Omar Gabriel In The Spotlight June 9-12, 2026
- Onyx Borysewicz
- 7 minutes ago
- 2 min read
This June, our Monthly Screening Spotlight turns toward an experimental short film exploring themes of loss, memory, and survival, and finding joy amidst hardship.
Directed by Omar Gabriel, Don't Take My Joy Away follows two friends in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp. Omar and Omar revel in the small joys of life until violence suddenly disrupts their world. Forced to flee, they embark on a dangerous journey of survival, confronting fear, chaos, and the stark realities around them. Along the way, they must choose between remaining in the shadows or seeking the light.
Omar Gabriel is a Lebanese artist, photographer, and filmmaker whose work is grounded in a poetic yet raw visual language, shaped by emotional intimacy. His multidisciplinary practice unfolds through film, digital and analog photography, video, collage, and installation. He creates immersive narratives that inhabit the space between memory and lived experience.
His work explores freedom, love, gender, and identity, tracing the subtle and often unspoken tensions shaping contemporary life across the Arab world. Omar reveals the layered and sometimes contradictory nature of Arab identities, resisting simplification and honoring the singularity within each experience. His work has been presented internationally at Bienal’23 Fotografia do Porto, Casa Árabe, Institut du Monde Arabe, Rhode Island International Film Festival, and Everybody’s Perfect Film Festival.
The online screening will run from June 9-12, culminating in a live Q&A on June 12 at 12:00 PM (ET) to 1:30PM (ET), where audiences will have the opportunity to engage with the filmmaker and reflect on the themes explored in the documentary. Click here to get your tickets.
This event is Pay What You Can. Contributions directly support queer artists and cultural workers facing precarity, censorship, and displacement, and help sustain our growing archive. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. If you’re able, we kindly suggest a $20 donation. We are currently fundraising for our travel fund, so that our members can participate in-person during the Human Rights Conference at the WorldPride Amsterdam.
The Cinema Feast Collection is a living, growing archive of underrepresented queer films curated by 75 SHOTS. The collection amplifies marginalized voices by creating access to queer art films, especially for people living in places where such work is censored, criminalized, or impossible to see.
This is a rare opportunity to connect directly with Omar Gabriel and to witness an intimate exploration of resilience and the power of human connection.
Thank you for showing up with care. Your presence makes us stronger.
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The 75 SHOTS Pocket Cinema Family
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