Arwa Aburawa Turab Shah

I CARRY IT WITH ME EVERYWHERE

Filmmakers Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, founders of the Brent-based project Other Cinemas, have been commissioned to produce their first moving image work. Informed by interviews with first-generation migrants living in the borough and beyond, this short film weaves together the lives of multiple characters as they confront inherited ideas of belonging.

From the severed connection to a motherland following the death of a parent, to the generational experience of displacement, or the feeling of nostalgia for a place and time forever out of reach, I Carry It With Me Everywhere explores how migration results in moments of rupture from which new understandings of home and belonging may emerge.

The UK government’s antagonistic relationship with migrant communities forms the quietly simmering backdrop of the film, as communities are forced to come to terms with the reality that not everyone can find safety and belonging in the nation state. This reality was most recently demonstrated by the Windrush scandal, as well as the new proposals brought forward by the Nationality and Borders Act, through which the government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, or to strip non-white British people of their citizenship without warning.

Shot in black and white, Aburawa and Shah’s film seeks to convey the timeless and ongoing search for answers in response to the experience of these hostile environments, which are familiar to many migrant communities in the UK. In the process, they seek to subvert the idea that belonging is an inherently positive experience. What if a moment of belonging here, in the UK, is also a moment of losing belonging somewhere else? What if that shift also requires giving up a more rooted space of belonging for a precarious one, one that is always at risk of being taken away? The film evokes this deep sense of loss, whilst also honouring what people continually manage to build and create in resistance.

Other Cinemas is a film-based project initiated by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah to find better, more equitable ways to make and share films. The project seeks to create a deeper connection between the creation of films and their exhibition, by organising free, high-quality film events, and taking them to the community in Brent. These free film screenings always showcase the work of Black and non-white filmmakers, and aim to speak to, and create space for, these communities. Other Cinemas also create and produce films of their own, with a focus on working collaboratively and with care. As part of their practice, they run a free, year-long film school for aspiring Black and non-white filmmakers.

Website: https://othercinemas.co.uk

Intagram: @othercinemas

Access key: This venue does not have wheelchair access. It requires visitors to walk up two flights of stairs. To request a viewing link for this work, please email: hello@metrolandcultures.com

Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah‘s exhibition was commissioned as part of the Brent Biennial 2022, titled ‘In the House of my Love’, in co-production with LUX. The second edition of the Biennial asked how, and why, the act of making home can be a form of resistance and survival within the context of hostile environments—including those of racism, homophobia, ableism, climate catastrophe and political austerity. The Brent Biennial 2022 was curated by Eliel Jones, in collaboration with a curatorial committee comprised of artists Adam Farah, Abbas Zahedi and Jamila Prowse. Find out more by visiting the Archive.