Matwaala, a South Asian Diaspora Poets’ Collective, launched its inaugural South Asian Poetry Film Festival, MATWAALA MEHFILM 2025, on October 4th at the South Asia Institute in Chicago (SAI). The collective seeks to amplify the visibility of South Asian poetry and integrate it into the broader American literary landscape. Playfully branded MEHFILM, this event was a significant highlight among the 18 events celebrating Matwaala’s tenth anniversary in 2025.
For the first time, poetry films—also called film poems—by South Asian diaspora poets were presented together in a single event. Poetry films are short visual interpretations of poems, utilizing diverse styles such as photojournalism, expressionism, illustration, and animation. Notably, four of the films were created using AI software.
“The collaboration between Matwaala and the South Asia Institute highlighted a shared mission: to promote cross-cultural dialogue, artistic exchange, and representation of underrepresented voices in the arts,” said Kashiana Singh, Managing Editor for Poets Reading the News. “Mehfilm brought together poets, filmmakers, and audiences for an afternoon of 29 poetry films, poetry readings, and reflection, underscoring the transformative power of creative collaboration.”
A Celebration of Visual Poetry
Festival director Usha Akella noted that Mehfilm drew inspiration from Houston’s Reel Poetry Fest. “Poetry film is an osmosis between two genres, transforming the written word into a holistic sensory experience. This kind of reverse ekphrasis—poems inspiring visual media—is a magical alchemy, allowing poetry to be rediscovered in a new way.”
The Matwaala team—Pramila Venkateswaran, Kashiana Singh, and Usha Akella—curated the films over the course of a year. The festival featured works by South Asian poets, Matwaala’s poets-of-color series, and international voices, including African American poet Keisha-Gaye Anderson and Palestinian poet Yahya Ashour. SAI’s Haoshu Sascha Deng presented a poetry film featuring Kirun Kapur’s poem From the Afterlife. Emerging filmmakers such as Sharanya Banerjee, Anannya Akella, and Anjali Pulim also showcased their talents.
Founders Shireen and Afzal Ahmad of SAI, Chicago’s only independent South Asian arts institute, emphasized that the collaboration with Matwaala exemplified their mission to foster innovative platforms and cross-disciplinary artistic exchange, advancing the visibility of South Asian creativity. They highlighted that Mehfilm merged poetry and visual storytelling to “inspire dialogue, deepen cultural understanding, and celebrate the richness of contemporary South Asian expression.”
Notable Poetry Films
Pramila Venkateswaran’s poetry film Satyagraha explores the resilience of John Lewis and the African-American civil rights movement, inspired by Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence. The film incorporates footage of Venkateswaran’s own participation in political rallies. “Film capturing a poetic line is not simply mimesis,” she explained. “The filmmaker’s interpretation of a poem to create images is a creative act that complements the poem.”
“The Matwaala Film Poetry Festival is unique in bringing together filmmakers and poets to establish film poems as a recognized genre,” she added. “The festival also captured the diversity of South Asian culture through its various themes.”
Poetry Readings and Awards
The festival featured a panel discussion with poets and filmmakers, alongside a poetry reading by Zilka Joseph, Kirun Kapur, Ignatius Aloysius, Kashiana Singh, Lopamudra Banerjee, Nina Sudhakar, Pramila Venkateswaran, Vivek Sharma, Meena Chopra, Meenakshi Mohan, and Preeti Parikh. The reception also highlighted a talented young baker, Anagha Pashilkar.
Matwaala recognized SAI founders Shireen and Afzal Ahmad with the Monsoon Maker Award for their vital support of the South Asian literary community, and honored Usha Akella with the Matwaala Founder Award. Selected poetry films will be screened next year at IAAC in New York City and at the Indie Meme Film Festival in Austin.
Poetry Films Roster
- Mandalas. Portals of Earth and Ether, 2:14 mins, Usha Akella (Filmmaker: Nirmal Raja)
- Seed or Tree, 1:27 mins, Usha Akella (Filmmaker: Ravi Akella)
- Conversations with Destiny I, 2:24 mins, Ignatius V. Aloysius (Filmmaker: Poet)
- Conversations with Destiny II, 6:12 mins, Ignatius V. Aloysius
- Fly, 1:36 mins, Keisha Gaye Anderson (Filmmaker: Poet)
- Black is Not Enough, 1:19 mins, Keisha Gaye Anderson
- So the War Would Know I Am Here, 2:42 mins, Yahya Ashour (Filmmaker: Andrew Burgess)
- Love Poem for America, 4:02 mins, Lopamudra Banerjee (Filmmaker: Sharanya Banerjee)
- Citizenship of Mixed Emotion, 7:18 mins, Ravi Chandra (Filmmaker: Ravi Chandra)
- Shining Canada, 4:12 mins, Meena Chopra (Filmmaker: Meena Chopra)
- Gunpowder Tea, 2:43 mins, Shadab Zeest Hashmi (Filmmakers: Mike Kelly & team)
- Chaining the Ecstatic, 1:13 mins, Kavita Jindal (Filmmaker: Caroline Areskog Jone)
- From the Afterlife, 2:54 mins, Kirun Kapur (Filmmaker: Haoshu Sascha Deng)
- Still, Remember Me, 5:50 mins, Meenakshi Mohan (Filmmaker: Shantanu Mondal)
- Ghazal for the Diaspora, 2:40 mins, Faisal Mohyuddin (Filmmaker: Eric Felipe-Barkin)
- Clubs, My Sinful Dance Muse, 3:30 mins, Anita Nahal (Filmmakers: Anita Nahal & Deepti Pradhan)
- Hands, 2:31 mins, Sophia Naz (Filmmaker: Ger Killeen)
- Hands, 4:08 mins, Sophia Naz (Filmmaker: Amelia Mylvaganam)
- An Exclamation, 3:29 mins, Yogesh Patel (Filmmaker: Poet)
- Sapphire Sea, 2:26 mins, Pranaya Raparla (Filmmakers: Anannya Akella & Cedric Tsai)
- Partition, 4:00 mins, Sehba Sarwar (Filmmaker: Faroukh Virani)
- Limbed, 1:34 mins, Ravi Shankar (Filmmaker: Anjali Pulim)
- Niagara Falls, 1:18 mins, Sangeeta Sharma (Filmmaker: Srishti Sharma)
- Fog, 1:19 mins, Sunil Sharma (Filmmaker: Srishti Sharma)
- I See My World Shaking, 4:21 mins, Yuyutsu Sharma (Filmmaker: Stephen Bookas)
- His Own Magnificent Sons, 5:00 mins, Kashiana Singh (Filmmaker: Sanah Singh)
- Magritte’s Le Viol, 1:16 mins, Pramila Venkateswaran (Filmmaker: Neeraja Rao)
- Satyagraha, 2:07 mins, Pramila Venkateswaran (Filmmaker: Chip Williford)
- Pachyderm Refugee, 2:23 mins, Pramila Venkateswaran (Filmmaker: Jayashree George)
Source: India Currents
