MATERIAL INTERESTS is a programme convened by Professor of Visual Politics Louise Siddons, who is also the Head of the Department of Art, Media and Technology, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK. In the final of the 2024 run on 5th June, we welcomed award-winning filmmaker Nausheen Khan from India, in an event curated by Associate Professor in Arts and Cultural Leadership Dr Kai Syng Tan.
LAND OF MY DREAMS is the title of Nausheen’s feature documentary film, which foregrounds the voices of the protesters of India’s Citizenship Amendment Act, as well as the filmmaker’s own, as a Muslim woman. The screening (74 minutes in Hindi with English subtitles) was followed by a conversation with Kai. Kai had met Nausheen at the prestigious Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2023 in Japan, where Kai was a juror, and where Nausheen won a Citizen’s Prize.
CONVERSATION AND CONTEXTS: The ensuing conversation was lively. We discussed: the power of the camera as a responsive tool of documentation and change; the filmmaker’s creative process and the costs – and rewards – of ‘making depressing films’ as an ‘angry’ and highly-visible person of colour (rocking up for a screening in a keffiyeh no less); how women are often disproportionately adversely affected by change; the true meaning of solidarity and collective liberation by making space within a film about muslim women for yet other minoritised groups (from the transgender and Punjabi communities), and the thrilling tension of the local-global. This session was critical to learn more about ways to decolonise the curriculum and the role of arts and cultural leadership to catalyse change through counter-hegemonic strategies in the face of Islamophobia, threats to human rights and democracy, and misogyny not just in the Global South but beyond, and from the perspective of a courageous young feminist filmmaker. so nourishing. Kai also invited MA Fine Art alumni Manjira Mazumdar to share their reflections as an emerging multimedia artist and itinerant Gen Z member of the Indian diaspora. We also had a sneak preview/insight on Nausheen’s next ambitious project, which is an environmental justice piece involving living with a nomadic community in India and trekking an endangered species of deer.
NAUSHEEN KHAN is an independent filmmaker based in India, working on gender perspectives amid conflict and political unrest in contemporary times. Land of My Dreams is her first self-financed feature-length documentary film. It won Best Long Documentary at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, in 2023, and the Citizens’ Prize at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, in 2023. In the UK March-June 2024, Nausheen had been touring the universities including Sheffield, Sussex, UCL, and KCL with fantastic responses.
CREDITS: Photos and video clips by Tianyi Wang. Flyers and graphic design by Kai Syng Tan.
FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: The support of Jennifa Chowdhury and MA Arts and Cultural Leadership students Lulu Han and Tianyi Wang was indispensable. The event had further support from Faculty of Arts and Humanities International and we are very grateful for the generosity of Professor Bryony Whitmarsh and Erin Le Marquand.
FURTHER LINKS:
- LinkedIn post by Professor Bryony Whitmarsh
- Instagram and LinkedIn posts by Kai Syng Tan
- University of Southampton and WSA event listing
- Land of My Dreams trailer