Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT)

There are Things to Do (2023)
“Urvashi Vaid, an outspoken immigrant, lesbian and woman of color was an LGBTQ+ leader who believed in human rights for all people and helped shape the modern-day gay rights movement… Urvashi Vaid’s career spanned four decades of movement-leading activism & philanthropic work. She was the Executive Director of the National LGBTQ+ Task Force and the first woman of color to lead a national LGBTQ+ organization. She is author of several books including Virtual Equality published in 1995 and reminds us THERE ARE THINGS TO DO in championing equal rights and that the best place to start is at home.”


Unity Mosque (2022)
“After having to hide their relationship while making the Hajj, Imam El-Farouk and his husband Troy co-founded Unity Mosque in Toronto, one of the world's first Queer-affirming and gender-equal mosques. Though the mosque (and filmmaker) receives threats and hate speech, the mosque forges on, playing a life-saving role in the lives of its members.”
Winner: BEST DIRECTION - LGBTQ Toronto Film Festival


Beirut Dreams in Color (2022)
“At a concert in Cairo, one of the biggest bands in the Middle East, Mashrou’ Leila, energizes a crowd of 35,000 people. On stage, the charismatic lead singer, Hamed, the first openly gay rock star in the Arab world, faces a sea of swaying flickering lights. Among the incandescence, a fan raises a giant rainbow flag, capping off a magical night. Yet, that one simple act of pride and joy would ultimately catapult the band, the fan and others headlong into a tragic series of events.

Award-winning filmmakers Michael Collins and Marty Syjuco (“Give Up Tomorrow”, “Almost Sunrise”, “Delikado”), James Costa (“Call Her Ganda”) and Sarah Kasakas (“Underdown”) bring us the timely story of a trailblazing rock band, a courageous fan, and a queer activist’s daunting battle against religious extremists for equality in some of the most hardline places in the world. BEIRUT DREAMS IN COLOR is, simultaneously, a rare and nuanced look into the LGBTQ politics of the Middle East, and a moving testament to the power of music, and the universal desire for freedom.”

“Palestinian Female Filmmakers” Tasharuk
“Palestinian female filmmakers have been on the film scene since the beginnings of cinema in Palestine in the 1930s, even though the dominant narrative and history often try to erase them. Since 2010, more than half the films made in Palestine have been made by women, showing that the leading role of women in Palestinian cinema is unquestionable. Overcoming the gender discrimination active in cinema around the world, Palestinian female filmmakers stand at the forefront. The purpose of this space is to unearth forgotten women filmmakers, spread their work and their stories and analyse their role in the world of cinema and in Palestinian society.”


Women rising: in and beyond the Arab Spring, 2020
Edited by Rita Stephan and Mounira Charrad
“Groundbreaking essays by female activists and scholars documenting women’s resistance before, during, and after the Arab Spring.”

“Snatching Legal Victory: LGBTQ Rights Activism and Contestation in the Arab World”
[Open Access]
By Samer Anabtawi
Arab Law Quarterly 2022
“This article examines the relationship between emergent LGBTQ movements and the state in the Arab world over the past two decades. Focusing on the efforts of various LGBTQ social movements to confront the criminalization of homosexuality in the Arab region, the article puzzles over a cascade of legal victories for LGBTQ rights advocates in Lebanon in recent years in spite of a hostile justice sector mired with corruption.”

“Overcoming Binarism: New Faces of Solidarity in Israel and Palestine”
By Conor Paul McCracken-Flesher
(MA thesis), Heller School/Brandeis University, 2022
“Conflict in Israel and Palestine is typically characterized as a binary phenomenon. This paper interrogates this binarism. It recognizes instead that Ashkenazi hegemony operates as a major generative force of oppression and conflict in Israel and Palestine. It considers the multiplicity of populations, whether Israeli, Palestinian, migrant or refugee, and suggests how their common patterns of disenfranchisement and oppression might be leveraged in the cause of conflict resolution. We will explore a structure of dominance that affects multiple non-dominant groups in the region: Palestinians, Mizrahi Jews, migrants, and LGBTQ Isarelis and Palestinians.”