Tasveer South Asian Film Festival: 18 Years of Amplifying Voices, Celebrating Diversity, and a New Creative Summit

by Victor Simoes

Celebrating 18 years in 2023, the Bellevue-based Tasveer South Asian Film Festival continues to amplify the experiences of the South Asian community, looking to shorten the bridges separating independent filmmakers and production companies through a new addition to October's festival program, a South Asian Film Summit.

The summit will provide another resource for independent filmmakers, bringing together storytellers, financiers, producers, and distributors, creating a space for collaboration, and shortening the gap between these two worlds.

"This initiative will boost our region's creative economy," said Rita Meher, a co-founder of Tasveer. "Also centering around underrepresented and unserved South Asian storytellers while serving a wider filmmaking creative community."

The hybrid film festival, with in-person screenings happening in Bellevue and Seattle in addition to online showings, will run from Oct. 11—22, and the film summit will take place in the first two days at Tagney Jones Hall at the Opera Center, counting on essential industry players, like NBCU, Marginal MediaWorks, Synthetic Media, and Netflix.

In the buildup to the festival, Tasveer offers several screening events throughout the year via TasveerTV. The streaming platform, created in 2021, is the first of its kind to offer a curated selection of independent movies for and by the South Asian community.

The South Asian community in the United States includes people with ancestry from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet.

On June 23, Tasveer will offer an online screening highlighting LGBTQIA+ stories and short films to celebrate Pride month. And just two days later, the organization will have its debut in the Seattle Pride Parade with the Queer Desis and Allies of the Seattle Area (QDASA).

Tasveer founders and good friends Meher, an immigrant who arrived in Chicago at 8 years old, and Farah Nousheen, who came to the U.S. in 1998, faced their fair share of challenges while adapting to American society. Following the events of 9/11, Meher and Nousheen encountered intensifying prejudice directed toward the South Asian community. These experiences shattered their initial perceptions of America as a welcoming melting pot.

Motivated by the desire to share her stories, in 2001, just six years after her TV debut as a producer, Meher directed her first short film, Citizenship 101, documenting her personal experience with discrimination. However, she faced rejection when submitting her film to existing festivals. Meher and Nousheen, who had met in Seattle the year prior, realized they needed to build their own space, a platform to showcase their films and empower their community.

Born in March 2002, Tasveer represents the vision of these two friends, who see visuals and pictures as a tool to tell stories and create a deeper understanding of the South Asian experience. After two years of great response from the community, Tasveer moved from doing only single screenings to sponsoring the country's first South Asian-focused film festival.

In Tasveer's early days, Meher and Nousheen funded the organization with their own resources. They started hosting events, one film at a time, renting venues and engaging the audience through curated dialogues and post-screening Q&A sessions.

"We had no idea how to go about it. We didn't know how nonprofits work or [how to] ask for grants or donations, so we were funding everything from our own pocket," said Meher. "We were doing one event at a time and saw a great response to it. People needed it. So we founded the film festival in 2004."

The Tasveer Film Festival became the cornerstone of their organization. From that first festival in 2004, the founders recognized the lack of South Asian women's stories being told, which propelled them to launch a program called "Storytelling by and about South Asian Women." This initiative aimed to create a space led by and for South Asian women to share their stories through films and other mediums.

Over the years, the organization has expanded its activities to include programs that empower young individuals to become leaders and actively participate in meaningful discussions and policymaking. They also organize book discussions and funding initiatives for filmmakers and help distribute independent movies in collaboration with partners, such as Netflix and Alaska Airlines.

During Mental Health Month in May, Tasveer provides community workshops on how to write a story from your experiences and translate that into the art of storytelling. "That helps do a lot of healing in the process, when you share your story," said Meher. "We have seen the results of that in our community."

Despite financial challenges due to shrinking donations in the past years because of the pandemic, Tasveer remains dedicated to amplifying South Asian voices, fostering an inclusive space where these experiences can be told, shared, and celebrated.

For more information on the program, how to contribute with donations, volunteer opportunities, and how to submit movies for screening, visit the Tasveer website.

This article is published under a Seattle Human Services Department grant, "Resilience Amidst Hate," in response to anti-Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander violence.

Featured Image: Rita Meher, the co-founder of Tasveer, introduces the 17th South Asian Film Festival on Nov. 3, 2022. Besides being a film producer and director, Meher was nominated for Seattle Mayor's Award for Excellence in Arts in 2017. (Photo courtesy of Tasveer)