{"id":4727,"date":"2024-04-26T15:07:28","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T19:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neelumfilms.com\/site\/?p=4727"},"modified":"2024-06-05T15:15:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T19:15:22","slug":"mara-ahmed-to-screen-newest-film-by-e-c-salibian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neelumfilms.com\/site\/mara-ahmed-to-screen-newest-film-by-e-c-salibian\/","title":{"rendered":"Mara Ahmed to screen newest film by E.C. Salibian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activist filmmaker and artist Mara Ahmed is returning to Rochester next week for the local premiere of her new documentary, \u201cReturn to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a visually and narratively evocative way, \u201cReturn to Sender\u201d raises questions of power, personhood, and representation as relevant today as they were when photography, and its use in postcards, came on the world stage in the 19th century.<\/p>\n

The rise of the postcard industry overlapped historically with British rule over the Indian subcontinent and, Ahmed maintains, became a tool of colonial domination. Photographers\u2014usually white, male\u2014traveled the world posing women of color for photos.<\/p>\n

The women are not named but depicted as types: \u201cA Young Woman\u201d; \u201cA Bengal Beauty.\u201d Their stories remain untold, subverted to the colonizer\u2019s fantasy of the exotic \u201cother.\u201d It is estimated that during the \u201cgolden age\u201d of picture postcards, from the 1890s to the 1920s, 2.4 billion postcards were sent each year, flooding mailboxes and minds with images that disempowered those depicted and made colonization seem benevolent.<\/p>\n

Ahmed\u2019s film takes back the narrative. In it, three contemporary South Asian American women recreate British colonial postcard images, dressing up in outfits sometimes pulled together from family heirlooms. Then, they subvert the stereotypes through personal words, actions, and conversation. The women are Sumayia Islam, Fatimah Arshad, and Urvashi Bhattacharya. They have names and stories told in their own words. That\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n

In the catalog for an art exhibition inspired by the film, Ahmed presents her scholarly analysis of colonial postcards as well as her intention for the film: \u201cIt\u2019s a way to restore the voices of the postcard women and let them be in control of their own stories. \u2026 The aim is to facilitate discussions about the problematic history and continuing representations of women of color in mainstream media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like her other films, \u201cReturn to Sender\u201d is visually rich and textured. In addition to being a filmmaker, Ahmed is a collage artist who likes to juxtapose elements that at first seem incongruent. In all her work, she invites viewers to let contradictions inspire a fresh point of view.<\/p>\n

Ahmed was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and grew up mostly in Brussels, Belgium. She moved with her doctor husband and their two children to Rochester in 2003. With her MBA and master\u2019s degree in economics, Ahmed worked as a financial analyst before changing course to take an art class at Nazareth College and begin film training at Visual Studies Workshop. Her first film, \u201cThe Muslims I Know,\u201d was made mostly as a class project in a Rochester Institute of Technology documentary workshop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Muslims I Know\u201d premiered at the Dryden Theatre in 2008. Her second film, \u201cPakistan One on One,\u201d opened at the Little Theatre in 2011. Her third film, \u201cA Thin Wall,\u201d explores the partition of India and Pakistan. It too has screened at the Little.<\/p>\n

Their children grown, Ahmed and her husband have moved to Long Island, but her Rochester ties remain strong. During a recent talk at Visual Studies Workshop, she juxtaposed images from \u201cReturn to Sender\u201d with VSW archival material to explore connections to local political power systems.<\/p>\n

To me, that is the evocative edge of \u201cReturn to Sender.\u201d Yes, it\u2019s gratifying to see a current generation of South Asian women take back their images and stories. It\u2019s even more illuminating\u2014and unsettling\u2014when I take or view a photograph, to ask myself: What is going on here? Who is the viewer, who is the viewed? What assumptions and power dynamics are encoded in this artifact? What is my role in all of this?<\/p>\n

This is how Ahmed invites participation in the living edge of history. More at the Rochester Beacon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cReturn to Sender,\u201d followed by a panel discussion, will screen on May 4, 12-2 p.m. at ROC Cinema. Advance tickets can be purchased online through Neelum Films. <\/em><\/p>\n

E.C. Salibian is a Rochester Beacon founding editor. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to Letters@RochesterBeacon.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Activist filmmaker and artist Mara Ahmed is returning to Rochester next week for the local premiere of her new documentary, \u201cReturn to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation.\u201d In a visually and narratively evocative way, \u201cReturn to Sender\u201d raises questions of power, personhood, and representation as relevant today as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","clearfix"],"yoast_head":"\nMara Ahmed to screen newest film by E.C. 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