No Borders x Nowness Asia: Stories of Craft and Artistry

In collaboration with Nowness Asia, we will be curating films every month to spotlight and carve out space for truly gifted, independent POC filmmakers. This week, we are bringing you five more short films that screened during our event in NYC, including our own that we shot during the making of our first No Borders in-house collection, A Return to Our Roots. This selection of short films includes stories of Craft and Artistry.

These films embody labor and love, showing us the lives led behind every craft.

A String of Pearls (2020) by Kenyan filmmaker Amirah Tajdin centers Emirati women of the Dibba community as they practice the woven craft of talli.

“The women's stories are real and true to their experiences but I get to direct them in settings within storylines that I come up with, inspired by the Emirati culture they hail from that rarely gets to be seen by wider audiences.” -Amirah Tajdin

Watch the film here.

A Return to our Roots (2023), directed by No Borders’ very own Kanika Karvinkop, tells the story of Kasuti, an ancient embroidery practice kept alive by women in Dharwad.

“After meeting these powerful women, we saw how effortlessly they nurture their families while putting in hours into this craft to not just earn a living, but also to carry forward an art form that is slowly dying.” - Kanika Karvinkop

Watch the film here.

Shabah El Rih (2021) is an experimental film set in Beirut’s Grand Théâtre, a pinnacle of international art and culture in Lebanon before the 1975 civil war. Filmmakers Aya Atoui and Anthony Sahyoun resurrected the site for a ‘ghost opera’ as a testament to what has been lost.

“Space has a way of unraveling secrets and Lebanon has had its fair share. The gaps in cultural history make it impossible to ascertain what Lebanon would have been like if it wasn’t war-torn.”⁠ - Aya Atoui & Anthony Sahyoun

Watch the film here.

To Knock or Call (2023), directed by Jia Li, centers the experience of Zhang Sai, a delivery worker in Wuhan who is a poet at heart. This is the story of how he grapples with his labor and with his craft.

“I hope [this film] pushes through that cloud [of apathy] and allows for a little glimpse of humanity, to remember there are real people who, despite being in this assembly line...deserve respect and dignity.” -Jia Li

Watch the film here.

Yingge Boys (2021), directed by Shijun Jia for NOWNESS China’s Young Masters series tells the story of a new generation of young men practicing the time-honored folk dance Yingge.

“Either you dance Yingge well, or you don't touch it.”

-Xiao Wang, Huai Mei Yingge Group

Watch the film here.