Mariam Majid is an award-winning writer and director. Her short film, A Night with Noorjehan, won awards at the BAFTA qualifying Leeds International Film Festival, Sheffield Film Festival and Film 4’s Barnes Film Festival 2019. As a visual artist, Mariam was selected to curate and design an installation at the London Design Biennale 2018, Somerset House. Titled ‘The Courtyard’, the installation was a thirteen foot high helix constructed from muslin garment. This formed the canvas for the projection of her non-narrative film, ‘The Artisan’s Song’. She also wrote, produced and directed three theatre plays, the ‘Jungly Jadoogar’ series. Staged as part of the Alchemy Festival at Southbank Centre and London Olympia, the plays, based on South Asian folktales, challenged gender and cultural stereotypes. Currently, Mariam is developing film projects with Salon Pictures. She has worked on numerous factual films for the British Council, Kingston University and Stanley Picker Gallery as part of w.in.c, a female film collective. With them, she will be filming with renowned designer Ben Kelly on his next project. Mariam is also Head of Fiction Programming for the Barnes Film Festival.
Films shown in Divvy Film Festival 2023
Mariam Majid, A Night with Noorjehan, 2018
Set around a vintage cinema in Lahore, A Night with Noorjehan is a snapshot of a moment between a transgender sex worker and street child.
A Night with Noorjehan is a coming of age film. When a street child, Ben, finds Noorjehan, a transgender sex worker, in trouble with the police, he helps her escape. As they hide, they find themselves in the middle of a cinema hall. With the magic of the shared experience of cinema as its backdrop, the film is a snapshot of human connection. As a Western woman of colour, the representation of the reality of the subaltern through film and an attempt to offer their plight a voice is at the heart of the realisation of A Night with Noorjehan.
Films shown in Divvy Film Festival 2021
Set in a sleepy suburb of London, Mrs Khan is a story of human connection. When school teacher, Gemma, agrees to teach her tenant, Mr Khan's new immigrant wife, English, she learns that they have more in common than she would have imagined.