Photo Booth [In-Person Only]

This event took place Jun 12 - Jun 16, 2024

Sliding scale admission, pay what you can: $0–25

John Greyson
Canada
2022
1h 53m

About

(John Greyson, Canada, 2022, 113 min, in English, French & Arabic with English subtitles)

In this split-screen opera-documentary about boycott activism, two Palestinian brothers plot with novelist Jean Genet in Jericho to sabotage the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. Their method? Secure the collaboration of Buddy and Pedro, Toronto’s famous naked gay singing penguins. Photo Booth weaves together diverse doc, opera, and video art scenes, blending humour and song to explore the politics of boycott, staged in a surreal landscape of megaphones and photo booths, twelve-tone and split-screen, frisbees and teargas, Gaga and Gaza, solidarity and silence…

Synopsis courtesy of the filmmaker.

Click for Accessibility Info

Ticketing, concessions, cinemas, restrooms, and our public edit lab are located on Northwest Film Forum’s ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible. All doors in Northwest Film Forum are non-motorized, and may require staff assistance to open. Our upstairs workshop room is not wheelchair accessible.

The majority of seats in our main cinema are 21″ wide from armrest to armrest; some seats are 19″ wide. We are working on creating the option of removable armrests!

We have a limited number of assistive listening devices available for programs hosted in our larger theater, Cinema 1. These devices are maintained by the Technical Director, and can be requested at the ticketing and concessions counter. Also available at the front desk is a Sensory Kit you can borrow, which includes a Communication Card, noise-reducing headphones, and fidget toys.

The Forum does NOT have assistive devices for the visually impaired, and is not (yet) a scent-free venue. Our commitment to increasing access for our audiences is ongoing, and we welcome all public input on the subject!

If you have additional specific questions about accessibility at our venue, please contact our Patron Services Manager at suji@nwfilmforum.org. Our phone number (206-329-2629) is voicemail-only, but we check it often.

Made possible due to a grant from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, in partnership with Sensory Access, our Sensory Access document presents a visual and descriptive walk-through of the NWFF space. View it in advance of attending an in-person event at bit.ly/nwffsocialnarrativepdf, in order to prepare yourself for the experience.

⚠️ COVID-19 Policies ⚠️

NWFF patrons will be required to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them. We are not currently checking vaccination cards. Recent variants of COVID-19 readily infect and spread between individuals regardless of vaccination status.

Read more about NWFF’s policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations here.

Wait, what??

Full synopsis:

Outraged by the 2021 bombing of Gaza, Palestinian queer activist Hamza (Sam Al Esai) and his brother 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 singing 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…


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Northwest Film Forum
1515 12th Ave,

Seattle, WA 98122

206 329 2629


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