NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE
“I’ve always imagined you and me sitting out in the sun, hand in hand, free at last. We spoke of all the places we would go if we could. Yet you are gone now. If I had known the bombs falling around us would take you from me, I would have told the world how I adored you more than anything. I’m sorry I was a coward.” – Words of a queer Palestinian, submitted to Queering the Map
NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE confronts a brutal truth. While queer lives are celebrated and marketed in some parts of the world, elsewhere they are being bombed, silenced, and erased.
As Palestine is reduced to rubble and its people fight for survival, this programme stands in unwavering solidarity. It amplifies queer voices that refuse to be erased by genocide, pinkwashing, or complicity.
Featuring urgent works from Palestine, the diaspora, and Lebanon, this programme gathers stories of queer love, loss, resistance, and survival. Each film defies erasure, insisting on presence over silence. These works reject the idea that queerness can be separated from the violence, displacement, and repression that shapes the lives of those it affects. Some of these stories emerge from exile, tracing the long shadows of conflict and the quiet resilience of those still carrying memory across oceans.
Rooted in the Palestinian struggle, NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE also reflects broader realities of queer Arab life under occupation, exile, and authoritarian rule. Across borders and identities, these films speak to the endurance of those living under systems of state violence and to the radical imagination it takes to survive them.
In a time when visibility is weaponised, we refuse silence. There is no queer liberation without the liberation of Palestine. There is no pride in genocide. Liberation for Palestine is liberation for us all.
Following the screening, there will be a discussion with No Pride in Genocide Glasgow and Solidarity Screenings Glasgow, inviting audiences to engage with these urgent issues and reflect on the power of solidarity.
Curated by Huss.
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Accessibility
This programme has:
- Arabic and English audio with English language Descriptive Subtitles
- English-BSL interpretation for introduction and panel discussion
- Live Captioning for introduction and panel discussion
This screening is 74 minutes long and has an age recommendation of N/C 18+.
You can find out more information about accessibility at SQIFF 2025 here. If you have any questions about accessibility at SQIFF 2025, please get in touch with us at [email protected] or by phone on 07873 331 036.
Films in this programme include:
Blood Like Water, Dir. Dima Hamdan, 2023, Palestine, 13 min
When a Palestinian man is blackmailed with footage of him having sex with another man, he and his family are forced to make a terrible decision: collaborate with the Israeli occupation or be publicly shamed. Based on true stories.
Content notes: Depiction of homophobia, physical assault, strong language. Discussion of harassment, illegal Israeli occupation, murder.
I Never Promised You a Jasmine Garden, Dir. Teyama Alkamli, 2023, Canada, 20 min
Tara, a queer Arab woman in her late 20s, attempts to suppress her internal emotional turbulence during a phone call with her best friend Sarab, with whom she is in love.
Content notes: Depiction of cigarette use.
Cinema Fouad, Dir. Mohamed Soueid, 1993, Lebanon, 41 min
Documentary portrait of Oscar Al-Halabiye, a Syrian trans woman in Beirut working as domestic worker and belly dancer. Through intimate scenes of daily life, she reflects on gender reassignment desires, mourning her Palestinian lover’s death, and facing societal aggressions that echo even in the filmmaker’s provocative interview style.
Content notes: Discussion of transphobia, violence.
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Supported by Screen Scotland, the BFI Audience Projects Fund and Film Hub Scotland (part of the BFI Film Audience Network), all awarding National Lottery funding.
Image Credit: Cinema Fouad, Dir. Mohamed Soueid, 1993