Sponsored by The Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement
Organisers: Elmira Zadissa and Ramona Zadissa at QTI Coalition of Colour
Summary: queer qandī Journeys and Destinations film fest was a queer film festival focused on issues of migration and movement made in SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) region. The festival also hosted conversations and panel discussions with filmmakers, activists and scholars operating in and/or studying the region. The conversations and the panel discussions ended the festival during the weekend of 17-18 October. The festival was composed of 17 film screenings, two panel discussions, four conversations and a scriptwriting workshop. Due to the pandemic the ten days long festival was held entirely online.
Report: The panels discussed the portraying of the LGBTQ+ SWANA identity in film, art and literature as mediums. The participants were invited to reflect on the expressions LGBTQ+ SWANA identities take in narratives of movement and migration within and from the region. They also addressed the dynamic between the region and the diaspora and modes of collaboration for building coalitions and collaborations. The dichotomy of ‘oppressive south’ vs ‘liberal west’ was explored with reference to homonationalism and pinkwashing politics.
The conversations offered insights in work carried out by creative activists operating in the region. The conversations centred the context specific concerns held by LGBTQ+ activists across the SWANA regions.
The film selection was made on a case by case basis in order to offer films which intended to destabilise flattening narratives of the region.
Dr Leila Mukhida, (She/Her) Lecturer in Modern German Studies, University of Cambridge, chaired the first panel on the topic of Erasure, Resurrection and Movement - Queer Migrations in and from SWANA . The panellists were Dr Sabiha Allouche, (She/Her) Lecturer in Middle East Politics, University of Exeter, UK; Mahtab Pishghadam, (She/Her) film director, Iran and Lola Silva, (She/Her) international media researcher and co-founder of International Feminist Art Festival – Chouftouhonna in Tunisia.
Screenshot from Panel 1
The second panel Imagining queer futures for SWANA, was chaired by artist and activist Jade Pollard-Crowe (She/Her) and hosted Selim Mourad, (He/Him) film director, Lebanon; Ghadir al Shafie, (She/Her) director of Aswat- Palestinian Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms which operates Kooz - Queer Film Festival, Palestine; Dr Sima Shakhsari, (They/Them) associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexualities Studies, University of Minnesota, US and Ümit Ünal, (He/Him) film director, Turkey/UK.
Screenshot from Panel 2
The invited guests for the conversations included:
- Weema Askri,(They/Them) general coordinator of Mawjoudin Queer Film Festival in Tunis, and Mawjoudin’s project officer, working with queer refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia.
- Joseph Gebrael, (He/Him) co-director of Houwa (2018), Libanon.Filmmaker and choreographer currently based in France.
- İris Mozalar, (She/Her) Kurdish feminist trans LGBTI+ activist, DJ and performer, cast member of the biographical documentary İris (2019), Turkey.
- Eve Osman, (She/Her) Sudanese-American queer BIPoC LGBT+ activist based in Munich, Germany.
- Mouaad el Salem, (He/Him) director, debuting with This Day Won’t Last (2020), Tunisia.
- riham sheble, (She/Her) a queer(ing) Afro-Arab freelance researcher, translator and editor, Egypt, MA candidate at the Department of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwickformer, UK.
- Misha Yakovlev, (They/Them) PhD student in Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.
Other funders and partners include the lgbtQ@CAM, Encompass Network and National Lottery. The festival had ‘Queer’ Asia Collective as guest curators.
