Queer Visions, Palestinian Voices + Panel Talk (SOLD OUT!)

QFFU x Palestinian Film Festival Amsterdam

This program showcases a powerful collection of queer Palestinian short films that all challenge borders, both physical and societal. Through intimate journeys and portraits, these films explore the intersections of identity, resistance, and self-expression.

Resisting the settler colonial regime’s pinkwashing tactics meant to erase queer Palestinians’ existence, these works offer a glimpse into the queer realities in Occupied Palestine. From institutional boundaries and forbidden love in Mondial 2010, and the challenges of performing drag in conservative societies in Sultana’s Reign, to ‘fashion for Israeli checkpoints’ in Chic Point and “male thug culture” in Blessed Blessed Oblivion, these works confront and transcend the confines imposed on queer lives in the Occupied Palestinian context. Together, they offer a unique cinematic landscape on the coexistence and resistance of queerness and Palestinian identity.

All proceeds from this program will go to alQaws in support of queer rights in Palestine.

The PFFA was born out of a commitment to center Palestinian voices, with a mission to create a vibrant platform and to amplify the cinematographic storytelling and artistry of both emerging and veteran Palestinian directors.

Approaching its ninth year, the 2024 PFFA will be held at five Amsterdam cinemas from October 10-13. As they prepare for the upcoming edition, their commitment to preserve the only Palestinian film festival in the Benelux is stronger than ever. Alongside a diversity of films, featuring experimental shorts, drama features, documentaries and animations, the 2024 PFFA highlights Dissident Voices, with a special focus on Queer Palestinian Cinema. As an extension of last year’s Nakba commemoration, this year’s artist talks are centered on Gaza, while a range of unique fringe events will be held to reflect the current context that we find ourselves in.

Mondial 2010 — Roy Dib (Lebanon, Palestine, 19 mins)

“Mondial 2010” (2014) is a discussion of institutional borders in modern day Middle East. It uses video as an apparatus to transgress boundaries that are inflicted on people in spite of them. It is a travel film in a trajectory that doesn’t allow travel, starring two male lovers, in a setting where homosexuality is a punishable felony. Shot with a hand-held camcorder, “Mondial 2010” borrows the aesthetics of a travel video log. It normalizes the abnormal, and by doing so creates its own universe of possibility. It is a shift from the mainstream passive view of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict that places the victim/oppressor in the forefront of the produced imagery. This video glides over this conflict with an upper hand.

Sultana’s Reign — Hadi Moussally (France, 9 mins)

Sultana of New York is a Palestinian drag queen, performer, and artist. “Sultana’s Reign” (2023) opens with a conversation with Sultana, as she is being painted by Jordanian artist, RIDIKKULUZ. Reflecting on her journey from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, to then New York, Sultana tells of the challenges of performing drag in conservative societies, her nostalgia for the glory days and the glamour of Egyptian cinema icons, and her struggle to prove her existence and her self-expression as a performer and artist. She also shares her love of celebration and her everlasting commitment to be true to herself.

Chic Point — Sharif Waked (Israel, Palestine, 7 mins)

Sharif Waked’s “Chic Point” (2003), exposes ‘fashion for Israeli checkpoints’, thus interrogating the rough treatment of Palestinian men at these checkpoints. Set to the backdrop of a heavy rhythmic beat, men model and present one design after another in an exploration of form and content. Zippers, weaved nets, hoods, and buttons serve the unifying theme of exposed flesh. Body parts—lower backs, chests, abdomens—peek through holes, gaps, and splits woven into readymade silk and cotton t-shirts, robes, and shirts. Suddenly the images change and the viewer is confronted with documentary photos showing men while traversing the Israeli checkpoints at West Bank and Gaza, where they are forced by Israeli police to partly undress themselves in order to be controlled.

Blessed Blessed Oblivion — Jumana Manna (Palestine, 21 mins)

“Blessed Blessed Oblivion” (2010) weaves together a portrait of male thug culture in East Jerusalem, manifested in gyms, body shops and hair dressing parlors. Inspired by Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising (1963), the video uses visual collage and the musical soundtrack as ironic commentary. Anger’s subjects — leather-clad bikers, serve as a counterpoint to the culture Manna attempts to portray, that of stereotyped male “thug” culture in Palestine. Close-up fragments construct an eroticised and parodic montage of bodies, cars and places, intersected by snippets of dialogue and a monologue about the art of a car wash. Simultaneously psychologizing the characters and seduced by them, Manna finds herself in a double bind similar to the conflicted desire that animates her protagonist as he drifts from abject rants to declamations of heroic poetry and unashamed self-praise.