HOMECOMING QUEENZ
Video 11:15 | Shot by IPhone and Samsung | 2012
"Homecoming Queenz" is a collaborative work between artist Oz Marinov and myself, documenting an art performance captured entirely on smartphones at Lydd Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport). This piece captures my return from abroad, dressed in full drag, as I navigate the public space of the airport.
This performance is a bold statement on visibility, identity, and the act of reclaiming space, confronting societal norms and expectations head-on. The work challenges conventional ideas of self-expression and public behavior by choosing to perform in drag in such a prominent location. It highlights the complex and often hostile environment created by the apartheid regime in Israel, where individuals are treated as subhuman based on their appearance and choices, such as how they dress. The aggressive treatment I faced at the airport underscores the pervasive discrimination and the regime's efforts to maintain a specific social order, including the phenomenon of pink-washing, where LGBTQ+ rights are superficially promoted while masking the ongoing oppression of marginalized communities and occupied land.
Languages: Arabic and Hebrew.
Subtitles: English
Previous and Current Screenings in Festivals, Exhibitions, and Artist Talks:
- 2025 Fifth Academic Training and Research Conference on Queer Studies of Polymorfia, València
- 2024 MOSTERA QUE SESEJO Brazilian Film Festival Rio de Janeiro
- 2024 9ISSASSNA FILM FESTIVAL MARRAKECH
- 2024 MIX CPH LGBTQIA+ Film Festival
- 2024 Palestinian Film Festival Amsterdam
- 2024 Oslo/Fusion Int. Film Festival
- 2024 Queer Lisboa and Queer Porto
- 2024 KULTURNATTEN ABF AND CINEMA QUEER Film Festival in Stockholm
- 2023 “The winds blow waves in all directions” in Malta
- 2023 “FOGGY: Palestine Solidarity, Cinema & The Archive” in Montreal
- 2023 Toronto Queer Film Festival
- 2023 “Queer Cinema for Palestine” in Amsterdam
- 2020 Columbia University, Part of Kooz Queer Film Festival, *Aswat*
- 2018 Swarthmore College, Part of Artist talk: “Performance art and introduction to Drag culture in Palestine”
- 2016 “After the Last Sky” Group Exhibition at Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin
- 2016 “LesGaiCineMad” in Madrid
- 2015 Brown University, Part of: “Sexualities and Queer Imaginaries Conference”
- 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Part of Middle Eastern Studies Center Class.
2014 Harvard University, Part of “Existence is Resistance: The Role of Art and Gender as Experienced by a Palestinian Drag Queen