Photo Booth
110 minutes
John Greyson
Documentary / Experimental
2022 - Canada
World Premiere
English
Outraged by the 2021 bombing of Gaza, Palestinian queer activists Hamza (Sam Al Esai) and Walid (Ramzi Zain) recruit novelist Jean Genet (John Gilbert) to sabotage the Eurovision song contest in Jericho. Their method? Secure the collaboration of Buddy and Pedro, Toronto’s famous naked gay penguins...
The emergence of queer BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) as a dynamic Palestinian-led global movement is brought to vivid life through interviews and actions, opera and agitprop, protests and pranks. Recounting fifteen years of passionate activism in Toronto and worldwide, Photo Booth juxtaposes a surreal operatic narrative with documentary scenes that explore pride and pink-washing, gay soldiers and homo-nationalism, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, and the accelerating weaponization of anti-Semitism.
Queer activists Ghadir Shafie, Judith Butler, Ali Abunimah, and others recount the victories and set-backs of this emerging social justice movement. In his final performance, John Gilbert plays a bewildered Genet, attempting to engage with the digital queer activism of a new century, trying to navigate his way through the diverse challenges of megaphones and photo booths, twelve-tone and split-screen, frisbees and teargas, Gaga and Gaza, solidarity and silence…
Content Advisory: male nudity
Followed By Q&A with director John Greyson
