 19th century, in the Levant region, Salma Zahore, along with her parents and neighbors, participated in a photoshoot using a long exposure technique. At the end of it, Salma decided to take off her coat, revealing her body. Unaware of the chaos this gesture could cause within her circle, she did not know it could lead to shame (عيب).
About the filmmaker:
Hadi Moussally is a Lebanese-French filmmaker. He acquires a first master’s degree in “Fiction Cinema” then a second one in “Documentary and Anthropological Cinema” in Paris universities. In 2015, he co-founded the production company “h7o7” whose main objective is to enable the making and promotion of films and photos with "hybrid" vocation where is privileged the mixture of genres between fashion, experimental, documentary and fiction. In 2020, he founded “Hybrid Wave” with more than 30 hybrid artists from all around the world.
- Year2024
- Runtime5 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryFrance, Spain
- PremiereNorth American Premiere
- GenreExperimental, LGBTQ+
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorHadi Moussally