Ways of Seeing: Across Homelands

This month's liqa'a shahri is a visual correspondence across homelands, between photographer Gabriel Ferneini (Lebanon), artist and architect Batoul Faour (Lebanon), photographer Mohammed Nammoor (Syria) and photographer, writer and researcher Maen Hammad (Palestine).

The speakers will sit together and share their reflections on, and engagements with their own work and each other's work.

Batoul Faour 

Batoul Faour is a visual artist and architect operating at the intersection of writing, drawing, and moving images. Her work explores the tensions between the physical and metaphorical values of land and space to bring forth its often-unspoken histories and politics. Her writing has been published in MIT’s Thresholds Journal, Columbia University’s Avery Review (essay prize winner of 2021), and University of Minnesota’s Future Anterior Journal. She holds an MArch from the University of Toronto, and a BArch from the American University of Beirut where she currently teaches.

Maen Hammad

Maen is a documentary photographer, writer, and researcher. Born in Palestine and raised in the suburbs of Michigan, he is currently based in Ramallah. Maen has exhibited his images internationally, and his work is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Maen has had his thoughts and images published in  TIME, Huck Magazine, Dazed MENA and Caravan Magazine. He was awarded the Magnum Foundation’s Counter Histories Fellowship, selected for the Joop Swart Masterclass, and is a recipient of the Arab Documentary Photography Program. He holds a MA in international affairs from the George Washington University. Besides Maen’s work in documentary photography, he is also a human rights researcher and campaigner.

Mohammed Nammoor

Nammoor is a Syrian photographer born in Damascus (1992). Since 2017, he has developed a visual practice that merges documentary photography, video, and intimate storytelling, seeking to explore the personal and collective experiences shaped by war, displacement, and social injustice. His work revolves around themes of childhood, identity, and life on the margins, focusing on unheard stories within Syrian society.

He is active in the field of editorial and journalistic photography, and has collaborated with international media outlets such as The New York Times, NZZ, WOZ, Libération, Der Spiegel, and Dazed. He was awarded the Arab Documentary Photography Program grant (AFAC, Magnum Foundation, Prince Claus Fund), and was also a fellow of the program in 2025.

His work has been exhibited in international shows and festivals including Tasweer Biennale in Qatar (2025), OIB in Lebanon (2025), Darkroom in Jordan (2024), as well as in Paris, Weimar, and Oviedo. His practice is rooted in a human-centered approach that seeks to dismantle stereotypes and reconstruct narratives reflecting the complex depth of the Syrian experience.

Gabriel Ferneini

Gabriel is a photographer based in Beirut. His work questions systemic and self-imposed borders and the role of images in constructing or dismantling them.

He has collaborated with national and international publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Mediapart, DAZED, and Le M, as well as with organizations including UN Women and Mercy Corps.

In 2022, he was selected for the Arab Documentary Photography Program by the Magnum Foundation and the Prince Claus Fund for his project Doumari. In 2025, he was chosen to take part in the Joop Swart Masterclass with World Press Photo.

A self-taught photographer, Gabriel holds an MA in Political Science and International Relations. He has worked in disaster management and recovery across SWANA. Both captivated by the region and weary of hearing that “things were better before,” his disillusionment with conventional political actors has reaffirmed his belief in the power of individual stories to bear witness and inspire collective change.

Daffa Screenings continue this week, this month the program is tackling the general theme of montage.

Rania Stephan
Lebanon/War
2006, 47'

Shot in the urgency of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, these eight short videos present a ledger of how average Lebanese citizens negotiated their daily lives during and after the war. Lebanon/War comprises compelling vignettes of a street cleaner in the deserted Martyr’s Square, a volunteer rescue worker in the southern suburbs, residents from the south displaced and relocated to public schools, and parents and kin during an informal memorial celebration. Far from the media frenzy, the tragedy of war is recorded with humility and simplicity.

and

Fatima Joumaa
From My Mother’s Novel
2025, 8'

Fatima, Layla’s daughter, after capturing moments in Southern Lebanon, returns to her home to hide within the folds of her mother's book.

The screenings will be be followed by a discussion.

Jibal is a not-for-profit association that promotes social and environmental justice in Lebanon. Its work focuses on ensuring the fair and equitable distribution of environmental and social benefits - and burdens - through collective organization, accessible knowledge, and regenerative principles.

One of Jibal’s initiatives, Land Stories, is a storytelling project centered on Lebanon and the wider region. All stories portray people and the crops they grow, from wheat and apples to citrus and aubergine, on land that was central to the beginnings of world agricultural history. 

Jibal will present their project Land Stories and share their specific stories and their methodologies.

Daffa Screenings continue this week, this month the program is tackling the general theme of montage.

Ziad Rahbani
Houdou Nisbi

1985/ 90'

A trip with Ziad Rahbani and his team into the making of "Houdou Nisbi".

The opening night of the Aswat Festival, co-organized by IFPO and IRD en Méditerranée, will be hosted in the shared auditorium at AIF. 
This event will showcase a segment titled 'Discovering – Fictionalising', featuring a selection of film screenings presented by May Ziadé and Anaïs Farine.

𝗡𝗲𝗼 𝗡𝗮𝗵𝗱𝗮
 A film by May Ziadé  
 UK | 2023  
 13 min | English, with Arabic subtitles  

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀
 A film by Mahasen Nasser-Eldin  
 Palestine | 2012  
 22 min | Arabic, with English subtitles  

𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗢𝗳 𝗔 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗘𝘆𝗲 #𝟭
 A film by Rania Stephan  
 Lebanon | 2015  
 31 min | Arabic, with English subtitles  

The Aswat Festival is a space for meeting and training, sharing experiences, skills, and ideas, dedicated to alternative scientific creation and writing in and for the Arab world.

To view Aswat Festival’s full programme, please visit the IFPO website.

𝗹𝗶𝗾𝗮’𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗵𝗿𝗶 𝟲 | 

For this month's liqa’a shahri we are participating in Palestine Cinema Days Around the World 2025.

Join us for the screenings of:

The Dupes (1972, 107’) by Tewfik Saleh at 2:30pm
The Dupes, one of the first Arab films to address the Palestinian question, is a stark and stately black-and-white film that traces the destinies of three different men brought together by their dispossession, their despair, and their hope for a better future.

Screening of The Dupes is in collaboration with Nadi Lekol Nas.

When I First Saw You (2012, 98’) by Annemarie Jacir at 4:30pm
Jordan, 1967. Thousands of refugees pour across the border from Palestine. Having been separated from his father, Tarek, 11, and his mother, Ghaydaa, are placed in “temporary” camps. Finding difficulty adjusting to life in the camps and longing to be reunited with his father, Tarek seeks a way out.

Palestine Cinema Days is a global initiative by Film Lab Palestine, held annually on the sombre anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. If you missed The Dupes, you can catch it at T Marbouta at 6:30 PM on November 1, as well as other screenings on November 2, 3, and 4. Check their page for the detailed program. 
 

T Marbouta's Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/tmarbouta/

Palestine Film Lab Website: https://flp.ps/node/852