COMMUNITY & CREATIVE WORK

  • At the height of the Cold War, the Osman family frantically escapes from Afghanistan while leaving almost everything behind. In the ensuing chaos,their only suitcase filled with family photos is stolen. Now after two decades of living in America, Wazhmah Osman, a young Afghan-American woman returns to her childhood home. Armed only with rapidly fading memories,she recruits some unlikely and reluctant guides to put together the pieces of her past. On an alternately sad and humorous quest, she encounters confused cabbies, the enthusiastic former minister of the tourism bureau, a museum director that archives land mines, and a group of angry street vendors. As Wazhmah desperately searches for any tangible evidence of her former life, the journey leads her to many unexpected places. Amidst the rubble and destruction, she finds her estranged father who in the aftermath of war choose his country over his family. On the road, Wazhmah frequently finds herself at a strange intersection where cultures clash, identities are mistaken, and the past violently collides with the present.—Wazhmah Osman, Kelly Dolak and Elissa Federoff

  • Kelly Dolak
    Wazhmah Osman

  • Genre: Documentary

    Release date : April 26, 2007 (United States)

    Language: English

    Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes

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Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA)

The Afghan American Artists and Writers Association is a collective that organizes community exhibitions, creative workshops, and public commentaries in order to showcase pivotal diasporic works to a broad audience. Based in North America, AAAWA aims to amplify work that critically analyzes discourse on Afghanistan in the U.S. mainstream, where Afghan voices are routinely ignored or reduced to cultural tropes. Through its forums, AAAWA illuminates a multiplicity of issues ranging from hybrid identities to gender and sexuality to the multigenerational impacts of war, including the ongoing ramifications of U.S. imperialism and capitalism. We see ourselves connected through not only our ancestral ties, but also through a shared vision for social justice for marginalized communities globally. We are Afghans, Muslims, and/or queer Americans with intersectional identities.

Ishqnama/The Book of Love (2011)

Persian Poetry Project (PPP) and 10 Grand Press