Acclaimed Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker Arshad Khan will present his award-winning documentary ‘Abu’ (Father) in New York, 21 July, at 5.30 pm.
Film duration: 1 hour 20 minutes.
Venue: Happy Monday Studio, 66 Green Street Brooklyn, 11222
Event hosts: Karvaan and Aneesa Talks
Post-film discussion moderator: Kareem Khubchandani, Associate Professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at Tufts University and author of the acclaimed publication Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife (University of Michigan Press, 2020).
The film and the filmmaker
Abu (2018) is a deeply personal documentary going into the heart of a Pakistani family’s struggle with identity, faith, and migration, weaving together animation, family video archives from the 1980s and the allure of Bollywood.
Indian-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta (Fire,1997) has called it “startling” and said that the search for “Abu (father)” is “the search for Pakistan”.
The film has won accolades for its courageous exploration of themes like religion, sexuality, colonialism, spirituality and belonging. Arshad Khan’s fearless confrontation of complex issues offers a perspective that challenges and opens doors.
Abu has won 17 international awards, including the Jury Prize, Best Documentary New York Indian Film Festival, 2018; Best Feature Indie Meme Film Festival, Austin, USA, 2018 and LGBTQI Crusader of the Year Award Anokhi Magazine, 2018.
Arshad Khan has worked on notable films such as Queen of My Dreams (Fawzia Mirza) and Mustache (Imran J. Khan). He is the director of the Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival (MISAFF) and is currently organising the inaugural Tasveer South Asian Film Festival & Market, 15-20 October 2024.
For event tickets go to: https://givebutter.com/Abuthefilm.
Proceeds will help fund Arshad’s upcoming project ‘Afterlife’, delving into the universal struggle to overcome abandonment trauma. Your support helps independent filmmakers like Arshad tell their stories and empower underrepresented identities.
Event hosts
Karvaan (@karvaan.nyc (http://karvaan.nyc/)) is an experiential event production company in New York City co-founded by Nasar Ahmad, a Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist and Faiza Shireen, a sustainability and social impact professional and writer. Both are passionate about making traditional South Asian arts more accessible. Queer-, femme- and refugee-friendly, Karvaan also aims to brings the spiritual, mystical and transcendental nature of South Asian music and arts to the diaspora in the tri-state area.
Aneesa Talks – a film consulting and production organization created by filmmaker, host, and media consultant, Aneesa Khan, which works on projects from underrepresented voices from the South Asian and Muslim creatives community.
Lead image: Arshad Khan receiving the Best Documentary Jury Prize for ‘Abu’, Festival de Cinéma du Sud Asie, with Festival director Floriane Zaslavsky
We need your help to continue doing our work. All donations in the US are tax-free via the Sapan Foundation, a 501c3 org.