Mehdi Jahan

Biography

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. 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.