Doors 7:00p
Program 7:30p
Tickets $12

UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY

We’re thrilled to invite you to join UnionDocs and our friends from the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art for a screening of Raed Rafei’s Tripoli / A Tale of Three Cities, which premiered at IDFA in 2024 to an outpouring of praise. After the screening, Raed will be in conversation with multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Sinan Tuncay, whose work is on view at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art through April 12. 

Tripoli / A Tale of Three Cities tells the story of a queer filmmaker’s homecoming to Tripoli, Lebanon, a place where he’d previously been cast to the margins. Against the backdrop of revolutionary limbo and economic crisis, he sets out to find the people and beliefs that shape the city’s evolving identity. 

The resulting film is made up of strung-together portraits framed by Rafei’s curious and patient eye. Whether brief or extended, his interactions fill up with meaning, opening space for politics and identity to be discussed openly and for dreams and fears to be held. 

As he moves through the city, he’s also drawn towards the quiet, more poetic encounters that frame his path, like anonymous passerbys, the built environment, and its ephemera. 

In his searching attempt to understand a home marked by personal and political complexity, he weaves together a loving portrait of a place that is both familiar and estranged. 

Business Doc Europe writes, “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.”

Since premiering at IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film festival, Tripoli / A Tale of Three Cities has gone on to screen at queer film festivals internationally, like Queer Lisboa (Lisbon), Xposed (Berlin) and Mix Milan (Italy).

We’re thrilled to have Raed with us for the screening and to welcome multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Sinan Tuncay, who will lead the post-screening discussion. 

Sinan’s work is on view at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art as part of Soft Spaces, a series of installations featuring works by alumni of the Museum’s Fellowship program, curated by Chloe Ming, Assistant Curator / Exhibitions Manager. The exhibitions unfold over time, presenting works spanning digital art, painting, photography, filmmaking, performance, and installation by more than three dozen artists. Together, the works respond to the ever-changing landscape of LGBTQIA+ experience, informed by queer and trans histories, liberatory frameworks, and reclamations of identity.

Come through for a night you won’t want to miss!

Program

Tripoli / A Tale of Three Cities by Raed Rafei

88 mins, 2024, Lebanon.

A queer director returns to Tripoli, Lebanon to confront a hometown that once rejected him. He interviews the city’s inhabitants about their cultural and social beliefs and their embrace of new ideas. 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.

Program Duration: 88 mins

Bios

Raed (El) Rafei is a filmmaker, scholar, and multimedia journalist working across cinema, criticism, and queer cultural studies. His award-winning films have been screened at international festivals and institutions including IDFA (Amsterdam), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley). Rafei is currently an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Sinan Tuncay (b. 1986, Istanbul) is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker based between Istanbul and New York. Through photography, video, and installation, his work explores queer identity, masculinity, and collective memory, often using self-portraiture and digital collage to examine gender representation and cultural belonging. His practice also draws from the visual language of popular culture—particularly music and cinema—to construct theatrical and layered narratives.

Tuncay holds a BA in Visual Communication Design from Sabancı University and an MFA in Photography, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts. His work has been recognized with a NYFA Fellowship in Photography (2016) and the Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship (2020), and he served as a panelist for the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship (2018).

His work has been exhibited at United Photo Industries (New York), Musée de l’Elysée (Switzerland), Arter (Istanbul), and Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, among others.

On the occasion of this program, we invite donations from folks to support relief for those impacted by the war and ongoing violence and displacement in Lebanon.

We have two organizations here below as suggested spaces for sending funds if you are able to support, please do!

Beit Aam is a shared community space in Beirut, open all week for artists, students, collectives & more, hosting classes, screenings, workshops & discussions. Due to the volatile situation in Lebanon, Beit Aam is serving as a relief hub during crises, a coordination point for food distribution and shelter, and, in more stable moments, a cultural and political gathering space.  You can learn more and send SUPPORT HERE.

MOSAIC-MENA The MENA Organization for Services, Advocacy, Integration & Capacity Development, is a holistic program committed to improve the health and well-being of marginalized groups in Lebanon and beyond.

Through its presence and networks in Lebanon and the MENA region, MOSAIC’s strategic goal is to achieve the coexistence of people in their respective communities and national systems.

LGBTQIA+ individuals, as usual, face some of the most severe consequences, adding to the structural marginalisation they already experience in the Lebanese context. Queer people often cannot access mainstream shelters because those spaces are often unsafe or hostile, and in many cases, they are not welcome at all.

They are collecting donations to support the LGBTQIA+ community in Lebanon in these times via GoFundMe. You can learn more and SUPPORT HERE.