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This program highlights narratives from the Arab diaspora in the United States, exploring questions of belonging, culture, family, and generational identity.
A passionate Syrian baker spends his first Eid in the U.S. attempting to sell the sweet he’s spent his lifetime perfecting: walnut baklava. As he roams the streets of Brooklyn, he bumps into a savvy Indian ladoo maker, who’s figured out how to appeal to one of New York’s health-conscious Brooklynites.
Director Biography - Maryam Mir
Maryam Mir is a writer/director currently pursuing her MFA in Film Production at NYU Tisch, where she is an Ang Lee Scholar. As a Kashmiri-Canadian born in Germany, raised in Bahrain, with Kenyan ancestry, Maryam has always found inspiration in stories that center the immigrant experience in all its joy, delight, and magic.
She is a UCP Thousand Miles Project Workshop Participant '22, a NYFA Canadian Women Artists’ Awardee '22, and a Gotham Marcie Bloom Fellow '23. Her latest short film, Sweet Refuge, starring Laith Nakli and Mahira Kakkar, was recently awarded a Jury Award at the Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards, a Canadian Woman Artists' Award from the New York Foundation of the Arts, and a distribution grant from the Islamic Scholarship Fund.
Director Statement
Sweet Refuge was initially inspired by a recently resettled 76-year-old Syrian baker I worked with in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in 2017, who spoke to his sweets like they were old friends.
It was also sparked by my experiences growing up South Asian in the Middle East, two cultures that often live side by side, but not always together. Yet, when I moved to the US for college, I noticed how, where both Arabs and South Asians were often Othered, suddenly there was also space for us to relate. I’m particularly interested in how this translates to food and our shared longing to preserve (and reimagine) the desserts—and cultures—we left behind.
This program highlights narratives from the Arab diaspora in the United States, exploring questions of belonging, culture, family, and generational identity.
A passionate Syrian baker spends his first Eid in the U.S. attempting to sell the sweet he’s spent his lifetime perfecting: walnut baklava. As he roams the streets of Brooklyn, he bumps into a savvy Indian ladoo maker, who’s figured out how to appeal to one of New York’s health-conscious Brooklynites.
Director Biography - Maryam Mir
Maryam Mir is a writer/director currently pursuing her MFA in Film Production at NYU Tisch, where she is an Ang Lee Scholar. As a Kashmiri-Canadian born in Germany, raised in Bahrain, with Kenyan ancestry, Maryam has always found inspiration in stories that center the immigrant experience in all its joy, delight, and magic.
She is a UCP Thousand Miles Project Workshop Participant '22, a NYFA Canadian Women Artists’ Awardee '22, and a Gotham Marcie Bloom Fellow '23. Her latest short film, Sweet Refuge, starring Laith Nakli and Mahira Kakkar, was recently awarded a Jury Award at the Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards, a Canadian Woman Artists' Award from the New York Foundation of the Arts, and a distribution grant from the Islamic Scholarship Fund.
Director Statement
Sweet Refuge was initially inspired by a recently resettled 76-year-old Syrian baker I worked with in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in 2017, who spoke to his sweets like they were old friends.
It was also sparked by my experiences growing up South Asian in the Middle East, two cultures that often live side by side, but not always together. Yet, when I moved to the US for college, I noticed how, where both Arabs and South Asians were often Othered, suddenly there was also space for us to relate. I’m particularly interested in how this translates to food and our shared longing to preserve (and reimagine) the desserts—and cultures—we left behind.