Hello beloveds—
I am writing to share with you exciting news about a project that I am working on, that I wrote and directed and am acting in (!!!). It’s called RETRIEVAL, which is a lyrical short film that explores a soul retrieval in the aftermath of sexual assault-- the spiritual undertaking of bringing back a part of your soul that has been traumatically separated.
We’re in our final stages of post-production and are launching a Kickstarter to raise the remaining funds for post-production, which will include color-grading, VFX, Music Score, Editing, Marketing and Festival submission fees. We’ve already raised the majority of the funds for the film through Islamic Scholarship Fund and the Sundance Uprise Grant, as well as a few incredible individual donors.
This is very scary to me, to share the trailer, because it’s not color corrected yet! But I’m reminding myself that its pretty dope to be able to invite people into the process of creating a film, to show work-in-progress, and for people to see the film grow alongside us.
If you can donate, or can share this post, it would mean the world to me.
I am going to go more in depth in this newsletter about the creation of the film, the themes and the process, so I just wanted to alert everyone because there will be some mentions of navigating healing in the aftermath of sexual assault in some of my upcoming newsletters. I will provide trigger warnings at the top, but I just wanted to let folks know. I also will probably make some of these posts paid-subscriber only, due to their personal nature. If you want to read, please feel free to become a paid subscriber.
I worked with the most incredible crew to make Retrieval happen. I’m so grateful to them all, and how they held so much space for not only the creation of art, but the creation of healing.
Here is the incredible team that worked to make this happen:
Writer & Director– Fatimah Asghar
Cinematographer: Jess X Snow
Producers: Jordan Phelps, Jamila Woods, Jess X Snow, Natalie Harris, Vincent Martell, VAM Studio
Co-Producers: Bisha Ali, Mohammed Fakhro, Danez Smith, Sonya Passi and Chani Nicholas
Assistant Director: Jamila Woods
Editor: Jordan Phelps
Lady In Red: Fatimah Asghar
Younger Self: Fatimah Asghar
Body Double: Genesis Mancheren Abaj
Lead Camera: Nate Brown
1st AC: Elo Santa Maria
Gaffer: Frisly Soberanis
Key Grip: Sarah Alli
Grip: Ricky Zein
Grip PA: Nina Macintosh
Sound Recordist: PJ Wyderka
DIT: Nate Brown
Costume Designer: Sueann Lueng
Hair: Danielle Waugh
MUA: Randy Rosenthal
Production Designer: Rhea De Souza
Art Director: Vivian Sangsukwirasathien
Assistant to Art Director: Elizabeth Iduma
Script Supervisor: Khalea Ross Robinson
Music Consultant: Arshia Haq
Trailer Music: Slowspin
BTS Photographer: Mengwen Cao
Graphic Design: Elena Scott
Intimacy Coordinator: Alexandra Tydings
On-Set Healer: Naika Apeakorang
Sound Healer: Joshua Dorfman
Special Thanks to: Fran Tirado, Franny Choi, Hanif Abdurraqib, Fawzia and Andria Mirza, Jamila Woods, Laura Zak, Aaron Samuels, Kausar Mohammad, Perry Janes, Aisha Bhoori
Islamic Scholarship Fun
Sundance Institute
EXTRAS: Rachel Kim, Nicole Counts, Ethan Hirsch, Diamond Sharp, Ceci Pineda, Patrick Hercules, Ricky Zein, Clara Lu, Tina Yuan, Mecca Gibson, Nicole Maldonado, Gavriel Cutipa-Zorn, Jezz Chung, Sharon E Fryer, Nai'ya Willis-Hogan, Adia Meyers, Timmy Châu, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Brandon English, Oona Ivy Vali, Ruby Luzzatto, Maeve Luzzatto, Ashleigh Eubanks, Jamisha Williams, Celia Mattison, Rachel Yang, and Desiree Williams.
Thank you all so much. Let’s raise this fucking money!!!