What do you do if your loved one is deeply in love with someone – or something – else? Jude Chehab records the complicated entanglement of commitments in “Q,” her award-winning documentary about three generations' involvement in the Al-Qubaysiat, an all-female Islamic order. “Q” scooped awards across the festival circuit, including Tribeca, Sheffield Doc Fest, Zurich Film Festival, and more. Now, in recent weeks, “Q” played as the Centerpiece film of CAAMFest 2024, ushering the return of Chehab as a 2020 Caam Fellow.

Q screened at CAAMFest

In “Q,” Chehab takes us by the hand and into her home in Lebanon. She records how her mother, Hiba, has found community and unbridled joy in her all-female religious order. The women bond over poetry readings and Quran recitations; they dance, laugh, and cry together. Their bond is not limited to just each other, however. As Chehab's grandmother and Hiba point out, Al-Qubaysiat is markedly linked...