Raed El Rafei’s new film will premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

Raed El Rafei, assistant professor of film and media studies in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, will premiere his new film at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November.

In “Tripoli/A Tale of Three Cities,” the queer filmmaker returns to his Lebanon hometown. His quest to confront the city that once rejected him leads to interviews with a cross-section of the city’s inhabitants about a wide range of topics, with several recurring protagonists, including a queer artist and a young politician.

“Through cinema, I found ways to reorient myself in the city,” said Rafei. He said he used a queer lens and editing style to look at his hometown in a new light, aiming to combat assumptions about it as a rigid, conservative and oppressive place.

Rafei’s past films — “74 (The Reconstitution of a Struggle),” “Here I am ... Here You are,” “Salam” and “Al-Atlal (The Ruins)” — have screened at international film festivals and venues like the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley, California.

Photography by Luciano Sprovieri