Aywa Watch Party - Queer Cinema for Palestine Film Festival

Join us for a watch party of an incredible selection from Queer Cinema for Palestine Film Festival! We’ll be serving up a special Aywa cocktail or two, and food/drink vendors are TBA. Please bring your vaccine card, or a photo of it.

Friday, November 19th

Doors at 7pm, Screening at 7:30pm

@ Facility Theatre (1138 N. California Ave) in Humboldt Park

Pay what you can for your ticket to reserve a seat, you can always donate at the door!

The space is wheelchair accessible, but the bathroom is not. Nearest accessible bathroom is TBA, but we suspect it is the Dunkin Donuts around the corner. The program is listed below and is expected to run til 9:15pm. We’ll keep space open afterwards for about an hour to mix and mingle, and then we’re heading down the street to Esmeralda’s Lounge!

Thank you to Aswat and PACBI for partnering with us to make this screening happen!

FILM LIST:

DAWOUD, YA YONATHAI داود، یا یوناثاي, Qais Assali, 2020, United States (6 min) – Performative video with an embodiment of Palestinian educator, Khalil Al Sakakini.

HOURIA, Raafat Hattab, 2011, Palestine, (7 min) 

– While Hattab’s Houria locates freedom in the sexless mermaid, whose human anatomy is truncated from the waist down, his “Bride of Palestine” alter ego uses gender as a tool to problematize political oppression.

POSITIONS, Justin Ducharme, 2019, Musqueam (12 min) – A simple and naturalistic approach to a day in the life of a two-spirit, male sex worker as he visits his clients.

MARCO, Saleem Haddad, 2018, UK (22 min) – Omar has been living in London for a decade. One evening, restless after another pleading voicemail from his mother, he invites over Marco, a Spanish student newly arrived in London, who’s doing sex work to earn some extra cash. But when Marco arrives, Omar can’t shake the feeling that something’s not quite right about the young man. As their night together progresses truths are revealed, Omar discovers the lengths that Marco has gone to arrive in London.

**20 minute intermission**

CINEMA AL FOUAD, Mohamed Soueid, Lebanon, 1993 (41 min) — A documentary on the life and ambitions of a young Syrian trans woman. The video follows her journey from soldier to cabaret dancer in an effort to raise funds for her sex-change operation. Shot in Beirut, Cinema Al Fouad weaves a complex and multi-layered story of sexuality, identity and desire and paints a compelling portrait of its subject.