Mehdi Jahan
Born in North Lakhimpur town in the North-Eastern Indian state of Assam in 1988, Guwahati based filmmaker and video artist Mehdi Jahan is an alumnus of A.J.K. Mass Communication and Research
Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Contact
WORK︎PROCESS︎
His work confronts normative, dominant, and mainstream modes of image production, incorporating
elements from the rich oral storytelling traditions of his region, cultivating a purely sensorial aesthetic through narrative and material experimentations to arrive at a synthesis between personal and collective histories, generating a language of film closer to poetry, memories, and
dreams. His formal investigations and expression emerge from a deep personal association and
engagement with the history of Cinema, oral storytelling techniques ( particularly the Sufi oral
tradition of his paternal grandparents ), and the relationship between the two, opening up a
multitude of cinematic possibilities. He strongly believes the dreams, memories, and personal stories
of individuals are windows which make visible the political narratives of a place.
His films have been screened and exhibited at several places internationally and nationally, as part of film festivals and exhibitions, including International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR),
The Millennium Workshop ( New York ), Fronteira International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival (Brazil), Garage Museum of
Contemporary Art, as part of Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, FILMADRID,
Bogoshorts ( Bogota Short Film Festival ), Camara Lucida – Encuentros Cinematograficos ( Cuenca, Ecuador ), MUTA Festival ( Peru ), Pan-Cinema Experimental – Curitiba International Experimental Film Festival (Curitiba, Brazil), Ribalta Experimental Film Festival ( Vignola, Italy ), Simultan Festival (Timisoara, Romania ), Signs Film Festival ( Kerala, India ), etc.
He is the recipient of the Berlin Fellowship 2023 (Film and Media Arts), JUNGE Akademie, Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
The first retrospective of films was held at The Millenium Film Workshop, New York, 2023. It was curated by filmmaker and curator, Alex Faoro.
He taught film studies, direction, and screenwriting at several institutes over the years, including
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, Seamedu Media School, Pune, Mass Communication Department of Guwahati University, etc.
