Adhan

Directed by Kamyar Mohsenin

An experimental short film exploring the relationships between the African diaspora, Islam,and selfhood. The film interprets the adhan, the Islamic public call to prayer, as a religious tool of testament, spiritual bridge between existences, and an apparatus to deepen one’s connection with the divine while existing in the conceptual category of “the West”.Featuring Somali/American actress, Samira Diriye, and the vocal recitations of her sister, Hanan Diriye Hassan, the project was filmed on Super 8mm Vision3 Kodak film stock. Selected photos from the Amon Carter Museum’s repositories of 19th century expansionist American photography, were digitally altered to change pre industrial landscapes, to be fictitiously adorned with picturesque minarets --- the part of a mosque where the call to prayer is projected.