Kash Kash: Without Feathers We Can't Live preceded by The Hat
Saturday, September 30 at 4:30pm | The Main Cinema
About Kash Kash: Without Feathers We Can't Live
Dir. Lea Najjar | 2022 | Lebanon, Germany, Qatar | Arabic with English subtitles | 90 min
Beirut is torn apart by a corrupt political elite, anti-government protests, and one of the biggest explosions of the 21st century. But above the roofs of the city, emerged an unexpected bearer of hope: the pigeon game of chance, “Kash Hamam.” Every evening, in the golden sun above the labyrinthine streets, swarms of pigeons fly out of their cages and fill the sky. Their flight follows the choreography of an ancient tradition. Each player holds their own flock and lets it circle above their house, trying to lure the neighbors’ pigeons onto their own roof in order to catch the birds and expand their flock. During the dystopian times of the recent political collapse of Lebanon, the film embarks on a journey from roof to roof. When everything perishes, why do we hold on to flying? Kash Kash observes a city in turmoil from the perspective of three pigeon players and a young girl fighting to release her own birds.
Director's Bio
Lea Najjar was born in Vienna and grew up in Beirut, where she attended high school and university. She studied at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and finished her diploma in documentary directing with her first feature film, Kash Kash. Kash Kash celebrated its world premiere at the CPH: DOX in Copenhagen, where it won the NEXT:WAVE competition in the best debut and emerging filmmaker from the international scene categories.
About The Hat
Dir. Hadi Moussally | 2022 | Lebanon, France | French with English subtitles | 4 min
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 and Arab. What to do with this weight?
Director’s Bio
Hadi Moussally was born in Lebanon in 1987. He received a master’s degree in fiction cinema from Paris-Est Marne la Vallée University and a complementary masters in documentary and anthropological cinema from Paris X Nanterre University, in the course of Jean Rouch. In 2012, Moussally shifted toward the world of fashion and directed several experimental films, some of which received distinctions in festivals. In 2014, he made his first documentary on the end of his grandmother's life, and in 2016, a docu-portrait on a senior model. In 2018, he completed an experimental project on albinism Positive whose photos have been exhibited at the UNESCO, the City Hall of Paris, and Beirut Art Fair. In 2015, he founded the production unit H7O7 whose main objective is to enable the making and promotion of films and photos representing a mixture of genres between experimental, documentary, fashion, and fiction. His films have been acclaimed worldwide, having received more than twenty-five awards and 200 selections in international festivals. In 2020, he founded the collective “Hybrid Wave” with around 30 hybrid artists from around the world.
Presented by Mizna
Mizna is a critical platform for contemporary literature, film, art, and cultural production centering the work of Arab and Southwest Asian and North African artists. For more than twenty years, we have been creating a decolonized cultural space to reflect the expansiveness of our community and to foster exchange, examine ideas, and engage audiences in meaningful art.