Saturday, March 28 2026 | 4:00 pm-5:30 pm | Cinema Salon
This panel discussion explores the role of diaspora communities in shaping political discourse, memory culture, and solidarity across national borders. Artists and community organizers from the Iranian and Lebanese diasporas will reflect on the responsibilities and challenges of witnessing events from afar.
Drawing on the experiences of first- and second-generation diaspora communities in Vienna, the panel addresses questions of activism, collective memory, and community-building during political upheaval.
Later in the evening, panel speaker Loulwa Khoury’s film We Never Left (2024) will be screened, followed by a Q&A conversation about the film and her work. For more information about the film’s impact initiative and community resources, visit: https://www.weneverleftdoc.com/impact.
Javaneh Collective is a Vienna-based group of FLINTA* activists and cultural workers from Afghanistan, Kurdistan, and Iran who are part of the second generation of diaspora communities. Their work focuses on remembrance, resistance, and creating spaces that challenge collective forgetting within diaspora contexts. https://www.instagram.com/javaneh.verein
mAny of us Collective is a group of Iranian artists and community members in exile who engage with the political and social consequences of the recent uprising in Iran. Working at the intersection of art and activism, the collective identifies as queer-feminist and antifascist and seeks to create spaces for critical dialogue within diaspora communities.
https://www.instagram.com/many.of.us.here/
Loulwa Khoury is a Beirut-born filmmaker and editor based in New York. She directed the feature documentary We Never Left (2024) and has edited several internationally acclaimed documentaries, including Some Kind of Heaven (2020), An Act of Worship (2022), City of Ghosts (2017), and It Will Be Chaos (2018). Her work frequently explores displacement, memory, and the experience of diaspora.
Luna Al-Mousli, born in Melk (Austria), raised in Damascus, she lives and works in Vienna as a freelance author, graphic designer, and illustrator. She studied graphic design at the University of Applied Arts. Luna’s life and work move within the dynamic field between art, literature, and social engagement, building bridges between cultures. In an empathetic yet critical way, she fosters encounters and mutual understanding.
https://www.instagram.com/luna.almousli/
West Asian Film Festival: Special Program
All talks, panel discussions, and Q&A sessions will be held in English.
The conversations expand on themes explored in the films screened each day.
Our other WAFF Special Program is on Sunday, March 29, 2026: