The 12Project

My birthday was on the 3rd of April 2020 and for the first time, I celebrated it by myself. That’s why I wanted to send you a film « Bellydance Vogue » that I did in the confinement filmed while quarantine using VHS app and combining it with archive films that I have from the 80-90s.

Hadi stares at the camera and begins to get dressed. As he prepares himself, he expresses his thoughts on the current situation, how much discrimination and amalgams weigh on him, he who wears the double stigmatizing hat of gay & Arab. What to do with this weight?

Tripoli, North Lebanon. At 64, Maha has just taken her retirement from teaching. This new life puts her in the face of her loneliness as a divorced woman, whose children have left their home to live abroad for years now. The sole company of her faithful neighbors is no longer enough for Maha to fight the terrible feeling of emptiness and boredom in which she now finds herself. But had not she always dreamed of being an astronaut? And what if she lets herself drift to this promise of escape?

In the 19th century, in the Levant region, Salma Zahore, along with her parents and neighbors, participated in a photoshoot using a long exposure technique. At the end of it, Salma decided to take off her coat, revealing her body. Unaware of the chaos this gesture could cause within her circle, she did not know it could lead to shame (عيب).

Sultana of New York is a Palestinian drag queen, performer, and artist. "Sultana’s Rein" 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.

Abjad Ḥawaz takes its name from the ancient ordering of the Arabic alphabet. Through the body of Salma Zahore, each letter is danced and embodied in the ruins of Barcelona. Blending fashion, music, poetry, and performance, the film reclaims a language often feared and misunderstood, turning it into a celebration of identity, resilience, and artistic freedom.

"The mysterious creature, Salma, realizes that being herself has repercussions on her life and that she will never be accepted as she is. So she decides to ask the creatress of this world for mercy." The film was shot in super 8 in-camera edited. It was inspired by the letter sent by Charles Baudelaire to the Empress Eugenie after being censored and fined for his book "Les fleurs du mal". The reason of the condemnation: offense to public morals and good manners as well as offense to religious morality.