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shareAn encore screening of some films featured in 12G & PAAFF’s 4th Annual Contemporary Video Art Exhibition on August 28, 2022. The Contemporary Video Art Exhibition is a platform for South Asian (SA), Southwest Asian, and North African (SWANA) experimental video artists whose work stretches beyond the unconventional. The exhibition features short films that reorient dominant narratives; films that are positioned between what could be and what will be.
Collectively, PAAFF and 12G work within the Asian, West Asian, and North African diaspora to produce visual arts programming that is a mirror—a reminder that traditions and experience, whether new, marginal, or erased, not only exist, they also possess imposing beauty that demands our attention. This year’s exhibition centers on three themes: Censorship and Empire; Queer Poetics as Audio/Visual Lexicon; and Migration/Displacement as a Consequence of Colonialism.
Our jury has carefully selected 12 works from hundreds of noteworthy submissions. The exhibiting artists span the SWANA & SA regions and diasporas, including Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, India, Iran, Morocco, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Canada, and the US.
Curated by Ayesha Ali Ahmed, Jenna Hamed, Mir Masud-Elias, Bhairavi Mehra, Atif Sheikh, Anula Shetty, Ayesha Syed, Jaret Vadera, and Arzhang Zafar
This short program is available for a limited time from 11/3 to 11/8.
In this program
Miles & Kilometres
Directed by Sonali Gulati
A lingering haiku of migration, separation, dislocation, and exile.
30/900
Directed by Shirin Maleki
A poetic exploration of the fragmented experiences of an immigrant going through liminal otherness of temporary residencies.
Cookbook of Gestures
Directed by Sarah K Khan
An homage to the embodied knowledge of women cooks and farmerst.
Al Atlal (The Ruins)
Directed by Raed Rafei
A drawing of an ancient bathhouse sparks a visual poem inspired by the Arab poetic tradition of “standing by the ruins.”
Imagining Palestine
Directed by Iman Jabreh
In this abstract short film, collection of Palestinian keffiyehs and various scarves create an abstract landscape..
clench my fists
Directed by Sarah Trad
Using footage from Lebanese films and audio from archival Lebanese funeral laments, this video collage explores growing up in an Arab family affected by death and grief.
In a Single Thought
Directed by Darshika Singh
In the stasis of time, every moment passes in the dual thesis of examination and observation.
The Riptide
Directed by Nazanin Noroozi
Handmade cinema is used to transform personal and public archives into a narrative told by others addressing trauma and displacement.
Occupying a Chair
Directed by E Rady
“Occupying a Chair” puts the subject in a scene resembling an interrogation. But with solidarity, no evil can hide.
Raśmi/Ray
Directed by Sarker Protick
”Raśmi” (“a ray of light” in Bangla) is an arrangement of images and soundscapes that explores ideas of personal truth and fiction.
