We’re thrilled to announce that several Doc Studies program alumni are screening their films this November at DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival! Rite of Passage by Talha Jalal (Class of 2023) is an official selection of the shorts programs, and Through a Glass Eye by Lola Granger-Jourdan (Class of 2023) was competitively selected for DOC NYC U. Both short films were previously presented during our Doc Studies annual showcase, Truth Be Told 2023. Mahdokht Mahmoudabadi (Class of 2018) is the lead editor of the feature film Three Promises, included in the official selection of DOC NYC. Congratulations to our alums!
Learn more about their backgrounds, the films’ synopses, and screening details below.
Rite of Passage
Director/Producer: Talha Jalal
The MetroCard vending machine has guarded all that is mundane and special about the New York Subway since 1999. As the old ticketing system gives way to a new, digital one, the bustling underground braces for the inevitable change that could undo its long-held liminality between home and work, and between the public and the private. Things are easier now, but convenience comes at a price. (Pakistan, 21 MIN)
SHORTS: NEW YORK, NEW YORK
In-Person Date: Sunday, November 12, 2023 7:45 PM
In-Person Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 8:15 PM
Venue: Village East by Angelika
Online Dates: Wednesday, November 08 – Sunday, November 26, 2023
Talha Jalal is interested in people, places and ideas that exist in a state of inbetweenness: refugees and migrants, metropolitan cities, and the varied discontents of white hegemonies. Born in Pakistan, he has worked in the Middle East, Europe and the United States as a writer, humanitarian and public policy specialist. He is the author of “Memoirs of the Badshahi Mosque” (OUP, 2013). In 2017, while serving with Doctors Without Borders, he designed a rehabilitation program for victims of torture from Syria. He was also the Middle East regional manager with Danish Refugee Council. During the pandemic, he led the design and implementation of the world’s largest humanitarian scheme for COVID-19 vaccines as a public policy specialist at the Gavi Alliance. He studied international relations at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and documentary film at The New School.
Through a Glass Eye
Director/Producer: Lola Granger-Jourdan
The line between reality and imagination becomes blurred with the resurrection of birds and the creation of a hybrid bestiary. Two female artists are working at the periphery of the male dominated world of taxidermy. Interweaving their ornate art of resurrecting roadkill with archival footage of colonial hunting expeditions and dioramas, Through a Glass Eye explores ways of looking at human animal relationships and reflects on how we deal with the natural world. (USA/UK, 16 MIN)
SHORTS: DOC NYC U – REBIRTH
In-Person Date: Thursday, November 16, 2023 3:30 PM
Venue: Village East by Angelika
Online Dates: Wednesday, November 08 – Sunday, November 26, 2023
Lola Granger-Jourdan is a Franco British filmmaker and literary translator based in New York City. Her motivation to tell stories through film stems from a profound interest in the relationship between humans and animals and a connection to the theme of mortality. An advocate of conservation, she aspires to evoke through her work a sense of wonder and introspection in the viewer, questioning our conception of the city, urban development and our coexistence with other species.
Lola received an MA in Media Studies and an Advanced Certificate in Documentary Studies from The New School. She also holds BA (Hons) degree in Critical Creative Production and Spanish from NYU.
Three Promises
Director: Yousef Srouji
Producer: Marielle Olentine, Zein Khleif (Co-Producer)
Cinematographer: Suha Khamis, Mashal Kawasmi
Editor: Mahdokht Mahmoudabadi, Hany Hawasly (assistant editor), Koohyar Hosseini (assistant editor)
Yousef Srouji’s childhood in Palestine wasn’t something that he and his parents spoke of as a family, so when he found a box of his mother’s home videos from the early 2000s, an especially perilous and tumultuous period in the West Bank, the tapes became a means for remembering and comprehending a painful past. The stories she captured illuminate the nature of life in a war zone, and familial bonds that cannot be broken. (Palestine, United States of America, 61 MIN)
In-person dates:
Sunday, November 12, 2023 4:30 PM
Monday, November 13, 2023 8:45 PM
Venue: Village East by Angelika
Online dates: Monday, November 13 – Sunday, November 26, 2023
Mahdokht Mahmoudabadi was born and raised in Iran. She has worked with international media and as a video editor. Since moving to the U.S., she has worked in farming and sustainable development, in addition to capturing and documenting her journey as an immigrant in this land.
Featured header image: Still from Lola Granger-Jourdan’s Through a Glass Eye
The New School Doc Studies 