In Search of Bengali Harlem follows actor/playwright Alaudin Ullah from the streets of New York City to the villages of Bangladesh to uncover the pasts of his father, Habib, and mother, Mohima in this heart-warming documentary.  Alaudin discovers that his father was part of an unknown, extraordinary history of mid-20th century Harlem, in which Bengali Muslim men, dodging racist Asian Exclusion laws, married into New York’s African American and Puerto Rican communities – and in which the likes of Malcolm X and Miles Davis shared space and broke bread with immigrants from the subcontinent.  Then, after crossing the globe to visit the former homes of his parents, Alaudin unearths unsettling truths about his mother: about the hardships and trauma that she overcame to become one of the first women to migrate to the U.S. from rural Bangladesh. In Search of Bengali Harlem is a transformative journey, not just for Alaudin Ullah, but for our understanding of the complex histories of South Asian and Muslim Americans.  Released in 2022, Directed by Vivek Bald & Alaudin Ullah Produced by Susannah Ludwig Edited by Beyza Boyacioglu.

Join us for a free screening of In Search of Bengali Harlem and hear from director and author Vivek Bald on the making of the film, and his own path to documenting his South Asian community and music, and his work in new media.  Presented by the Documentary Forum at CCNY, Third World Newsreel and cosponsored by the Asian American/Asian Research Institute at CUNY.

In person October 5th Thursday at 6:30 PM at the City College of NY, Shepard Hall Rm 291, 259 Convent Avenue at 140th Street. #1 to 137th St, ABCD to 145th street.

RSVP to: https://bit.ly/3P55CYo