In Search of Bengali Harlem follows Ullah from the streets of New York City to the villages of Bangladesh to uncover the pasts of his father, Habib, and mother, Mohima. Alaudin discovers that Habib was part of a rich lost 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. He also unearths the hardships and trauma that his mother overcame to become one of the first women to immigrate 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 Asians and Muslims in the United States.
Directed by Vivek Renjen Bald, Aladdin Ullah
Your score–
Not scoredVideos
1 clips
TrailerIn Search of Bengali Harlem (Immigrant Parents, American Children) | Trailer | America ReFramed
Images
Related
To Kill a Tiger
My Mom Jayne
Halloween: 25 Years of Terror
Come See Me in the Good Light
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
Sidney
A Decade Under the Influence
Unknown Dimension: The Story of Paranormal Activity
28 Up
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
The Crystal Calls - Making The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
Heart of a Dog
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
God Grew Tired of Us
The Class of ‘92