PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS OF 2023
My annual list of personal highlights of the year and things I’ve worked on.
The biggest highlight was my video A Performance of Valour getting selected to participate in two film festivals, in January at the London Short Film Festival where it screened at the ICA and in December at Alternative Film/Video in the Academic Film Center, Students City Cultural Center in Belgrade, where it also won two awards.
Thanks to Qila Gill and Neil Young for selecting my work.
Art
In March, during Ramadan I took part in an online zine workshop with Andreas Laszlo Konrath organised by Tasweer Photo Festival in Doha and the results of the workshop were exhibited in M7.
I also participated in two other group exhibitions this year:
Guest Relations at Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai (on until April 28, 2024). Thanks to Lucas Morin.
Resonating Tides: Stories from the Edge of Tomorrow’s Anthropocene, Women’s Pavilion, Expo City Dubai (on until March 3, 2024). Thanks for Janet Bellotto.
I had work featured in Journal 13 of The Hoosac Institute, an online platform run by Jenny Perlin.
In October I was selected from an open call to participate in PH Museum’s Mediae 2023/24 Online Masterclass On Transmedia Storytelling, it goes on until April 2024 and aiming to have new work made during this masterclass.
Film curation / programming / writing / moderating:
I hosted and presented three Culturist Film Club screenings, Mandabi in January, India Song in February and Geographies of Solitude in July. Not as many as I wanted but hope to be able to do more in the new year.
Make History: Filed and Concealed, a program of short films for Todd Reisz’s Night School at Jameel Arts Centre. A new edition is coming up in January, watch this space.
A second of two film nights I programmed for Etihad Museum in Dubai.
Third time working on CineMAS, a film festival at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi.
In October I moderated a talk with Nujoom Alghanem at the first edition of “Earthscape Chronicles", a film festival curated by Film My Design at American University of Sharjah’s CAAD (College of College of Architecture, Art and Design).
I was invited to be one of the jurors for this year’s edition of IDA Documentary Awards.
I wrote about Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous by Wissam Sharif for Tribe.
Travels:
I visited Taipei for the first time, a city that has been on my wishlist for a while. Wrote about it here, here and here.
For the first time since 2019 I travelled to London (made 3 short trips).
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Rotterdam for IFFR
Berlin for Berlinale
Bologna for Il Cinema Ritrovato
Venice for the Venice Film Festival
Vienna for Viennale
Others:
I revamped my portfolio website. Thanks to Austyn Allison for his help with some of the text. I started during Ramadan in March and been adding to it bit by bit. Wrote a few words about it here.
The Culturist turned 14.
This August marked 10 years since I left my full time job at Emirates. “Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by…” (The Red Shoes, Powell & Pressburger, 1948)