Category: Performing
Country: United States

About

Hena Ashraf is a filmmaker with interests in photography, writing, and new media. Ashraf, whose parents emigrated from India, was born in London and spent her early years in the UK before immigrating to the US. She is a graduate from the University of Michigan with concentrations in Film & Video Studies, and Political Science and she currently lives in NYC. In 2008, she founded the Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival. In May 2010, she was invited by The World Islamic Economic Forum to Kuala Lumpur to show her work, including her latest film “TruthSearch.”

Ashraf is a fierce advocate for the making and use of independent media, and believes that people can empower themselves by creating their own media to amplify their voices. According to Ashraf it is particularly important for Muslims and other marginalized groups to create avenues outside the film industry through the use of independent media: “We can’t expect huge monopolized media companies, of which there are basically five, who own everything, to accurately represent our voices, or any other community, religious or ethnic.”

Ashraf sees filmmaking as a craft and a way of giving voice to the lived experiences of a community. Her first film “Uzair,” explored life in East London for its Muslim/Bangladeshi population and featured provocative subject matter, including drugs and crime. Since then, her work has remained politically and critically engaged. A short film, “Love Makes Me Silly,” questions representations of love and gender relations in Bollywood cinema. “TruthSearch,” a short experimental film, examines and critiques mainstream media coverage of the Iraq War, contrasting it with the voice of an Iraqi journalist working in Baghdad.