SHIREEN ALIHAJI
(B.1987 Los Angeles, CA)
screeners and materials available upon request
In the wake of 9/11, a First-Gen Muslim teenager discovers her mother’s cassette tapes.The recordings reflect her parent's migration stories and serve as a roadmap to Amina’s identity. As music unlocks memories, Amina discovers who she is.
Through the intersection of sound and memory, this film blurs the lines between surveillance and archival repair.It is indiscernible to know “who is watching who,” but in a world that is watching, Amina chooses how she sees herself.
In Development: Screenplay, pitch deck, proof of concept available. Accepted to Cannes List, Black List, Athena Film Festival Writer's Lab, The Gotham's Owning it Challenge, Women in Film Mentorship, Respectability Lab, ISF Film & Distribution Grant, The Blue Print for Muslim Inclusion (Pillars Fund, Riz Ahmed / Left Handed Films, USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative). Finalist for the SFFILM Rainin Grant. Proof of concept premiered at SFFILM followed by NOFF (Special Jury Recognition). Accepted to NALIP Latino Film Market, Sundance Institute Latine Scholarship and Sundance Screenwriting Intensive. Please visit www.blueveilfilm.com for more info.
(Past) Life Support
"When a group of medical practitioners are blocked by the red tape of the medical industry, in order to heal, they must look beyond. Messages start coming through patients who reveal that each practitioner had a past life in healing; rooted in ancestral belief systems that challenge today’s medical industrial complex. (Past) Life Support unfolds multi-heritage perspectives on life, death and everything in between."
In development. Ojala Ignition Lab finalist.
Accepted to The Gotham's Owning it Challenge.
A video installation unpacking internalized surveillance post 9/11, twenty years later through the intersection of spirit and technology.
(2021) Video Installation
PARALLELS
Co-Created with Kausar Mohammed; an anthology that explores trauma (ancestral, inherited, generational, colonial, etc) amongst Muslim Communities across within the context of Horror and Sci-Fi.
In Development: Screenplay, pitch deck, proof of concept funded and in pre-production,
workshopped with Sundance Collab and awarded the ISF Film Grant, Orchard Lab 2022
JUNTOS
Commissioned and Co-Created with Myree Tillotson to translate performance and video art exploring archival repair from Puerto Rican Diaspoa experiences responding to the earthquake of 2020.
Installation (2020) Workshopped in Studio Museum Harlem: Memories of a Future Program Sound Scoring Program (2021)
GARDENS
Commissioned and Co-Created with Brynne Filer to create concentrated portraits of a Black Woman's presence through the softness of arc-less vignettes.
Film Essay (2019)
BRAIDS
A visual adaptation of a poem exploring motherhood and feminine intuition.
“Wise Woman; Who parts her hair in three let your hair down to your knees take a moment to stop and breathe before your sage turn into weeds” -Braids
Short Film
Latinx Film Festival (2019)
GOSPEL NO. 1
Co-created with Brandy Young.
After heartbreak, turning to spirituality to ground and re-center the heart through ritual. It extends a thread from the larger tapestry that is the Afro-Latinx Muslim experience. Poem: Rumi Hadith: Qudsi
Music Video
Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design: American Muslim Futures (2020)
Center for Global Muslim Life Film Festival Jury Award - Spiritual Impact (2020)
Columbia University’s Focusing the Lens (2019)
University of Michigan (2019)
Cine De Las Americas (2018)
MuslimGirl.com (2018)
THE MOST
BEAUTIFUL
NAMES
'The most beautiful names' examines the transition of Muslim names across immigration and socio-political events within the U.S. through the use of embroidered name badges installation. This piece is accompanied by an experimental film including personal testimony and archival footage.
Documentary, Installation
Downtown Independent for Shari'a Revoiced; a three-year collaborative project of the University of California Humanities Research Institute's Religions in Diaspora and Global Affairs (RIDAGA) Initiative.” (2015)
KCET Boom Magazine (2015)
ELLA
Commissioned and co-created with El Haru Kuroi:“Ella pays homage to working class women, who’s jobs are to look after and even raise other people's children. This is a commemoration for her.”
Music Video
UCLA Labor Center: Working Families in Focus (2019)
KCET x Dublab Border Blasters (2018)
Cine De Las Americas (2016)
Saturation (2016)
California Women’s Film Festival (2016)
Espacio 1839 Exhibit (2015)
ANTIPATRIARCA
Commisioned by Ana Tixou to contribute to video portraits uniting women's right's movements internationally.
Music Video
Premiered in Jezebel (2015)