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Matwaala marks 10 years with inaugural South Asian poetry film festival
‘Mehfilm’ debuts in Chicago with 29 poetry films spotlighting diasporic creativity and collaboration.
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Staff Reporter - Sat, 11, Oct 2025
- 17:01 EDT
- 28
Matwaala co-directors Pramila Venkateswaran and Usha Akella presenting the ‘Monsoon Maker Award’ to the South Asia Institute, Chicago founders / Courtesy: Matwaala
Matwaala, the South Asian Diaspora Poetry Collective, marked its 10th anniversary celebrations with the launch of 'Mehfilm, the first South Asian Diaspora Poetry Film Festival, hosted at the South Asia Institute (SAI) in Chicago.
The event brought together poets, filmmakers, and audiences for an afternoon dedicated to the fusion of poetry and cinema, featuring 29 short films exploring themes of identity, art, and social consciousness.
Curated by Matwaala co-directors Pramila Venkateswaran, Kashiana Singh, and Usha Akella, the festival marked the collective’s first major venture into poetry film. The films, developed over a year, ranged in style from photojournalistic interpretations to AI-assisted animation, highlighting the growing role of technology in creative storytelling.
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In her opening remarks, Akella—who was inspired by Houston’s Reel Poetry Fest—described poetry film as “an osmosis between two genres propelling the written word into a holistic sensory experience.”
The festival included works from South Asian poets and participants from Matwaala’s “poets of color” series, including Keisha-Gaye Anderson and Palestinian poet Yahya Ashour. Deng’s film adaptation of Kirun Kapur’s 'From the Afterlife' and ‘Satyagraha,’ a poetry film by Pramila Venkateswaran, which incorporates footage from civil rights marches, paid homage to John Lewis and Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophies of non-violence and were among the highlights.
“The moving image of film capturing a poetic line is not simply mimesis, or using the camera to capture an image equating it to a line in the poem; the filmmaker’s interpretation of the poem in order to create a set of images is a creative activity that complements the poem," Venkateswaran said. "The Matwaala film poetry festival is unique in bringing together this collaboration of filmmakers and poets and establishing film-poems as a recognized genre."
Matwaala ambassador Kashiana Singh and co-directors Pramila Venkateswaran, and Usha Akella / Courtesy: MatwaalaThe event also featured a panel with poets and filmmakers, poetry readings by Zilka Joseph, Kirun Kapur, Ignatius Aloysius, Lopamudra Banerjee, and others, and a reception featuring baked creations by Anagha Pashilkar.
SAI, Chicago’s only independent institution dedicated to South Asian arts, partnered with Matwaala to host the event. “This collaboration exemplified our mission to support innovative artistic platforms and foster cross-disciplinary exchange,” said SAI founders Shireen and Afzal Ahmad.
Matwaala presented the 'Monsoon Maker Award' to SAI founders for their contributions to South Asian arts, while Akella received the 'Matwaala Founder Award.'
Founded in 2015 by Akella and Venkateswaran, Matwaala aims to amplify South Asian diaspora voices in the U.S. 'Mehfilm' debut marks the beginning of a year-long series of 15 national events at venues including the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Washington, D.C., SWIMM in Florida, Book Woman in Austin, and the Walt Whitman Birthplace in New York.
Themes of identity, heritage, social justice, and solidarity will guide the celebrations, supported by partners such as Poets & Writers, NYU, and the Academy of American Poets.
Selections from 'Mehfilm' will be screened at the Indo-American Arts Council in New York and Indie Meme in Austin in 2026, with plans for additional showcases at cultural and academic institutions.
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