The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions in New York City, showcasing hundreds of screenings and hosting thousands of attendees.
Awards are also presented during the event to independent artists in various categories.
The festival, which is taking place this year from June 8 till June 19, is set to showcase 109 feature films from 40 countries and 88 world premieres.
The festival director and VP of Programming, Cara Cusumano, stated, “This 2022 feature film program leaves us proud and humbled by the boundless ingenuity and passion of our indefatigable filmmaking community.”
“This year’s official selections again remind us of the vitality and urgency of independent film in a world that needs it more than ever,” Cusumano added.
Out of the tens of films and documentaries featured in various categories, the documentary Beirut Dreams in Color will be featured in the New Perspectives short documentaries.
As described by the Netherlands-based Movies That Matter, “Beirut Dreams in Color tells the stories of Masrou’ Leila, a Lebanese rock band with an outspoken gay singer, and Sarah Hegazy, an Egyptian activist. Both parties have experienced oppression because of their sexual orientation and beliefs.”
Sarah Hegazy was a socialist, writer, and lesbian activist who was arrested, incarcerated, and tortured in Egypt for three months after flying a rainbow flag at the Mashrou’ Leila concert in Cairo in 2017.
The band played back then to a huge crowd where Sarah Hegazy hoisted herself up to demonstrate her support.
After that fateful night, the lives between the band and Hegazy intersected and changed forever. Hegazy died on June 14, 2020, in Toronto, Canada where she had thought asylum in 2018 from persecution in her country.
The Beirut Dreams in Color short documentary talks about Mashrou’ Leila and the struggles the LGBTQIA+ community endures from oppression and threats by the governments in the Middle East.
The Beirut Dreams in Color was directed by Michael Collins, produced by Marta Syjuco, James Costa, Sarah Kaskas, and Michael Collins, and produced in the United States, Lebanon, and the United Kingdom.
