Artist Interview – Mohamad Abdouni in conversation with Julian Volz

About

ANYA KNEEZ: A Queen in Beirut is a documentary film that follows the life of a young man who revived the art of drag from Brooklyn to the clubs of Beirut. She returned to the Lebanese capital to care for her parents after 23 years in the US, and her alter ego, drag queen Anya Kneez, followed. Still in Beirut five years on, she continues to struggle with the values of a society that refuses to accept her lifestyle and forces her to lead a double life. 

The result is an intimate portrait that captures and contrasts both day-to-day scenes and the preparations that go into transforming into a drag queen. The camera follows Anya from the sketching of her outfits to performances on stage. ANYA KNEEZ: A queen in Beirut powerfully conveys the universal desire of every human being to find a place in society, to feel accepted, to live their authentic life. Anya emerges as a vision of a future in which diversity and self-actualization are celebrated.
 

Mohamad Abdouni (b. 1989, Lebanon) is an artist, photographer, filmmaker, and curator. He lives and works in Beirut and Istanbul. He is also Editor in-Chief and Creative Director of COLD CUTS magazine, a photo journal exploring queer cultures in the SWANA (Southwest Asia/North Africa) region. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the globe, including the Brooklyn Museum in New York (2017), FOAM Gallery in Amsterdam (2019), L’Institut du Monde Arabe and the Institut des Cultures d'Islam in Paris (2019), at Patel Brown in Toronto (2021), and the Lyon Biennale (2022). Commercially, he has shot for and directed films and music videos for well-known labels, brands and magazines including Gucci, Vogue US, Vogue Italy, Burberry, Puma, The New York Times, Slate, Fendi, Farfetch, GQ, King Kong, Dazed, AnOther, Nowness, Vice UK and L’officiel. His comprehensive research projects tend to focus on the untold stories of Beirut and uncovering the rich yet eradicated queer histories of the Arab-speaking region, specifically through documentaries and photo stories. 

www.mohamadabdouni.com

ANYA KNEEZ: A Queen in Beirut, 2017

Video, color, sound

10:53 min.
Courtesy of the artist and Marfa’, Beirut.