Um Al Naar (Mother of Fire) Film Screening and Conversation

Image: Farah Al Qasimi (b. 1991), Um Al-Naar, 2019, film, 42 min 07 sec (still from film)

In this 40-minute horror-comedy by Farah Al Qasimi, a fictional Reality TV network shadows Um Al Naar, a Ras Al Khaimah-based Jinn. Um Al Naar narrates the region’s transformation from its occupation by Portuguese and British naval forces to its current adoption of a national identity based around constructions of global tolerance and cultural production, and she pays close attention to everyday changes like the gendered pastimes of the country’s youth, waning trust in traditional forms of spirituality and medicine, and the loss of history in an urgent bid for novelty. The film screening is followed by a conversation between artist Farah Al Qasimi and Professor Gayatri Gopinath, Director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality (NYU).

This event is organized as part of the newly-installed exhibit at 19 Washington Square North, Sharbaka: Entanglement/Attunement, which includes Al Qasimi’s work. In partnership with NYUAD's al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art and its cluster Haraka: Experimental Lab for Arab Art and Social Thought, the exhibit is on view from December 6, 2021 through May 6, 2022. For a virtual visit and Curator's Talk led by NYUAD Professor May Al-Dabbagh, join us on Monday, December 6 at 9am EST / 6pm GST(Zoom link: https://nyu.zoom.us/j/92800062630)."

Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, this program is only open to members of the NYU community in New York with an NYU Daily Screener Pass status. 

Speakers

• Farah Al Qasimi, Artist and director

In conversation with

• Gayatri Gopinath, Director, Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, NYU

In Collaboration with