June's Arab Film Series celebrates Pride month with AFMI's award-winning Queer Lens program from the 23rd Arab Film Festival. This showcase of LGBTQ+ works stands proud in bridging the gap of representation per specific facets of the underrepresented queer Arab experience so often ignored by the mainstream. By virtue of this program we aim to celebrate the multi-dimensional formations of Arab queerness in lieu of stories that so urgently need to be told, especially in today’s polarized media climate that leaves issues of visibility lost in the haze, or, worse: cast in a one-size-fits-all "Western Queer Narrative" that ignores the many complexities and nuances faced by LGBTQ+ persons in the Arab World and beyond, including Arab Americans and Muslims.
From a music video about a first generation gay Muslim Arab-American man coming to grips with his conservative father, a night on the town with two millennials in Dearborn Michigan with a lesbian twist, and a gender-bending self-awakening as a young Lebanese man channels the secret memories of his belly dancing mother; to stories that reveal the vulnerability, sacrifices, and tribulations of gay Syrian refugee men forced into sex work to make ends meet in Europe – Queer Lens will inspire you to re-visit and re-contextualize what you thought you knew about Arab queerness, as if beholding the refracted prism of a lens flare to reveal truths that shine in ways you have not seen before.
Brothers is a coming-of-age short film-music video hybrid that follows a Muslim Arab boy as he comes to terms with his sexuality. Upon recognizing that he is different through the lens of his family and society as a whole, he decides to face his fears with the support of an older brother who stands by him and encourages him to be himself, in the face of bias and adversity.
Director Bio:
Mike Mosallam is a producer, director, writer for the theatre, film and television. Through his production company, Mike Mosallam Productions (www.watchmmp.com), he and his team produced short films: Breaking Fast (Cannes Film Festival) and Brothers (8-time Jury & Audience Award Winner), both directed by Mike, along with the upcoming Ubuntu. His feature film debut, Breaking Fast (based on the short), was completed in late summer 2019 and hopes to inspire film festival audiences worldwide. He is the creator and Co-Executive-Producer of the critically-acclaimed TLC series, All-American Muslim. On the theatre side, Mosallam has produced and directed more than 100 theatrical productions from large-scale musicals, intimate cabaret settings, plays, concerts, and multi-media theatrical events. After eight years in New York / Los Angeles, Mike returned to Michigan in 2009 to head a new initiative, the Wayne County Film Office, and helped attract more than 70 titles to the metro Detroit area. Since January 2012, he has worked in production planning and development for Sunset Studios and Netflix Studios, and he currently serves as the Vice President of Production Development for DGMT, a company that develops and manages film and tv studios globally.
Director's statement:
Brothers is not an auto-biographical journey. Actually, it’s mostly wishful thinking; not just for me and my experience, but, I’m sure, for a large population of gay men and women who hope for resolution from the complicated family dynamics that arise from coming out. Brothers is also not entirely a piece of fiction. It is a common tale; one I’ve heard over and over from various friends and acquaintances who grew up with a utopian sense of familial love only to be blindsided by the harsh and senseless reality of parental fear and religious misconception. In the end, Brothers is an opportunity to start a conversation, perhaps with one’s brother or sister or mother or father; an opportunity to heal; and an opportunity to remember once what was most important: unconditional love.
- Year2018
- Runtime9 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryUnited States
- DirectorMike Mosallam
- ScreenwriterMike Mosallam
- ProducerAlex Lampsos, Maha Chehlaoui
- Co-ProducerSarah Bazzi, Seth Hauer
- CastZain Shami, Viktor Simon, Martijn Sedgfield
- CinematographerAnka Malatynska
- AnimatorHabib Semaan
June's Arab Film Series celebrates Pride month with AFMI's award-winning Queer Lens program from the 23rd Arab Film Festival. This showcase of LGBTQ+ works stands proud in bridging the gap of representation per specific facets of the underrepresented queer Arab experience so often ignored by the mainstream. By virtue of this program we aim to celebrate the multi-dimensional formations of Arab queerness in lieu of stories that so urgently need to be told, especially in today’s polarized media climate that leaves issues of visibility lost in the haze, or, worse: cast in a one-size-fits-all "Western Queer Narrative" that ignores the many complexities and nuances faced by LGBTQ+ persons in the Arab World and beyond, including Arab Americans and Muslims.
From a music video about a first generation gay Muslim Arab-American man coming to grips with his conservative father, a night on the town with two millennials in Dearborn Michigan with a lesbian twist, and a gender-bending self-awakening as a young Lebanese man channels the secret memories of his belly dancing mother; to stories that reveal the vulnerability, sacrifices, and tribulations of gay Syrian refugee men forced into sex work to make ends meet in Europe – Queer Lens will inspire you to re-visit and re-contextualize what you thought you knew about Arab queerness, as if beholding the refracted prism of a lens flare to reveal truths that shine in ways you have not seen before.
Brothers is a coming-of-age short film-music video hybrid that follows a Muslim Arab boy as he comes to terms with his sexuality. Upon recognizing that he is different through the lens of his family and society as a whole, he decides to face his fears with the support of an older brother who stands by him and encourages him to be himself, in the face of bias and adversity.
Director Bio:
Mike Mosallam is a producer, director, writer for the theatre, film and television. Through his production company, Mike Mosallam Productions (www.watchmmp.com), he and his team produced short films: Breaking Fast (Cannes Film Festival) and Brothers (8-time Jury & Audience Award Winner), both directed by Mike, along with the upcoming Ubuntu. His feature film debut, Breaking Fast (based on the short), was completed in late summer 2019 and hopes to inspire film festival audiences worldwide. He is the creator and Co-Executive-Producer of the critically-acclaimed TLC series, All-American Muslim. On the theatre side, Mosallam has produced and directed more than 100 theatrical productions from large-scale musicals, intimate cabaret settings, plays, concerts, and multi-media theatrical events. After eight years in New York / Los Angeles, Mike returned to Michigan in 2009 to head a new initiative, the Wayne County Film Office, and helped attract more than 70 titles to the metro Detroit area. Since January 2012, he has worked in production planning and development for Sunset Studios and Netflix Studios, and he currently serves as the Vice President of Production Development for DGMT, a company that develops and manages film and tv studios globally.
Director's statement:
Brothers is not an auto-biographical journey. Actually, it’s mostly wishful thinking; not just for me and my experience, but, I’m sure, for a large population of gay men and women who hope for resolution from the complicated family dynamics that arise from coming out. Brothers is also not entirely a piece of fiction. It is a common tale; one I’ve heard over and over from various friends and acquaintances who grew up with a utopian sense of familial love only to be blindsided by the harsh and senseless reality of parental fear and religious misconception. In the end, Brothers is an opportunity to start a conversation, perhaps with one’s brother or sister or mother or father; an opportunity to heal; and an opportunity to remember once what was most important: unconditional love.
- Year2018
- Runtime9 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryUnited States
- DirectorMike Mosallam
- ScreenwriterMike Mosallam
- ProducerAlex Lampsos, Maha Chehlaoui
- Co-ProducerSarah Bazzi, Seth Hauer
- CastZain Shami, Viktor Simon, Martijn Sedgfield
- CinematographerAnka Malatynska
- AnimatorHabib Semaan