Tuesday June 3/Queer Cinema for Palestine No Pride in Genocide/Firehouse DCTV
J. F. Mulligan
Film Workers for Palestine & Partners Present
Tue Jun 3, 2025 • 7pm
Queer Cinema for Palestine: No Pride in Genocide
Suggested Donation: $5-$15
The next event in our Film Workers for Palestine and Partners Present series is a special Pride month collaboration between DCTV, The Solidarity Index, and Queer Aperitivo: Queer Cinema for Palestine’s No Pride in Genocide short film program – a global film event co-organized by PACBI (the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) and 50+ partners in 25 countries, from China to Ecuador.
ABHAD HAWAZ
Dir. Robin Riad • 1 min • Canada • 2024
Audio: Arabic, English | Subtitles: N/A
Robin Riad’s short hand-drawn analogue film ostensibly teaches the pronunciation of the Arabic Alphabet in 28 easy steps. In actuality, the hand-drawn letters were printed using a laser jet printer onto the optical soundtrack of 16mm film, and what you hear in the film is the projector reading the letters, and interpreting them into sound. Riad uses humour to play with and sit with her mother tongue, offering a ‘false’ lesson in pronunciation. A response to a digital form of anti-Arab hate that Riad witnessed online coming out of the genocide in Gaza, Abgad Hawaz is a way for her to hold close to her language, culture, and roots. (Written by Tara Hakim for TQFF)
OUT OF GAZA
Dirs. Seza Tiyara Selen and Jannis Osterburg • 9min • Germany • 2025
Audio: German, Arabic | Subtitles: English
A young Palestinian woman wants to flee from Gaza with her friends, hoping to find freedom in the West. As a talented engineer she makes escape possible, but doubts arise if it is the right decision to leave. When they cross the wall, they encounter a world they did not expect.
BLOOD LIKE WATER
Dir. Dima Hamdan • 14min • Palestine • 2023
Audio: Arabic | Subtitles: English
Shadi embarks on a secret adventure, and accidentally drags his family into a trap where they only have two choices; either collaborate with the Israeli occupation, or be shamed and humiliated by their own people. Based on true stories.
A TANGLED WEB DROWNING IN HONEY
Dirs. Tara Hakim and Hannah Hull • 9 min • Canada • 2023
Audio: English | Subtitles: English
A Tangled Web Drowning In Honey is an experiential and textural short film that invites viewers into the inner workings of a mind to ponder the ways in which we love and unlove ourselves.
ALIENS IN BEIRUT
Dir. Raghed Charabaty • 16 min • Lebanon, Canada • 2025
Audio: Arabic, English | Subtitles: English
Aliens in Beirut blurs doc and fiction, exploring alienation and desire at home through scripted improv, wildlife cinematography and visual experimentation. Charabaty (who also stars in the film) reimagines events from their life leading up to the fateful 2020 Beirut Port Explosion. Returning to Beirut from Toronto, desperately in search of roots, Amir falls for a stranger by the sea. In the end, the explosion cares for nobody – leaving behind traces of unerasable desire.
PALCORECORE
Dir. Dana Dawud • 8 min • Internet footage from Palestine • 2023
Audio: Arabic and English | Subtitles: English
Dana Dawud’s Palcorecore is a hypnotic fusion of dance, archival footage, and internet-circulated videos that collapse past and present into a visceral portrait of Palestinian life. Opening with The Lovers Songs Band and excerpts from Jenin, Jenin (2003), the film assembles fleeting yet powerful images: flag-waving horseback riders, families at the beach, teenagers dancing in flames, and acts of resistance against occupation. Dawud’s deadpan narration—“I witness you witness me, we are martyrs together”—pulls the viewer into a shared act of witnessing. Through rhythmic disorder and movement, the film captures the resilience, rebellion, and everyday joys of Palestinian existence, focusing particularly on youth and women in their defiant assertion of life. The film was commissioned by Onty and OnMyComputer for the CoreCore symposium which took place in New York, November 2023.
I NEVER PROMISED YOU A JASMINE GARDEN
Dir. Teyama AlKamli • 20min • Canada • 2023
Audio: Arabic, English | Subtitles: English
Tara, a queer Palestinian woman in her late 20s, attempts to suppress her internal emotional turbulence during a phone call with her best friend Sarab, with whom she is in love.
DON'T TAKE MY JOY AWAY
Dir. Omar Gabriel • 7 min • Lebanon • 2024
Audio: Arabic | Subtitles: English
Set in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, two friends revel in the small joys of life until violence suddenly disrupts their world. Forced to flee, they embark on a dangerous journey of survival, confronting fear, chaos, and the stark realities around them. Along the way, they must choose between remaining in the shadows or seeking the light.