“What We Were Met with During the Filming Were the True Difficulties and Trauma that Can be Associated with Migrating”: Amman Abbasi on his CAAMFest-selected short Udaan

A mother and daughter bond on a balcony, soaking in the sights and sounds of Karachi with a strange sort of pre-nostalgia, before embarking on a new life in the US. This is the opening of Amman Abbasi’s beautiful Udaan, which screens this week in the Hindsight Shorts program of CAAMFest (May 13-23). (CAAM, in partnership with Firelight Media and Reel South, launched the Hindsight initiative to provide “funding and support for diverse BIPOC filmmakers from the American South.”) Rendered with loving care and utmost nuance the scene is a reminder of something we in the US so often forget – that immigrants never leave home lightly. That America is only the land of opportunity for those who lack opportunity at home. Abbasi (Dayveon) follows that daughter as she moves to Paragould, Arkansas to pursue her college education. All while living with an aunt and uncle, wearing a hijab, and attending online classes during a pandemic. That she does all this with unbridled optimism is not just a testament to immigrant resilience. It’s also a portrait of responsibility and humility completely at odds with the American entitlement that seems to have corrosively replaced the American Dream. To find out more Filmmaker reached out to the Little Rock-based director/writer/editor/composer — and 25 New Face — the week of the short’s premiere.

So to read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.