Screenprints: A Maamoul Press Film Series
SHATHAYA SHORT FILMS
Sept. 2, 2026
This film screening + fundraiser presented the U.S. premiere of new short films from Lebanon, created by participants from the Lebanon-based Shathaya Moving Image Workshop. These films, by four young women from South Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, all directly affected by war, emerge from the starting point of fragments—personal objects, photographs, archival material—to explore image, memory, the political thresholds of looking, and counter-narratives of resistance.
Shathaya (Arabic for Fragments) is a collective participatory project by Studio Morabaa that creates a space for image-makers and filmmakers to develop visual projects through critical discussion, experimentation, mentorship, and the building of a collaborative artistic community.
Held at Talking Dolls in Detroit, all ticket and concession sales supported ongoing mutual aid efforts in Lebanon, alongside a Maamoul Press pop-up shop in support of artist and mutual aid efforts in both Lebanon and Gaza.
Films are in Arabic with English subtitles.
My Mother Who Never Grows Old (2026) dir. Zainab Saed (8:18 mins)
Guided by a voice recording of her mother, Zainab pieces together the story of a young woman standing at the threshold of death. In doing so, she uncovers the traces left behind in the faces preserved by old photographs. The journey becomes an act of restoring fractured memory while questioning the meaning of homeland and what survives when everything else has been lost.
Guided by a voice recording of her mother, Zainab pieces together the story of a young woman standing at the threshold of death. In doing so, she uncovers the traces left behind in the faces preserved by old photographs. The journey becomes an act of restoring fractured memory while questioning the meaning of homeland and what survives when everything else has been lost.
Upon Returning Home (2026) dir. Fatima Alaadin (9:44 mins)
With a ceasefire announced, Fatima hits the road to her southern Lebanese hometown, Majdal Selm. In her now-rubbled grandfather's house, she excavates for an anchor, for meaning. A year after finding and quietly safeguarding a treasured possession of a martyr, Fatima decides to hand it over to his parents. However, she is faced with a dilemma: What defines right from wrong in times of crisis? Can silence be well-intended? Or is it always a source of harm?
With a ceasefire announced, Fatima hits the road to her southern Lebanese hometown, Majdal Selm. In her now-rubbled grandfather's house, she excavates for an anchor, for meaning. A year after finding and quietly safeguarding a treasured possession of a martyr, Fatima decides to hand it over to his parents. However, she is faced with a dilemma: What defines right from wrong in times of crisis? Can silence be well-intended? Or is it always a source of harm?
One Verse For All (2026) dir. Rayan Bassam (10 mins)
Rayan meets Abbas, Abdullah, and Ali at the Martyrs' Cemetery in Aainata, where together they begin searching through what remains of the cemetery after it was destroyed by the Israeli military during the 2024 war. As they explore, her friends share their stories about the place, their connection to it, and the people buried there before its destruction—and how that relationship has endured to this day.
Rayan meets Abbas, Abdullah, and Ali at the Martyrs' Cemetery in Aainata, where together they begin searching through what remains of the cemetery after it was destroyed by the Israeli military during the 2024 war. As they explore, her friends share their stories about the place, their connection to it, and the people buried there before its destruction—and how that relationship has endured to this day.
My First Homeland (2026) dir. Zahraa Watfa (8 mins)
At the eastern wall of a house scattered by the war, Zahraa returns to confront the absence of her uncle.
At the eastern wall of a house scattered by the war, Zahraa returns to confront the absence of her uncle.
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