Category: activism

Return to Sender in Look Long Island

A wonderful story about my film, ‘RETURN TO SENDER: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards and the Politics of Representation’ in Look Long Island magazine! pls check them out and join us for the film premiere on Oct 1st, 2-4pm, at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington. For tickets, click here.

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

My presentation today

with the brilliant stephanie godard, executive director of the huntington historical society at the end of my presentation today. there were some technical glitches but we pulled thru, due to the strength of the material and gorgeous artwork. at the end of the talk, i gave separate questions to each table and asked them to discuss and respond. the result was vigorous engagement and hopefully some questioning of how we view the ‘other.’ this was at matteo’s of huntington. i will be giving another talk at the conklin farmhouse and barn, 2 high street, huntington, on sept 27, 6-8:00pm. this one will be more cozy and even more interactive. pls register at huntingtonhistoricalsociety.org and join us!

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

my talk coming up on thursday

my upcoming talk on sept 7th at 12pm at matteo’s of huntington is in the huntington patch.

spent the whole day at the library yesterday writing my talk and organizing beautiful images and videos.

i will be sharing radical art and the work of malek alloula, ramon grosfoguel, laura mulvey, jean paul sartre, john berger, edward said, gilles teulie, frantz fanon, lalla essaydi, and aida muluneh.

we will be talking about the male gaze, the colonial lens, orientalist postcards, and ways of subverting or ‘returning’ that gaze. pls join us and be a part of the discussion.

u can register at huntingtonhistoricalsociety.org – hope to see u there!

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

Tickets are on sale

I am excited to announce that you can now buy tickets to the premiere of Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, NY, on Oct 1st at 2pm! Tickets are inexpensive because we want to include everyone. Reserve your spot now and pls share with friends and fam.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion led by three brilliant women. More about the panelists soon. Here is a film synopsis:

Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation is a short, experimental film directed and produced by Mara Ahmed. It pushes the documentary medium in unexpected ways by opening with three contemporary South Asian American women who recreate British colonial postcards from the early 20th century. Dressed in lavish traditional attire and jewelry and shot exquisitely in a darkened studio, the women emulate the awkward poses of the postcard women, only to subvert the colonial male gaze and acquire autonomy by choosing an action of their own. This symbolic ‘returning’ of the Orientalist gaze is layered with discussions about Eurocentric beauty standards, representations of South Asian women in media and culture, stereotypes, othering, identity and belonging. The film hopes to create community by facilitating conversations about erasure and the politics of representation.

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

Return to Sender: Lunch & Learn coming up

I will be talking about my upcoming film ‘Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representaiton’ at the @huntingtonhistoricalsociety’s Lunch & Learn on Sept 7th at Matteo’s of Huntington. Pls join us. Tickets at HuntingtonHistoricalSociety.org

Best known for her non-linear interdisciplinary work, filmmaker Mara Ahmed produces documentaries, soundscapes, and artwork that trespass political borders and challenge colonial logics. Mara was born in Lahore and educated in Belgium, Pakistan, and the US. Her art practice reflects these displacements and multiplicities. Her documentaries have been broadcast on PBS and screened at international film festivals. She is currently working on The Injured Body, a documentary about racism in America. Mara will make a multimedia presentation about her NYSCA-funded project, Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation.

She will provide some historical context for this project including the decision to focus on colonial postcards from the early 20th century, the construction of women of color as a phantasm, the male gaze and the objectification of women, as well as decolonial ways to challenge stereotypes. The presentation will include video, images, and literary excerpts. It will be designed to encourage a vibrant discussion.

Pricing: Members: $50, Non-Members: $60 [Includes three-course meal + wine + dessert]

When: Thursday Sept 7th, 12-2pm

Where: Matteo’s of Huntington, 300 W Jericho Turnpike, Huntington Station, NY

Register at HuntingtonHistoricalSociety.org

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

A Thin Wall – UK screenings in August

Super excited that our film, A Thin Wall (which I co-produced with Surbhi Dewan), will be shown at the Museum At One Garden City in the UK. The screenings will be at 12pm, 3pm, and 6pm on Saturday August 26. These screenings are part of South Asian Heritage Month at the Museum. Pls attend if you are in the area.
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Repost from @reeln_uk:

ReelN presents South Asian Heritage Month at Museum At One Garden City, with an introductory exhibition featuring local South Asian stories and their contribution to the world’s first garden city!

This is an ongoing project and we want to hear from South Asian residents to record their stories of living and growing up in Letchworth Garden City.

The exhibition will be on display following a private launch event on Friday 21st July to August end and will be free to attend. Featuring stories about local football heroes, ‘Singh Sabha FC’, Dance celebrities ‘The Twilight Players’ and community members who have contributed to South Asian life and industry locally.

The exhibition closing event will also feature India, Pakistan documentary film, ‘A Thin Wall’ by filmmakers Mara Ahmed and Surbhi to be shown at 12pm, 3pm and 6pm on Saturday 26th August, also at the museum and free to attend.

There will be a full ‘Singh Sabha FC’ exhibition in collaboration with the museum in May 2024! -you heard it here first!

Join us to celebrate these local heroes!

Please direct any questions to hello@reeln.co.uk

Return to Sender – Official Trailer

I am thrilled to share the trailer for Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation. It’s a short film that explores Orientalist images of Indian women, circulated as postcards, during the British Raj. It opens up a conversation about objectification, beauty standards, identity, the colonial male gaze, and otherness. The film will premiere on Oct 1st at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, NY, and will be followed by a community discussion. Thank you Dylan Toombs and Boris Sapozhnikov for this beautiful footage and Fatimah Arshad, Urvashi Bhattacharya and Sumayia Islam for your brilliant convo and performance in the film. We are almost done with color grading and graphics (thank you Rajesh Barnabas) and are getting ready for sound engineering. Thank you Patty Eljaiek, the Huntington Arts Council, Inc., Stephanie Godard, and the Huntington Historical Society for all your amazing support with this project!

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

all human lives are not equal

fortress europe’s racism and contempt for human life shouldn’t shock us anymore. but it does. more than 700 people – including children – might have drowned in the mediterranean sea. many pakistanis were forced below deck. cannot imagine the horror and grief of their families. all this criminal neglect and inhumanity while rescuers ‘race against time’ and ‘massive search and rescue’ missions are underway to find 5 hyper rich people checking out the titanic’s wreckage. the contrast is obscene.

History is like an old house at night

He explained to them that history was like an old house at night. With all the lamps lit. And ancestors whispering inside. “To understand history,” Chacko said, “we have to go inside and listen to what they’re saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells.”

“But we can’t go in,” Chacko explained, “because we’ve been locked out. And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we have won and lost. The very worst sort of war. A war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves.”

—Arundhati Roy in ‘The God of Small Things’

A Thin Wall in Winnipeg

More wonderful news! A Thin Wall, my film about the partition of India co-produced by Surbhi Dewan and myself, will be screened this Saturday in Winnipeg, Canada:
The Kohinoor Collective presents Winnipeg’s first Punjabi Film Festival, featuring films about Punjabi histories, politics, and diasporas. Funding for the Punjabi Film Festival is provided by the Manitoba Arts Council and University of Manitoba Community Engagement/Prairie Asian Organizers.
A Thin Wall will be screened on Sat Jun 17 2023 at 05:15 pm and will be followed by a discussion. You can buy tickets online and then head to the Dave Barber Cinematheque in Winnipeg.

sharing seeds at teatro yerbabruja

i got to share some of my writing and my translations of faiz ahmed faiz’s poetry yesterday at teatro yerbabruja’s firehouse gallery. bethany smith sang and so many wonderful musicians and poets shared their work. there was such diversity in terms of style and presentation, language and theme, medium and approach (i should have taken more pictures, it was a full house). it’s truly a blessing to have found this space, created by a woman of color, on long island. thank u everyone who organized, presented, shared and witnessed. an unforgettable night!

Havah…to breathe, air, life

Thrilled to finally see Shahzia Sikander’s ‘Havah…to breathe, air, life’ in Madison Square Park. The genius and beauty of her work are always breathtaking.

‘In the park, Sikander places a monumental female figure that teems with symbolic imagery, titled Witness. Wearing a hoop skirt inspired by the courtroom’s stained-glass ceiling dome and detailed with mosaic, the figure’s arms and lower legs swirl into a decorative motif suggesting tree roots, a reference to what the artist has called the “self-rootedness of the female form; it can carry its roots wherever it goes.” The figure’s hair is braided to resemble a ram’s horns, identified in Eastern and Western traditions as a symbol of strength.’

‘Atop the historic Courthouse, NOW, another female figure—similar in form to the sculpture in the park, but without the embellished skirt—arises from a colorful lotus, a symbol of wisdom. The work’s connection with the Courthouse is imbued with meaning as the building’s rooftop is crowned by plinths inhabited by statues of nine historic and religious male legislators, including Confucius, Justinian, Lycurgus, Moses, and Zoroaster—but without a single woman represented atop a plinth until Sikander’s installation. Sikander’s work both physically and symbolically elevates the female figure, putting her on level plane with the traditionally patriarchal embodiments of justice and power.’