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Free admission! The screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Raed Rafei and Chistophe Khatrib, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Theatre Film & Digital Production at UC Riverside.

Synopsis

While living abroad, a filmmaker returns to Tripoli, Lebanon to confront a hometown that once rejected him as a queer child. With a microphone in hand, he walks around coffee shops, public squares and a park to ask the city’s inhabitants about their cultural and social beliefs and their embrace of new ideas.

Gradually, he meets a group of marginalized individuals whose eccentric life choices contradict the general lifestyle in this religiously and socially conservative city. Through intimate conversations with a communist activist, a queer music producer and other unconventional characters, he explores the complicated relations one forms with a hometown in crisis. This contemplative urban symphony paints a picture of a city trapped in a self-spun web, paralyzed by a deep economic crisis, a faltering revolution, and a looming doomsday.

About the filmmaker

Raed Rafei is a filmmaker, researcher, and multimedia journalist. Rafei directed award-winning documentaries and experimental films. His films ‘74 (The Reconstitution of a Struggle)’, ‘Here I am … Here You are’, ‘Salam’ and ‘Al-Atlal (The Ruins)’ have screened at international film festivals and venues like the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Doc Lisboa, Visions du Réel, and the Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley.

He is an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on queer cinema in the Arab region and its diasporas. As a journalist, he worked for international publications like The Los Angeles Times and news outlets like CNN and Al-Jazeera Documentary Channel. Rafei holds a PhD in Film and Digital Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an MA in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

Trailer

Film Details

Directors: Raed Rafei
Running Time: 88 minutes
Country: Lebanon
Release Year: 2024
Rated: Unrated

Reviews

“Tripoli – A Tale of Three Cities celebrates this enigmatic place and its people with an open mind and through a loving, compassionate lens, with nostalgia but also hope for the future, and with an exceptional eye for detail and the humanity in everyone.” – Nicole Sante, Business Doc Europe