Anil Kalhan

“You can say you’re sorry, you can apologize, but you can’t give back the hours, the minutes, the months a family has been broken up.” – Carma Said, Wife of Akram – an Egyptian national who was deported and separated from her and his 2 children for over 3 years.

In post 9/11 America, the curtailment of civil liberties in the name of national security has had a direct and enduring impact on individuals of Muslim background. This community, collateral damage in the war on terror, is further alienated by selective enforcement of new and existing immigration policy. Families are separated and communities were uprooted.

We followed four families whose lives were dramatically changed after 9/11. Carma, an American citizen, saw her husband Akram arrested from their home and deported to Egypt. Akram lived in Pennsylvania, worked legally to support his family and waited to adjust his status. Two days after 9/11, Salem, an American citizen, was detained for 40 days and held in solitary confinement for allegedly stealing a rental car. Hakim, an Algerian, has permanent residency papers pending with the INS. After 9/11 he was placed in deportation proceedings, despite being married to a US legal resident. Hakim has a one-year old son who was born in Brooklyn. The Rahmans, also from Brooklyn, fled to a refugee shelter in Buffalo, New York to seek asylum in Canada. They face persecution in their native Bangladesh, but were afraid of enforcement measures in the US. Along with 15,000 others from Brooklyn, they left their homes and lives rather than face the prospect of being deported by authorities.

In a country that treasures freedom and democracy, these trying times have brought anguish to those who came and continue to come here in search of a homeland.

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about the filmmakers

Born in Mumbai, India, Sanjna Singh left at 17 for the U.S. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College magna cum laude with honors in both Political Science and French. Along with co-producer Pia Sawhney, she was awarded grants from the New York State Council for the Arts and the Experimental TV Center for Out of Status. The Queens Museum, Asia Society, Pioneer Theatre, Egyptian Theater (LA) and Angelika Film Center among others have screened their work. Sanjna was accepted into IFP’s Project Involve Documentary Unit in Spring 2004 and was awarded the Eastman Kodak Final Pitch Award. Her personal essays have been published in the New York Times, among other publications. She has studied film and photography in New York and in Paris, and was a panelist at Amnesty International USA’s Annual General Meeting in 2004. She currently works at HBO Studios in New York.

Pia Sawhney has worked in documentary for four years, and most recently on a production for Jennifer Fox, which will air on HBO next year. Pia’s short film Out of Status, with co-producer Sanjna Singh, played at the Rotterdam, Edinburgh, and Amnesty film festivals among others. The feature version, in post-production, is funded in part by grants, and screened as a Work-in-Progress at IFP Market 2004. Pia and Sanjna are finalists for the Roy. W. Dean grant, and were nominated by NAATA for the ABC Talent Development Award. Pia has served as a panel judge for the SAJA Scholarship Award, was accepted to IFP New York’s Project Involve workshop, and attended Bryn Mawr College. She has lived in the US, India, and the Middle East. Pia is completing a graduate degree in broadcast journalism part-time at New York University, and works as a freelance producer.

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Two Boots/Pioneer Theater“Very Moving and Compelling”
- Sara Bernstein, HBO Original Programming, Documentaries

“We applaud you…[i]t remains a testament to the difference that visionary individuals and artists can make in the advancement of justice and human dignity.”
- William F. Schultz, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA

“Two of the most important young filmmakers in the country today”
- Peter Sellars, Film Theatre and Opera Director

Since her first acclaimed release, described by The Times Of India as “a most exciting find”, Isheeta has performed Rabindrasangeet widely both in Kolkata and the U.S. where she performed regularly at the annual North American Bengali Conferences as well as several international music festivals in New York City. Additionally, Isheeta recorded four more highly anticipated albums in Rabindrasangeet, two of which were collaborations with her guru Smt. Suchitra Mitra, in a series titled, “Aj Khala Bhangar Khala”.

Simultaneous to her journey with Rabindrasangeet, Isheeta was inspired in Western opera and jazz through her training with Nancy Wilson from the Lincoln Center in New York City. Subsequently, during her college years at Brown University, she performed with a pop a’cappella group called the Chattertocks a group with regaled audiences all over the U.S. with jazz and pop favorites.

Her proficiency in both Rabindrasangeet and Western styles of singing led to collaborations a number of international projects including: a multi-media work called “Riot” with Shabana Azmi, Madhur Jaffrey and Shashi Tharoor in New York City, the inaugural performances of four Indo-American Arts Council Film Festivals with Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta and the late Ismael Merchant, a multi-media collaboration with danseuse Mallika Sarabhai and The Battery Dance Company titled, “Still I Rise” as well as a collaboration with Tanushree Shankar’s Tagore based production titled “Chiranthan”.

Sundaram Tagore GalleryCall of the Young:
Call of the Young (Nutan Joubaneri Duth), directed by her guru Smt. Suchitra Mitra, is Isheeta’s first release with SAREGAMA, which will also be distributed internationally. The album includes a selection of popular, seasonal and inspirational Tagore songs with universal themes of rejuvenation, courage, reinvention and celebration that mirror the experiences of every community.

Falu recently teamed up with Wyclef Jean to lend her unique vocal styling to the score of Angelina Jolie’s new documentary A Place in Time, which focused on capturing the diversity of human spirit around the globe. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this spring. This sense of diversity is what makes Falu’s music so distinctive, as she has the rare ability to seamlessly blend a trademark rock style with a formidable classically shaped talent. From rapid, striking notes to soft, flowing melodies, her vocal and stylistic ranges vary with ease.

Similarly, her self-titled album, produced by Palmyra Delran (The Friggs), effortlessly transitions from powerhouse ballad “Obsession,” to Bollywood favorite “Dum Maro Dum” and on to the rockin’ beats of “Hey Baby.” “The real challenge is to push towards innovation while staying true to 5,000 year old traditional roots,” says Falu.

Born Falguni Shah in the bustling city of Bombay, Falu has spent up to sixteen hours a day practicing music since the age of three. Her mother and grandmother were both classically trained vocalists, and the talent has undoubtedly been passed onto her. While in India, she was fortunate to have studied under legendary sarangi/vocal master Ustad Sultan Khan, who is featured on the album, forming a relationship that continues to nurture her creativity and musical spirit.