Mohamad Abdouni

Four trans women from Lebanon—Em Abed, Jamal Abdo, Antonella, and Mama Jad—recount lives shaped by resilience, love, and loss. Their stories span from the groundbreaking state-funded gender-affirming surgery of 1997 to the disappearance of Beirut’s once-safe queer spaces. Through personal photographs, archival footage, and recollections of places like the Raouche strip, their voices resurrect a forgotten history of community and survival amid war and oppression. Interwoven with the filmmaker’s own journey of self-discovery, this intimate documentary traces four decades of trans life in Beirut, celebrating friendship, identity, and the enduring spirit of chosen family.

Anya Kneez is an Arab Drag Queen who left Brooklyn in the Summer of 2012, after 23 years in America, and moved back home to live with her parents in Beirut, Lebanon. Five years later, at 28, Anya still struggles with the values of a Middle Eastern society that remains unable to accommodate her lifestyle. The short form documentary offers a glimpse into the life of the boy who brought Drag from the slums of Brooklyn to the clubs of Beirut.