Mira Nair Launches MAISHA, Film Laboratory for East Africans, South Asians

Acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair will be present at the 7th ZIFF Festival of the Dhow Countries (June 25-July 4) to unveil her latest project, MAISHA, a film makers laboratory dedicated to developing and supporting visionary screenwriters and directors from East Africa and South Asia. As part of the festival programme, ZIFF will screen Nair’s feature films, Monsoon Wedding, Salaam Bombay! and Mississippi Masala, and the new documentary, Still The Children Are Here, directed by Dinaz Stafford and produced by Nair in 2003. Additionally, Nair has been invited to conduct a master-class on her films
at the festival.

MAISHA, (meaning “zest for life” in Kiswahili) provides emerging filmmakers with professional training and production resources to help them hone their storytelling skills and articulate their visions. Through MAISHA, Nair aspires to bring a diverse selection of East African and South Asian stories to both local and global audiences. MAISHA is motivated by the belief that a film which explores the truths and idiosyncrasies of the specifically local often has the power to cross over and become significantly universal.

The first annual MAISHA lab will focus exclusively on screenwriting and is scheduled for August 2005 in Kampala, Uganda. Beginning in August 2006,
the annual lab will include both Directors and Screenwriters. For these labs, MAISHA will select twelve screenwriters and twelve directors from East Africa, South Asia and the respective diaspora communities. Alumni from each lab
are encouraged to apply for successive labs to further develop their projects and progress to production.

Further details about the lab program can be found on the MAISHA website
at www.MAISHAfilmlab.com

Over the span of her extensive career, Nair has championed several programs that encourage a newer generation of filmmakers and artists to tell their own stories and describe their unique experience. Recently, she was invited to be the film mentor for the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative where she will join fellow mentors Jessye Norman, Sir Peter Hall, David ockney, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Saburo Teshigawara. Nair has chosen Aditya Assarat as her protégé and will guide the young Thai writer-director through the process of making his first feature film, Hi-So. She currently lives between Kampala and New York City with her husband, Mahmood Mamdani, and their son, Zohran.

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