Bio
(b. 1987, Pakistan) is a filmmaker and a multimedia artist. She holds a BA in video and postcolonial studies from Hampshire College (2010), and an MA in cinema and media studies from The New School (2016). Her practice moves across research and visual production interrogating the relationship between memory and histories, witnessing and testimonies through image and narrative. Single Screen Shaadi, 2018, is an image from the day of Mubarak Cinema’s transformation, from a historic cinema to a wedding venue. A permanent marquee was being constructed inside the lower hall of the theatre to be a wedding tent under which new roles could be enacted, and new performances witnessed, and entertainment sought.
Artist Statement
Mubarak Cinema, located on Abbott Road in Lahore was part of the city's historic cinema district. Its iconic structure with a half-moon dome design and intricately layered facade paired with neon signage exists till today. However it now serves a different purpose - it has been converted into a wedding venue. This image is from the day of its transformation: a permanent marquee was being constructed inside the lower hall of the theater to be a wedding tent under which new roles could be enacted, and new performances witnessed, and entertainment sought. The film is set inside and outside Mubarak Cinema, documenting its metamorphosis from a cinema, now defunct, gathering dust, into an active wedding venue, where new love stories are written, directed, performed, and witnessed, and another kind of spectacle-making practice takes place.
