5 months ago
Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS) and SINEMA TRANSTOPIA (Germany) presented a special event that approaches the notion of alternative screens from a different perspective. We screened Khalid Shamis’s documentary The Colonel’s Stray Dogs, a reconstruction of the identity of Khalid’s father through the family archive. It took place on January 29th, 2026.
Read Khalid Shamis’ article on Malaffat, Editing as Diasporic Thought
© Khalid Shamis
London born Libyan-Capetonian, Khalid Shamis is a documentary director, producer and editor with a filmmaking practice spanning over more than 25 years. Khalid runs the Rough Cut Lab Africa (RCLA), the only lab dedicated to supporting story construction for African documentaries on the continent.
Following the screening, Khalid was supposed to lead a masterclass on the editing timeline of The Colonel’s Stray Dogs, with a particular focus on the use of archival materials and their role in shaping the narrative. It was unfortunately cancelled.
This is a story of a father and freedom fighter, absent from his family while dedicating his life to Libya. The Colonel’s Stray Dogs observes a father and son uncovering years of underground military operations, international collusion with intelligence agencies, a family hidden in exile in a South London suburb, a freed country in civil war and a second exile. Seeking an understanding of modern Libya, my father’s homeland, Baba cautiously reveals to me his role as a ‘stray dog’ in its ‘liberation’ from Gaddafi. The general and specific spaces of exile and a lifetime under a dictator are experienced through memory, archive, observation and recollection. The film balances a story that explores the deeply political and deeply personal. — Khalid Shamis, director's note.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/yqulp1Y5NF8
Read Khalid Shamis’ article on Malaffat, Editing as Diasporic Thought. Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
