Date
6-8:30pm 7 July
Light House Cinema
Smithfield, D07 R6YE
Tickets
Shasha Movies
Eiman Mirghani, Jamil McGinnis, Malak Mroueh, Natalie Shirinian, Rafik Greiss, Randa Maroufi, and Tarek Lakhrissi
Shasha Movies is the independent streaming service for South-West Asian and North African cinema. For PhotoIreland Festival, Shasha Movies presents a selection of films from their distribution library, curated in response to the festival. Featuring the films of Eiman Mirghani, Jamil McGinnis, Malak Mroueh, Natalie Shirinian, Rafik Greiss, Randa Maroufi, and Tarek Lakhrissi.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A between Róisín Tapponi, founder of Shasha Movies, and Aisha Bolaji, Director and Screenwriter.
Shasha Movies is available to watch online globally with English subtitles. Subscribe today via shashamovies.com.
RUNNING ORDER
La Grand Safae (2014, 16′) dir. Randa Maroufi
The film is loosely inspired by a character known as the Great Safae. A trans woman, she spent a period of her life as a domestic worker in a family who were not aware of her real sexual identity.
Out of the Blue (2017, 13’) dir. Tarek Lakhrissi
The film takes place at a radical moment in time, when a politically conservative era is suddenly coming to an end. The characters explore ideas of freedom and liberty, self-determination and queer futurity.
Parev Mama (2021, 11’) dir. Natalie Shirinian
The film follows Natalie, who is a lesbian, as she is faced with the repercussions of her traditional Armenian mother when coming home late after a night out with her girlfriend. The lead is on a journey of truth, coming to terms with being honest with her mother about her sexuality, and living her life for herself outside the constraints of her culture’s expectations.
The Bleaching Syndrome (2018, 19’) dir. Eiman Mirghani
After a failed attempt to make a documentary about a Sudanese woman who bleaches her skin, filmmaker Eiman Mirghani turns the camera around to discover her own relationship with her skin color and how it has affected her life as a young, Afro-Arab woman living in the Middle East.
As Time Passes (2022, 14′) dir. Jamil McGinnis
Through journal entries, a mother’s words, neighborhood stories, and existential inquiries, the film tries to search for meaning in a hostile environment.
Rupture Divine (2018, 20′) dir. Malak Mroueh
The story of Maya, who is a lesbian, and goes through electroshock conversion therapy, and starts to hallucinate after her mother discovers her relationship with a girl.
Untitled (VHS Tape) (2023, 6’) dir. Rafik Greiss
A collaborative film made by Rafik Greiss and Ser Serpas as they explore Paris and its outskirts while constructing temporary sculptures with found material.
[Image: Still from La Grand Safae, Randa Maroufi]
- Eiman Mirghani
- Jamil McGinnis
- Malak Mroueh
- Natalie Shirinian
- Rafik Greiss
- Randa Maroufi
- Tarek Lakhrissi
- Róisín Tapponi
- Aisha Bolaji
Eiman Mirghani is an independent Sudanese filmmaker. After graduating in Media and Film Studies from the University of Nottingham, Eiman began her career as an assistant director with the Doha Film Institute. “Is That All There Is?”, her first short film, is a neo-noir experiment within an Arab space.
Jamil McGinnis is a Turkish and African American filmmaker/photographer originally from Kaiserslautern, Germany. His interest in film began at a young age with an extensive background in photography. He earned a BA from the business school at Florida A&M University and worked on Wall Street as a stockbroker before he entered the film industry. He has worked as a producer at Droga5, one of the top advertising agencies in the country.
Malak Mroueh is a filmmaker born in Nabatieh. She has directed several short films around the themes of women’s sexuality, queer bodies and violence.
Natalie Shirinian is an award winning director, actress, screenwriter, and the founder of the Los Angeles based production company NES FILMS. She takes an intimate and dramatic approach to her storytelling through narrative, documentary and conceptual films.
Rafik Greiss is an Irish-born Egyptian artist based in Paris, France. Numerous key galleries and museums such as Balice Hertling, Paris (rue des Gravilliers) have featured Rafik Greiss’s work in the past.
Born in 1987 in Casablanca, Randa Maroufi currently lives and works in Paris. Belonging to the generation that grew up in an era dominated by image, she collects them with as much eagerness as suspicion, and ceaselessly questions their veracity. She prefers to put her ambiguous fictions in the service of reality, and the field of her experimentation encompasses the occupation of public space and gender issues, of which she highlights the founding mechanisms.
Tarek Lakhrissi (lives and works in Paris) is a French artist and poet with a background in literature who explores sociopolitical narratives and speculative situations of transformation and magic through text, film, installation, and performance. Lakhrissi has been exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions.
Róisín Tapponi is a film curator, critic and PhD candidate based in London. She is the Founder CEO of SHASHA Movies. She has also founded Habibi Collective, ART WORK Magazine and Independent Iraqi Film Festival (IIFF). She is Iraqi & Irish based in London.
Aisha Bolaji is a director, screenwriter, producer and curator who creates colourful, fun and fantastical films and music videos . They were part of WEFT Studio and wrote for the Writers Guild’s ‘Writers Room’ initiative. Their screenplay ‘Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky’ was shortlisted in the Virgin Media Discovers Short Film Competition 2022 and received a Special Jury Mention at the Catalyst International Film Festival 2023. Aisha is also involved in various Irish film festivals as a programmer and curator (DIFF, Catalyst, Her IFF etc.). They also advocate for representation in media as the co-founder and creative director of The GALPAL Collective.