A message
A Message is an experimental short-form documentary by trans Palestinian artist Mama Ganuush in collaboration with the Lebanese artist Nasri Sayegh, capturing raw, unmediated protest and performance in the face of “
Pinkwashing propaganda. Rejecting the flattening narrative of tragedy, the film posits Palestinian Futurism: a framework in which those in exile are not merely survivors, but the architects of a liberated cultural and political future.
Content & Accessibility Advisory: This film is intended for educational workshops and community feedback. It contains sensitive material presented with the aim of historical and emotional accuracy. Auditory: contains screaming | Verbal: explicit references to sexual violence and mass atrocity | Archival: brief political media clips of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, used for contextual juxtaposition.
About the Filmmakers: Mama Ganuush (they/them) is a trans Palestinian performance artist, filmmaker, and organizer based between San Francisco (Occupied Ohlone Territory) and Lisbon. Their work weaves Palestinian folk art, Egyptian golden-era dance, and the spontaneous energy of clown and theater into a tangible vision of liberation. They are the founder of the Heritage Activists and Liberation Artists (HALA) Collective, curator of PinkWash and Cabaret Palestina, and the force behind the JAHA Film Festival and the JAHA Liberation Film School, which offers free education on trans identity and decolonial storytelling.
Nasri Sayegh (he/him) is a Lebanese-French visual artist, writer, DJ, and performer, born in Lebanon in 1978. Working across photography, video, text, collage, and objects, his practice navigates the construction and erosion of memory in a landscape where histories remain fragmented and narratives severed. Drawing from personal, familial, and broader archival materials, Sayegh composes visual constellations that evoke an atlas or a cabinet of memory.
His work explores the fleeting, the blurred, and the ephemeral—images and traces that risk vanishing at any moment. Through processes of deconstruction and transformation, he traces intimate narratives shaped by impulse, absence, and recollection. His multidisciplinary approach brings together image and text in fragile assemblages that resist erasure, proposing a space where memory is continuously reconfigured between amnesia and persistence. His work has been exhibited in Lebanon, France, and Dubai, and is currently presented at the Biennale of Sydney 2026.
Explore Related Projects: JAHAfilmfestival.comTheHalaCollective.com
Technical Information: Digital Video· English · Runtime: 4:55 · Year: 2026