My Creative Life is a weekly interview, with the same five questions,
with folks who are living authentically, creatively, and making a living out of their passions.
This week I'm honored to have the multi-talented filmmaker, artist,
blogger, activist Mara Ahmed from Rochester, NY. She exudes kindness, concern for humanity, and the creative spirit.
Visit her film, The Muslims I Know
and her blog, maraahmed.com
2. How did you prepare for this career? (formal and informal education, books,
workshops?)
3. Besides living according to the values of creativity and independence, what other values are you honoring by following this path? my only advice is to follow your heart (as corny as it sounds). do what you love. believe in yourself. persevere. everything else will follow.
with folks who are living authentically, creatively, and making a living out of their passions.
This week I'm honored to have the multi-talented filmmaker, artist,
blogger, activist Mara Ahmed from Rochester, NY. She exudes kindness, concern for humanity, and the creative spirit.Visit her film, The Muslims I Know
and her blog, maraahmed.com
1. What do you do? (career wise - whatever you want to share)
i am a filmmaker (www.TheMuslimsIKnow.com), an artist, a blogger (www.maraahmed.com), and an activist.
2. How did you prepare for this career? (formal and informal education, books,
workshops?)i have an MBA and a master's degree in economics. i worked in finance for many years, designing mathematical models for business analysis. i switched careers in 2004 and took some art classes at nazareth college. i went into filmmaking about a year later. took classes at the visual studies workshop in rochester and at RIT.
3. Besides living according to the values of creativity and independence, what other values are you honoring by following this path?
in today's world i think that we cannot help but be involved in politics one way or the other. for me that participation is motivated by my interest in human rights. living in this incredibly interconnected world, to me art, truth and politics are all intricately linked. joseph nechvatal said it best: “my deep feeling is that today art must indict, or at the very least, play the role of the jester who unmasks the unspeakable lies of the powerful. americans have been deceived and victimized by our government’s propaganda, and if art cannot rebuff and contest this grave situation by fueling the political will and imagination of resistance, I wonder why we need it at all.”
4. What struggles or challenges do you face, if any?
4. What struggles or challenges do you face, if any?
my only challenge is that there are simply too many stories, too many ideas, too many media i am interested in exploring all at once. so i have a tremendous idea for an art exhibit related to the iraq war, but i also have an idea for writing a play about a pakistani woman who has been kept in indefinite detention without trial and whose three young children were "disappeared" along with her about 6 years ago. finally i am working on two documentaries - one about the situation in pakistan and another about the partition of india in 1947.
5. Can you give some advice to folks who would like to do what you do?
