From a teenage TEDx speaker whose talks reached over 150,000 people worldwide, Kiana Rawji has now turned into an award-winning young filmmaker whose films touch hearts and spark dialogue around the globe.
Only 23 years old and recently graduated from Harvard College, Kiana is already making a name for herself as a director and writer. From independent theaters to Oscar-qualifying film festivals Kiana’s films have screened across Canada, the US, and East Africa. Her two most recent films, Mama of Manyatta and Inside Job, are just the latest examples of Kiana’s long-standing pursuit of storytelling to uplift unheard voices and drive cultural change.
Mama of Manyatta is a short documentary film that follows Phelgone Jacks, an extraordinary woman fighting HIV/AIDS stigma & gender-based violence in a slum in Kisumu, Kenya. Rather than an all-too-common narrative of the suffering African poor, the film presents an intimate portrait of African self-empowerment, leadership, and resilience. Mama of Manyatta was awarded a Special Jury Mention at the 2023 Zanzibar International Film Festival, and also screened at the 2023 Pan African Film Festival in L.A. and Essence Film Festival in New Orleans.
Inside Job is a fictional film about an Indian housewife who, when preparing to leave her home in 1970s Nairobi, loses a bangle and suspects one of her African domestic servants stole it. The film was based on Kiana’s thesis research at Harvard on the South Asian diaspora in East Africa and interracial relations after colonialism. It draws on oral history interviews she conducted over several months with Khoja Ismailis (mostly women) in the East African Asian diaspora, as well as East African domestic workers. Inside Job received the Harvard Film Department’s prize for the most outstanding interdisciplinary project, incorporating research with visual communication. It premiered last month at 2023 Chicago South Asian Film Festival in September, and is making its Canadian premiere at the Aga Khan Museum on October 15th, along with Mama of Manyatta.
Before Inside Job and Mama of Manyatta, Kiana had also had great success with her other short films: her 2021 documentary, Long Distance (about a love story between migrant workers exploited at an Albertan meat plant), won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Alberta Short Film at the 2021 Calgary International Film Festival and screened at several other festivals across Canada and the US. Her 2022 short fiction film, Je Suis (about a Muslim college student forced to endure an insensitive classroom discussion) screened at the 2022 Vancouver South Asian Film Festival.
At the heart of all her films are values of pluralism, unity across difference, and promoting the quality of life of people living in poverty—values at the core of Ismaili beliefs and the work of Ismaili and AKDN institutions.
Kiana describes her creative process to be fueled by compassion and curiosity. Each of her films begins with a passion driven by personal investment in a story, followed by detailed research and engagement with real people and authentic stories. What results, whether nonfiction or fiction, is a character-driven approach to tackling important topics, providing audiences with entry points into seemingly distant issues.
For many years, Kiana has engaged intellectually with what the Aga Khan calls “the cosmopolitan ethic.” In her 2016 TEDx talk, with over 51,000 views, “The Risk of a Dying Cosmopolitan Ethic,” she explained that “a true cosmopolitan takes a step beyond mere tolerance” of others and seeks to appreciate, understand, and learn from difference.” And in her 2018 TEDx talk, with over 99,000 views, “Islam Through Many Lenses: A Multi-Story Mindset”, Kiana applied the notion of pluralism and cosmopolitanism to Islam, speaking to the vast diversity within the religion.
Kiana sees filmmaking as a way of putting her values of cosmopolitanism into practice. “I strive to close distances while also celebrating differences between people,” she says. “This requires a will to traverse the oceans of difference that separate us, however uncertain or challenging the journey may be.” Kiana has certainly embarked on such journeys through filmmaking, whether through engaging with Filipino migrant workers in Calgary, people living with HIV and survivors of gender-based violence in Kenya, women in the East African Asian diaspora, or East African domestic workers.
“Nonfiction submerges me in the lives of former strangers. Fiction releases me into new worlds where I live in the shoes of and love all my characters without judgment,” Kiana explains. “I’m continuously learning through my camera lens; it urges me to pay attention and learn from the world around me. And the wondrous sense of discovery that comes with it all is delightful, thrilling, and enlivening.”
Kiana graduated summa cum laude in May 2023 from Harvard College with a joint concentration in History & Literature and Film, specializing in Cross Cultural Encounters, Diasporic Identity and The Indian Ocean.
Kiana’s previous work can be found at www.kianarawji.com.
For those interested, Inside Job or Mama of Manyatta will both screen on October 15th 11am-1pm (EST) at The Aga Khan Museum Nanji Foundation Auditorium, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Kiana Rawji. Tickets can be purchased at https://krfilms.eventbrite.com.
Sponsors interested in contributing can email kianarawjifilms@gmail.com. Thanks to a generous sponsor, a limited number of discounted tickets are available to students, newcomers, and seniors. If interested, please reach out to kianarawjifilms@gmail.com.
Ismailimail 