Category: activism

Return to Sender at Unity Gallery


Screenings of Return to Sender in New York, along with Aashish Kumar’s work and Surbhi Sahni’s gourmet food, are already sold out!

But I will be giving a talk and screening the film again at Unity Gallery, Neurology Department, University of Rochester, for their Continuing Medical Education (CME) grand rounds on April 2, 12-1pm. A companion art exhibition, curated by Shawn Dunwoody, will open simultaneously at Unity Gallery ?

If you would like to attend via Zoom or in person, pls contact Jessica:

JessicaB_Cruz@URMC.Rochester.edu

Hope to see you then!

my review: emilia perez

about emilia perez and zoe saldana’s comments (i don’t care about the oscars but i do care about mainstream culture – i am a filmmaker – and i care about representation)

the film is not about universal women (wtf is that??? when u casually toss together israeli women and women from gaza, u are basically puncturing ur own ridiculous argument about universal feminism)

the film is about mexico – its fingerprints are all over intimate socio-political issues and tragedies which the west facilitates via its war on drugs and miscellaneous trade and political finagling and by which it then proceeds to mark and measure mexico

that the film was shot in a studio in paris, that its spanish dialogue sounds like it was spewed by google translate, that its protagonists are not mexican for the most part, that this is a big budget film by a european filmmaking giant who could have hired a couple of consultants, and that this orientalist representation (which comes from a place of arrogance, entitlement and power) is happening today in 2025, all seem incredible frankly. that there is tone deaf pushback against valid critiques made by mexican journalists, culture-makers and people is also stunning – u make films about us but we’re not supposed to have opinions about them?

trans activists have written extensively about how trans representation in this film is a step backwards, not forward, so there’s that. finally, the entire carla sofia gascon twitter blowup only shows how whiteness (and european christian supremacy) can transcend everything – including transness and questions of sex and gender

Screening of A Thin Wall in Bangalore

A Thin Wall is coming to Bangalore! Bangalore Film Society in collaboration with the Indian Institute of World Culture is organizing a three day film festival from February 11 to 13, 2025 from 11am to 5pm at the Indian Institute of World Culture Auditorium, in Bangalore. The festival is non-commercial and non-ticketed, themed around celebrating pluralism, primarily aimed at inviting films that beautifully illustrate how diverse cultural, ethnic, mainstream, and indigenous identities come together to create a more inclusive and harmonious/cohesive society.




Return to Sender is coming to Islamabad

I am thrilled to announce that my film, Return to Sender, will be screened in Islamabad as part of the Margalla Film Festival on Feb 16th! It’s always an honor to present my work in Pakistan and engage with people in the Global Majority. I will give a short artist talk and we will have a convo afterwards of course. I went to high school in Islamabad so it’s an important part of my life and journey. The venue for the film festival and my screening is the Black Hole, a wonderful space that invites discussions on art, culture, science, and politics. They have already shown A Thin Wall, my film about the partition of India, so I look forward to working with them again. Thank you Osama Malik for being such a brilliant organizer and for supporting my work. Friends, if you are in Islamabad, pls join us – this event is free and open to the public!

Return to Sender at Unity Gallery

So happy that the art exhibition ‘Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation’ is opening on Monday (tomorrow) at Unity Gallery, Dept of Neurology, University of Rochester! It’s curated by the brilliant Shawn Dunwoody

‘An art exhibition by artist Mara Ahmed, inspired by her film of the same name, features photographs and digital collages that offer deeper historical context and expand on the themes explored in both the film and the exhibition.’

There will be an Artist Reception on April 2, 2025, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Exhibit runs January 27 – April 19, 2025
Gallery Hours: M-F 11-4
For more info: theunitygallery.com

a knock on the roof

saw this amazing one-woman play off broadway last night. written and performed by khawla ibraheem, a playwright, actor and director from majdal shams, in the occupied golan heights, the play tells the story of a woman and her family trying to survive a war. although written in 2017 about another war in gaza (there have been countless), resonance with the present genocide charges the play with so much more meaning and emotion. the story starts with everyday life, which continues even as bombings form a kind of unhinged backdrop, but builds up to something obsessive and paranoid. how to plan an escape after the first “knock on the roof,” when smaller bombs are dropped on one’s building to indicate upcoming annihilation. one has 5-15 minutes to assemble loved ones, pick up the bare necessities, rush down the stairs (no electricity), and sprint as far away from the building as possible. 5-15 minutes. madness. what does one pack, how does one wake up a drowsy child and aging mother and ready them for escape, how fast and far can one run while holding on to the most precious possessions of one’s life? as mariam dedicates every passing hour to practicing and mastering the perfect escape, we see snippets of her childhood, her marriage to omar who is finishing his master’s degree abroad, her childhood dreams, and adult frustrations. the play becomes darker as tension builds to a crescendo and mariam begins to disintegrate. the end takes one’s breath away. there were audible reactions in the audience – people wept as the lights came back on. a stunning physical and emotional feat. at new york theatre workshop until february 16, 2025.

Return to Sender at the Arts + Change Conference

This is happening on Thursday (7pm) this week! Watch ‘Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation’ for free, on Zoom, at the Arts + Change Conference

I will give a thought-provoking intro to the film and we will also have a post-screening discussion. All you need to do is to register for the session.

It’s cold outside but we can have a vibrant community event online. Hope to see you then!

The Injured Body coming in November

As many of my friends know, I’ve been working for a while now on ‘The Injured Body,’ a feature length documentary about racism in America inspired by Claudia Rankine’s book of poems called ‘Citizen: An American Lyric.’

Well, I’m back on the project and already have a date for the film’s premiere – November 14th at Cinema Arts Center in Huntington, NY!

For years, friends and colleagues have urged me to contact Claudia Rankine and tell her about the film. It made sense. Yet I kept procrastinating.

I am not impressed by celebrities, politicians or rich dudes, but I’ve always been starstruck by Ms. Rankine. The beauty and brilliance of her mind, the simplicity and precision of her language, the ease and lyricism with which she captures the subtleties in our day to day interactions with each other, are all extraordinary.

Now that I have a deadline and am pressed for time, I found Ms. Rankine’s email (her assistant’s to be exact) and asked if I could use some of her words as text in the film. My work is interdisciplinary and so it crosses many boundaries between art, literature, politics, and philosophical writing. ‘Citizen’ is at the heart of this film. I didn’t overthink and just sent the email along with a link to the trailer.

Today I got an email from her assistant telling me how wonderful the film sounds and saying, “Of course, Claudia is willing to have her words used in this way.” No fees. No need to contact the publisher. Just “quoted with the permission of the author.”

Are you kidding me? Is this for real? I’m so excited for this project!

[Photograph of Ayni Ali by Arleen Thaler]

RMSC’s interactive map

Excited that Rochester Museum & Science Center has created a map documenting their historic exhibition, Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World (in which I had the honor of being featured). This interactive map is now available as a digital interactive at RMSC on the second floor, Patricia Hale Gallery, but you can also access it online.

My location pin is near Liberty Pole by East Street, between Chestnut and Main, because of the Highfalls Film Festival. Thank you Farhana Islam for making me aware of this wonderful map <3

new year’s eve 2024

as we step into 2025 (an arbitrary threshold with just one meaning at this moment – the shattering reality that a holocaust has been enabled and supported for more than a year in full view of the world), i feel unsettled. the cognitive dissonance that many of us have experienced since october 2023 (or since forever) seems heavy. on the one hand, i am thankful for my family and friends and the fact that we live in relative security, on the other, i am intensely aware of the suicidal gluttony, violence and vulgarity that underpin all systems promising safety in exchange for genocide. the brutal murder of robert brooks in a graphic video that’s impossible to watch, reminds me of the bodies being starved, exploded, pulverized, and piled into mass graves in gaza. i want to write something about the racial dynamics of it. the word ‘dehumanization’ is so overused, it’s lost all meaning. what is truly happening when the black or brown body is savagely penetrated, its skin broken, its borders breached? the mind boggles at the viciousness embedded in white supremacist colonial ideologies, and the widespread silence, convoluted justifications, and hardcore denial they entail. i have no faith in any of these systems – capitalism, the nation state, settler colonial logics, imperial bs, or international ‘rules’ and pompous political rhetoric. the only thing that makes sense is community, resistance, and indigenous/ palestinian ways of living in concert with the land and its inhabitants, with respect and generosity. may 2025 be a year of peace and connection. may 2025 be the year we celebrate palestinian freedom.

A space of our own on Long Island

As we approach the end of 2024, a big shout-out to @pyaari_azaadi and her brilliant Hicksville-based project (supported by a fellowship from @huntingtonarts) which hopes to bring South Asian feminist creatives together on Long Island. It’s a powerful idea about solidarity, kinship, art, politics, language, and intent. Honored to be on this journey together – look forward to collabs and lots of fun. Here we are in Pyaari’s enchanted sunroom earlier in December <3

Elizabeth Catlett’s work at the Brooklyn Museum

A couple of weeks ago I saw Elizabeth Catlett’s work at the Brooklyn Museum. I had already seen ‘Target’ as part of the exhibition ‘We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85’ in Buffalo, in 2018. It’s a beautiful bronze bust of a Black man, his distinguished face seen through the crosshairs of a rifle scope made of metal and drilled roughly into the wood block that holds the sculpture. Fierce.

‘Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) was an avowed feminist, a lifelong activist, and an astutely observant artist. Spanning 75 years of diverse production, Catlett’s career was guided by her bold creative artistry, rigorous practice, and deep commitment to social justice and political activism.’

The first thing one sees in Brooklyn, as one enters the exhibition, is an exquisite terra cotta sculpture of a woman’s head. I was completely overcome by the delicate beauty of the piece.

In 1946, Catlett moved to Mexico as a guest artist at the printmaking collective, Taller de Grafica Popular. It was in Mexico City that she learned the terra cotta technique she later employed in her work (building a hollow shape from coils of clay) from the artist Francisco Zuniga. This indigenous technique, which allows the gentle definition of features, was in use long before the Spanish invaded and colonized. ‘Tired’ which depicts a physically depleted Black woman claiming a moment of respite and ‘Mother and Child,’ a smaller piece which brims with tenderness and the sense of safety we should all be allowed to feel in our parent’s arms, are stunning. The mother’s muscular legs seem to be rooted in the soil beneath her and reminded me of Soviet monuments and Diego Rivera’s murals.

‘While ultimately becoming a Mexican citizen, Catlett never lost sight of the Black liberation struggle in the United States. She embraced a political radicalism that merged the goals of the Black Left in the United States with the lessons of the Mexican Revolution and international feminist movements. Her transnational identity fueled a critical understanding that Black Americans and Mexicans were linked with other oppressed people around the world in a struggle against poverty, racism, and imperialism. As a result, she developed a rich visual language through which she articulated her solidarity politics across various media.’

Her sketches, lithographs, woodcuts, lino prints, watercolors, and sculptures bridge the gap between aesthetics and politics.

Catlett’s work will be on display at the Brooklyn Museum until Jan 19, 2025.

New Queer Cinema from Long Island


So happy to attend NEW QUEER CINEMA FROM LONG ISLAND yesterday evening, a celebration of independent queer cinema at @cinema_arts. Three genre-defying short films created by three filmmakers of color from Long Island (Grace Zhang, Jard Lerebours, and Devon Narine-Singh), curated by the wonderful Grace Zhang, and supported by Huntington Arts. More of this on Long Island pls!

Alan and Watts: A Platonic Dialogue on Muhammad and Interfaith Understanding

I am flattered that the wonderful George Payne has written a beautiful piece about Muslims in America (in the form of a dialogue between two friends) and has chosen to use my film, The Muslims I Know, to structure his thesis. It’s no coincidence. In 2016, George along with my friend Judith Bello, organized a screening of The Muslims I Know at the Irondequoit Public Library. The screening (sponsored by Metro Justice Peace Action & Education, the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Rochester Chapter, and Gandhi Earth Keepers International) led to a productive discussion which could easily continue today given our present political context. Thank you George for writing so beautifully about the film. My views on/ approach to anti-Muslim racism have changed over the years, but it’s a documentary that’s very much part of my evolution as an activist filmmaker.

From George’s piece:

“Yes, the resilience is extraordinary. And I think that’s what The Muslims I Know does so well. It shows us the real, lived experiences of Muslims — not as statistics or abstractions but as full human beings with hopes, fears, families, and aspirations. It confronts us with the fact that Islamophobia is not just a political or ideological issue — it’s a deeply personal one that affects real lives. The film captures the tenderness, strength, and grace with which people navigate a world that often judges them unfairly.” More here.