AFF 2022—Queer Lens Shorts (Diaspora & Displacement)

Like paper flowers in water, short films possess the capacity to expand small intimate stories into larger dimensions of meaning and relevance. “Short” and “small” convert into narrative snapshots of lives that open up to join a comprehensive, composite portrait of culture; in this instance Arab culture and the queer subculture struggling within it. For the 26th edition of San Francisco’s Arab Film Festival (“AFF”), their annual Queer Lens program admirably "celebrates the multi-dimensional formations of Arab queerness in 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."

This year’s program focuses on the theme of "Diaspora & Displacement" by featuring an award-winning quintet of short films that highlight the experiences of Queer Arabs around the globe. As stated by AFF: “The characters in these stories all find themselves at the intersection of their identities. Some must reconcile the reality of their sexuality with a family who loves but does not understand, others work towards a life lived authentically in a society that does not accept them and a few explore leaving a place that is not safe even though it means letting go of those they care about. In this collection, audiences will find stories that may be unique in their details but are deeply relatable at their core and despite the difficulties, celebrate honesty and love.”  

Habib & The Thief (2022). Resilient optimism is the presiding theme of this competently-produced 15-minute short by Naures Sager. My first observation is how the gay subculture, as manifested in the United States, has swept into other countries and cultures with the swirling flourish of a glittering full-length cape and the carefree abandon of club music; the dreaded Westernization that Muslim countries conservatively abhor. 

In an unexpected moment of magical realism, two flamboyant gay men dressed in flashy party clothes disguise themselves in the head-to-toe black garb of heterosexual conformity. Though this narrative occurs in an unnamed Arab country (I’m presuming Iraq), cultural attitudes nonetheless underscore its fagbashing sequence, always difficult to witness, yet somehow redeemed here by the positive attitude that the true theft in this story is caped in desire. Robert Hannouch as Habib and Jonathan Kara as The Thief convincingly enact the lengths that two men forced to conceal their true identities to their condemning cultures will steal their joy and their dignity in the face of cultural oppression. 

Naures Sager is an Iraqi-Swedish Filmmaker. He is the founder of the platform The Uneven, which focuses on LGBTQ+ films and human rights. The invitations for the premiere of the film I Am Reva caused national attention in Sweden as they were designed as deportation letters and sent to a 109 well-known Swedes. Naures won the Pixel Talent Award 2020 and his short film 1-1 is touring around the world at different film festivals and screening on Swedish Television (SVT Play). Habib & the Thief is his most current project.  

The Window (2022). Two attractive Lebanese women, Basma (Sophia Moussa Fitch) and Mariam (Tamara Saade), reunite a year after Beirut's port explosion in a bedroom they once shared and whose large picture windows face what’s left of the port’s remains. “How can you sleep here?” Basma asks Mariam, stating that the window looks out on a “fucked up country”, which she has fled to lead a safer, more honest life, whereas Mariam has remained behind in a sheltered and compromised relationship with a man. The two women have, as they say, “history.” 

The conjoined image of Basma’s shadowed silhouette cast on the wall next to a cracked mirror in which she is also reflected signals how she remains a threat to Mariam, a traumatized lesbian trying to keep her desires “out of sight, out of mind.” The revelation of their attraction to each other is as explosive as their shared experience of the bomb that hit the port, though in this instance it implodes into an exhausted silence. Zeid Hamdan’s closing vocal “Balekeh” plaintively enunciates the sound of that implosion while the view through the window remains indifferent to their ruptured relationship.  

Sarah Kaskas deftly negotiates this intimate two-hander, poignant "against the chaos of Beirut." An award-winning Lebanese filmmaker, producer and co-founder of Karaaj Films, Kaskas focuses on the struggles and perseverance of marginalized communities. Her films have been touring world renowned festivals such as Tribeca, Aspen Shortsfest, Odense International and Hollyshorts. In 2016, Sarah released Bread and Tea which premiered and won Best Short Documentary at Cinéma Vérité. Her feature documentary Underdown premiered at IDFA in 2018 and picked up 5 awards including the Grand Prix at Mediteran Film Festival and the Jury Prize at Malmö Arab Film Festival. Her short documentary STRUCK and short fiction The Window were both completed in 2021 and are currently on tour. In 2022, Sarah joined the producing team of Beirut Dreams in Color, a documentary which was commissioned by The Guardian and is now streaming worldwide on its platforms. Sarah is developing her second feature film while working as a film educator with universities and NGOs.  

Faraway (2020). Filial duty and obligation is a haunt for gay men forced to hide their true natures from family members unable or unwilling to accept their orientation. I’ve long felt it’s a form of child abuse when parents refuse to embrace a gay son or shame them for defying expectation, yet Faraway does a good job of showing how one young man negotiates his absence and distance from his mother over the course of a year. Knowing that who you are causes someone you love so much anguish is always a painful insight, and knowing that where you have to be in order to become yourself might mean moving far away from family is a standard hurdle for young gay men leaving home, and no less heartfelt. Childhood can’t wait for the parent to grow up, that’s true, but young adulthood also can’t wait for a parent to come to terms.  

Aziz Zoromba is a Canadian-Egyptian director and producer. His work, documentary and fiction, mainly explore themes of cultural identity, family life, coming of age and the repercussions of being a second generation Canadian. His short films Leila (2017), Amal (2018) and Faraway (2020) have screened internationally at dozens of festivals. He is a recipient of the 2019 Sundance Ignite Fellowship from the Sundance Institute. Aziz also produced the short documentary No Crying at the Dinner Table (2019), selected at over 75 Festivals around the world and winner of over 15 awards, including the Grand Prize for Best Short Documentary at the SXSW Film Festival, qualifying the film for an Academy Award®.  

Dress Up (2022). Karina Dandashi pulls triple duty as screenwriter, director and lead actress in her short Dress Up where—on the eve of her sister’s wedding—Karina introduces her “best friend” to her family and then begins to feel anxious about not satisfying family expectations. Covertly, she puts on her sister’s wedding dress to feel for a moment what she might have felt playing the role expected of her, but (of course) it’s not who she’s meant to be. This sad realization is mollified by her sister’s loving empathy. This is a delicate tale of a sister supporting the difference of her lesbian sibling. 

Karina Dandashi is a queer Syrian-American Muslim writer, director, and actor born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Her films explore nuances in identity through the intersection of family, religion, and culture in Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) and Muslim communities in America. Karina is a 2020 Creative Culture Fellow at The Jacob Burns Film Center and a 2021 Sundance Ignite Fellow. She was featured in Marie Claire’s inaugural Creators Issue as one of the “Top 21 Creators to Watch”. She is currently writing her first feature film.  

Warshaw (2022). The hypermasculine and homophobic construction site where gay Lebanese Mohammad (Khansa) works compels him to hazard a dangerous crane just so he can have enough private space removed from disapproving eyes to enact his secret passion high above the city: lipsynching Uum Kulthum. Cinematographer Shadi Chaaban’s stunning vertiginous overhead shots combined with evocative superimpositions capture Mohammad’s exhilarating victory.  

Dania Bdeir is a Lebanese award-winning writer and director. She’s a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, has a BA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut and an MFA in directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she received a full scholarship in her third year. In 2019, Dania was selected as a Berlinale Talent and participated in its Short Film Station with Warsha, a co-production between Inter Spinas Films (France), GoGoGo Films (France) and Né à Beyrouth Films (Lebanon). Dania is currently based in Dubai and is developing her first feature film Pigeon Wars which was selected for the 2018-2019 Torino Film Lab x DFI Hezaya Screenwriting lab, the 2021 Cine Qua Non Storylines lab and the 2021 Nostos Screenwriting Retreat. 

The in-person screenings for “Queer Lens: Diaspora & Displacement” will be on Saturday, November 12, 2022, 6:45PM, at the New Parkway Theater, 474 24th St, Oakland, CA 94612. Attentive to festival hybridity, the program will also be available for at-home streaming on November 12 through November 20, 2022 (purchase streaming passes here), admirably available throughout the United States.