December 2 – 3:00 PM
IN PERSON at Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High St, Dalston
Queer Cinema for Palestine is screening in London for the first time. As we witness genocide and ethnic cleansing with the support of the British state, now, more than ever, is the time to amplify queer Palestinian voices and those of allies. Come and join us.
The programme includes compelling short films from queer Arab filmmakers and discussion with the filmmakers and Palestinian activists. We’ll discuss British complicity in Israeli apartheid and war crimes, the silencing of Palestinians in the cultural sphere and the cultural boycott call.
The event holds space for the deep interconnection between the global queer liberation and Palestinian liberation movements. We are united together in the fight against systems of colonialism and imperialism, which oppress us all.
Film program
Neo Nahda, May Ziadé, 13 min, Lebanon / France (2022)
When a young Arab woman in London finds a photograph of women cross-dressing in 1920s Cairo she starts a feverish journey that leads her to uncover lost histories and her own identity
Mondial 2010, Roy Dib, 19 min, Lebanon / Palestine (2013)
Arabic (English subtitles)
Mondial 2010 is a film about love and place. A gay Lebanese couple decides to take a road trip to Ramallah.
Son of a Dancer, Georges Hazim, 21 min (2018)
Arabic (English subtitles)
Majed, a 20-year-old man, is grieving the loss of his recently deceased mother. One day, he gets the shock of his life when he learns that she used to be a belly dancer. Torn between his relationship with his now-silent father, and Hanine, the woman who will help him overcome his grief; he takes a trip down memory lane in an attempt to discover the mysterious past of his mother.
Borekas, Saleh Saadi, 15 min, Palestine (2022)
A father gives his son a ride to the airport. The car breaks down on the way.
Saleh Saadi is a Palestinian writer-director from Basmat Tab’un, Palestine. Born on July 6th, 1998. Saadi’s first short fiction film Borekas (2020) was part of the Official Selection of the Palm Springs International ShortFest (2021), his second short film A’lam (2022), which he wrote, directed and acted in premiered in the Hollyshorts Film Festival (2022).
Warsha, Dania Bdeir, 15 min, Lebanon (2022)
(in person only screening)
Away from everyone’s eyes, a Beirut crane operator is able to live out his secret passion and find freedom.
Speakers
Alia Malak, Palestinian campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
Alia Malak is a Steering Committee member of the Palestinian campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), and has been active in the UK Palestine solidarity movement for a number of years.
May Ziadé
May Ziadé is a French-Lebanese writer, filmmaker and the co-founder of Other People’s Films – a production company that produces and aims to create bridges between moving image work and conventional films with a strong artistic voice. In her work she explores the physical and emotional unfoldings of the cultural and social pressures to conform. Neo Nahda, her first short, is supported by the BFI NETWORK and the British Council
Roy Dib
Born in 1983, Roy Dib is an artist and filmmaker that works and lives in Beirut, Lebanon. His work focuses on the subjective constructions of space. His latest short film Mondial 2010 (2014) won several awards including the Teddy Award for the Best Short Film at the 64th Berlinale, Best Short Film at Queer Lisboa International Film Festival, and the Uppsala Grand Prix at Uppsala International Short Film Festival. His latest video installation, A Spectacle of Privacy debuted at the Exposure 2015 show at the Beirut Art Center and then featured at the Berlinale’s 2015 Forum Expanded, Queer Porto 1 (2015), Images Festival in Toronto (2016), and won an award at the Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil (2015). The Beach House (Beit El Baher – 2016) is Roy Dib’s first narrative long feature film.
Georges Hazim
Born in Beirut, director Georges Hazim is a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture in the Lebanese University, where he obtained his Master’s degree in Directing. Through his short films, often controversial in a quasi-conservative society, he gave a voice to the Queer community. He clings to the power of cinema and sees it as the ultimate weapon needed to progress in order to reach someday the freedom to exist without fear. His award-winning short films include Above the Nest (2015), which won many awards, including the Best Director at the Euro Film Festival in Spain, Servants (2016), Bad Trip (2017), which won the Best National Film at the Batroun Mediterranean Film Festival, and Son of a Dancer (2018).
Dania Bdeir
Born in Montreal, Dania Bdeir is an award-winning Lebanese filmmaker. “In White”, her graduate thesis for her MFA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts received the Spike Lee Production Fund and had its world premiere at Clermont-Ferrand before screening at BFI London, Uppsala, and more than 30 other festivals worldwide. Dania was a 2019 Berlinale Talent and participated in its Short Film Station with “Warsha”, her latest short which had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and won the Jury Prize for the Best International Fiction. “Warsha” can be streamed on Netflix and the Criterion Channel and has won 100 awards and has been selected at over 250 film festivals worldwide, including SXSW, Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand, Aspen Shortsfest, Palm Springs Shortsfest, and Tampere, among many others. Warsha was one of 15 films that were shortlisted for the 2023 Academy Awards. Dania, one of Screen Daily’s Arab Stars of Tomorrow, is developing her first feature film “Pigeon Wars”, which received development financing from Telefilm Canada and was selected for the Torino Film Lab x DFI Hezaya Screenwriting Lab, Cine Qua Non Storylines, and the renowned 2023 Sundance Screenwriter’s lab. Dania is managed by Anonymous Content.
Presented by Makan, Artists for Palestine UK, European Legal Support Centre, SOAS Centre for Gender Studies, Resist + Renew, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, London Trans Pride, Pride of Arabia, Good Night Out, Queers for Palestine
QUEER CINEMA FOR PALESTINE 