Meet award winning Guyanese/Canadian filmmaker Yazmeen Kanji. Visit Guyana had the pleasure of speaking with her, check out our Interview below.
Based in Toronto, Canada, Yazmeen Kanji is an award-winning Muslim Indo-Caribbean filmmaker and cultural consultant. She is the founder of Films With A Cause – a consulting startup for cultural specificity and authentic on-screen representation.
Her first documentary, From Syria To Hope (2019), was awarded Best Short Doc at the 2019 Toronto Short Film Festival. Yazmeen directed With Love From Munera (2020), which premiered at the 2020 Inside Out Film Festival and was an official selection at TIFF Next Wave 2021, the 2021 Toronto International Reel Asian Film Festival and the Audience Choice winner at the 2021 Breakthroughs Film Festival.
She was also a cohort member of Inspirit’s 2022 Narrative Change Lab alongside other Muslim creatives. Her first scripted short film, One Day, is now in its festival run, recently having its world premiere at the International South Asian Film Festival.
🇬🇾 VG: Where in Guyana is your family from?
My mom was born in Danielstown, Essequibo. My maternal grandma was born in Regent Street, Georgetown, and my maternal grandfather was born in Lima, Essequibo.
🇬🇾 VG: How have your Guyanese roots influenced your identity and your work as a filmmaker?
My Guyanese roots are crucial to my identity and work as a filmmaker, given Guyanese culture’s deep respect for pluralism. As an Indo-Caribbean Muslim born in Canada, I grew up hearing stories of my grandma surrounded by neighbours with Indian, Chinese, African and Portuguese heritage from Muslim, Hindu and Christian households. I was raised to be very tolerant of all cultures, which was unique in my wider community. Not everyone of a South Asian or Muslim background that I knew had the same kind of respect for different cultural and religious backgrounds. This respect has informed how I interact with sensitive stories of people from different backgrounds. I am known for creating safe spaces for diverse communities to tell their stories.
🇬🇾 VG: What aspects of your Guyanese heritage do you find most compelling to explore through film?
I am interested in exploring the history and impact of indentured labour amongst Indo-Guyanese women. In my undergraduate studies, I filmed one of my first documentaries for a thesis project about anti-colonialism efforts amongst Guyanese descendants of indentured labourers in partnership with the Muslim Indo-Caribbean Collective. Most recently, I directed my first narrative or scripted film, One Day, about an Indo-Caribbean Muslim teenager who daydreams to seek her inner confidence. Going forward, I am interested in exploring how Indo-Caribbean women continue to decolonize art forms in the diaspora, where there is a more rigid understanding of South Asian communities. How do Indo-Caribbean women continue to exert self-agency inspired by generational activism, whether consciously or unconsciously?
🇬🇾 VG: Have you ever considered filming or collaborating with creatives from Guyana? If so, what kind of stories would you want to tell?
I have considered filming or collaborating with creatives from Guyana. In my Canadian short film, One Day, I collaborated with an Indo-Guyanese cinematographer and cast a well-known Canadian Indo-Guyanese actress, Rebecca Ablack, to play as my lead character. I want to continue to tell fun and well-made stories of a high calibre with strong emotional arcs. In the future, I would love to film both narrative and documentary films in Guyana and use labour from Guyana to execute the projects.
🇬🇾 VG: tell us about the film one day: What was the inspiration behind One Day, and how did you come up with the concept for the short film?
One Day was inspired by my high school experiences as an Indo-Caribbean Muslim teenager, and the experiences of other young brown and Muslim women in North American contexts. The concept originated from a pattern I noticed in conversations with friends and research participants about the myth of multiculturalism in Canadian schools. All brown and Muslim women in predominantly white schools have experienced discrimination, at least in the form of stereotyping. Each of these women is unique in their experiences and cultural backgrounds, yet they become unfairly grouped not only in school environments but in film and TV as well. I had never seen an Indo-Guyanese character on screen, let alone the representation of a comedic young Muslim Indo-Guyanese girl. I figured someone needed to do it first.
🇬🇾 VG: Can you share some of the challenges you faced in creating One Day, and how did they help shape the final piece?
Coming from a documentary background, One Day was my first narrative or scripted film. I contacted mentors who consulted on the story, the script and the entire filmmaking process. The largest challenge was securing funding and finding the right producer. I felt that many funders didn’t understand the story I wanted to tell and saw the Indo-Caribbean community as a niche focus. I secured a smaller amount from the Ontario Arts Council and the rest through a private funder inspired to support based on my previous documentary, With Love From Munera. The film took around three years to come to life, yet this time allowed me to craft the story I really wanted to tell. I am most satisfied with the shot composition, production design and the casting.
🇬🇾 VG: What message or emotion do you hope audiences take away from One Day?
I hope audiences take away the importance of choosing yourself no matter what kind of pressures are being faced from home or school environments. The pressure from family and peers to be a certain way can be overwhelming, especially when you are young. Rather than imagining a distant future where you can be all you hope for, everyone has the power to look within and find their inspiration to take that first step.
🇬🇾 VG: What role do you think filmmakers of the diaspora have in shaping narratives about their heritage, and how do you see yourself contributing to that?
I believe that diaspora filmmakers play a huge role in shaping narratives about our heritage. The Guyanese culture is evolving, with diaspora artists encountering new experiences that affirm their heritage. I see myself contributing to that as a multi-hyphenate filmmaker with numerous identities and intersections that allow me to see the world through a lens of compassion.
As a half-Guyanese Muslim woman from Canada, I believe my perspective is unique and valuable in showing the Western world who we are and who we will be. I am very interested in both nostalgic storytelling and futurism, which I am eager to bring to my films as I evolve in my career.
