Rasel Ahmed
Directing
Biography
Rasel Ahmed is a community-based filmmaker who uses traditional cinematic tropes and techniques to combine documentary with fantasy. Characters in his films function as an anchor to synthesize the iconography, visual metaphor, and psychogeography of cinematic spaces. Ahmed's experimental videos are a means to explore his dialogical relationship with displacement, citizenship, border, and loneliness. He uses a combination of participatory documentation, archival research, and collaborative re-enactment to finalize the performance and movement choices in the film. Ahmed has an MFA in Visual Arts with a concentration in Moving Image from Columbia University. He also runs a community-based transnational Queer archive and is the founder of Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine Roopbaan. He is the recipient of Freedom From Religion Foundation Award, Center Global Leadership Award, Atlas Corps Fellowship, Royal Commonwealth Society Associate Fellowship, Point Foundation Scholarship, GAAPA/Prism Foundation Scholarship, Davis-Putter Scholarship, Chinn Scholarship, Chowdhury Center Fellowship, Columbia University Visual Arts Scholarship, Swedish Institute Leadership Fellowship, and State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.
Known For
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington, D.C., swings from a ghost town to a protest epicenter. Sergei Kostin, a local activist moves between these extremes daily. His days are split between the roaring chaos of street demonstrations and the tender moments with his aging dog, Snoball. Against the backdrop of a divisive election that brings thousands to the heart of America's capital, Sergei faces a more intimate challenge - the painful preparation to say goodbye to his beloved dog.
Goodbye, Snoball
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