MAD Solution’s documentaries LYD and MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ are set to screen at the eighth edition of the Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival, running from June 27th to the 30th at the Sunflower Theater in Tayouneh, Beirut.
 
Organized by the Lebanese NGO Art Factory 961, this year’s festival holds deep significance as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Lebanese Civil War. Under the central theme ‘Remember,’ and the evocative subtitle ‘Fifty Years of Amnesia,’ the festival invites audiences to confront the persistent silences surrounding past atrocities and the urgent need to preserve collective memory in the face of ongoing injustice.
 
This year’s program highlights underrepresented narratives through film screenings followed by in-depth conversations with filmmakers. LYD will screen on Saturday, June 28 at 7:30pm,
 
followed by a Q&A session with Palestinian researcher and writer Sakr Abou Fakher. Meanwhile, the festival’s closing film, MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ, will screen on Monday, June 30 at 8pm followed by a discussion with director Maggie Morgan.
 
LYD traces the rise and fall of the titular 5,000-year-old city that once stood as a vibrant Palestinian town before it was conquered in 1948 during the creation of the State of Israel. Through a layered narrative and a chorus of characters, LYD constructs a vivid tapestry of Palestinian memory and historical trauma, offering an unflinching look at massacre, expulsion, and survival.
 
The film is co-directed by Rami Younis, a Palestinian filmmaker, writer, and journalist from LYD, who currently hosts the news program On the Other Hand, which works to expose fake news and misinformation surrounding Palestinian citizens of Israel. He is joined by Sarah Ema Friedland, a New York-based documentary filmmaker and media artist whose work has been broadcast nationally on PBS and screened internationally.
 
Meanwhile, MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ is a work that stands as both a historical archive and a tribute to a groundbreaking Islamic scholar.
 
Mohamed Abdallah Draz, a prominent Azharite thinker, was renowned for his progressive stance on tolerance and gender equality, advocating ideas that were well ahead of his time. Decades after his death, his great-granddaughter Noha ElKholy discovers an archive of letters, diaries, and photographs that offer a deeply personal window into his life. From his modest beginnings in the Egyptian village of Mahallat Diyay to his education in Alexandria and scholarly work in Paris, Draz’s story is brought to life through this carefully constructed documentary.
 
Directed by Maggie Morgan and written by Taghreed El Asfouri, MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ had its world premiere at the Aswan International Women’s Film Festival, where it received both the Rashida Abdel Salam Award and the EU Prize for Best Euro-Mediterranean Film Addressing Women’s Issues. It was also featured in the Goethe Film Week at the Goethe Institute in Cairo.
 
The film is executive produced by Noha ElKholy, with editing by Amgad Shafik and Tamer Abdallah, cinematography by Emad Nabil, music by Khaled Al-Kammar, and narration by Sedki Sakhr. Distribution is handled by MAD Distribution for the Arab world and MAD World globally. Maggie Morgan, who also directed Asham and From Meir to Meir, is a filmmaker, festival curator, and professor at the American University in Cairo.