Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
-based South Asian social justice arts non-profit organization. It was founded by Rita Meher and Farah Nousheen in 2002.
Tasveer organizes events including film festivals, community speaking events, and open-mic nights to celebrate the voices of South Asian people through art and film.
The organization includes voices of South Asian countries like
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
,
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
diasporas
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
worldwide.
The organization also hosts Tasveer TV, an online streaming platform that curates South Asian independent films. Annual events include the Tasveer South Asian Film Festival and the Tasveer South Asian Literary Festival. During the pandemic, in 2020, multiple South Asian festivals were thinking about cancelling the events in US and Canada. However, Tasveer brought them together to host a bigger online global South Asian Film Festival under the name Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals (CoSAFF). In 2021, Tasveer merged its film festival and literary festival into one, known as Tasveer Festival.
Tasveer's mission is “To inspire social change through thought-provoking South Asian films, art, and storytelling”.
History
Tasveer was founded in 2002 in Seattle, US, shortly after the 9/11 event. It was founded by Rita Meher and Farah Nousheen who were tired of the hate and prejudice because of their South Asian identity and wanted to recast the harmful labels by providing a glimpse into the lives of South Asians through film, art, and storytelling. The word 'Tasveer' means ‘picture’ in
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
Tasveer South Asian Film Festival 13th Edition (2018)
The 13th edition of Tasveer's Film festival had Pakistan as the country of focus and invited
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy ( ur, ; born 12 November 1978) is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and activist known for her work in films that highlight the inequality with women. She is the recipient of two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awa ...
Ali Osman Bajwa
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
’s ''Gorakh Dhandh''. The festival had the theme #knowMe and had Laila Kazmi as the program director.
Tasveer South Asian Film Festival 14th Edition (2019)
In 2019, Tasveer curated more than 60 films in all genres with a focus on LGBTQ issues and women's rights Some of the films included The Illegal,
The Price of Free
''The Price of Free'' is a documentary about Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi. The film, formerly known as Kailash, premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and debuted on YouTube in November 2018. '' ...
, ''A Monsoon Date'', fest centerpiece, and ''The Sweet Requiem''. The festival awarded
Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of Hindi film, television and theatre. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several ge ...
with Tasveer Emerald Award and had Director
Danish Renzu
Danish Renzu is an Indian born Los Angeles based film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is also the Founder of Renzu Films. Renzu is best known for directing and producing films like ''Half Widow'', '' The illegal'', and ''Songs of Paradi ...
(''In Search of America'') and star
Suraj Shama
Suraj may refer to:
People Arts and entertainment
*Suraj Jagan, Indian playback singer
*Suraj Mani, Indian musical artist
* Suraj Sharma (born 1993), Indian actor
* Suraj Singh Thakuri, Nepali presenter, director and producer
*Suraj Venjaramoodu ...
(''Life of Pi'') for a question-answer discussion with the audience.
CoSAFF 2020
There was no individual 15th edition of the festival in 2020. This year Tasveer merge with other festivals like the Vancouver fests; Mosaic International Festival in Toronto; Nepal America fest in Maryland; and the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal to create an online South Asian Film Festival called CoSAFF. The Tasveer Film Fund, which awarded grants to south Asian filmmakers in the US, was started in the year 2020.
2020 onwards
Tasveer continued to hold virtual events and screenings during Covid. They returned to holding live events in November 2022 with the 17th annual South Asian film festival. Screenings included ''The Round Lake'', Elizabeth D. Costa's ''Bangla Surf Girls'' and Faraz Ali's ''Shoebox''.
The Tasveer Film Fund Shorts Films track also works with
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
as part of its Fund for Creative Equity initiative, to increase support for South Asian filmmakers developing short film projects, with up to $35,000 awarded in grants.Netflix press release, retrieved 2023-03-23 /ref>
Rita Meher, managing Tasveer since 2007, continues to be Tasveer's Executive Director in Seattle. Farah Nousheen continues to be an active ally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she now lives with her family.