Food before and after. Screening to start at 7pm.

In Search of Bengali Harlem
Watch the Trailer
Documentary | 84 Minutes | USA | English/Bengali
Directed by Vivek Bald and Alaudin Ullah
Produced by Susannah Ludwig, Vivek Bald, Alaudin Ullah
Edited by Beyza Boyacioglu

With music by:
Vijay Iyer, Zakir Hussain, Ganavya, Imani Uzuri, Yosvany Terry, and Anik Khan

Free and Open to the Public

Please join us for a screening of Vivek Bald’s award-winning feature documentary In Search of Bengali Harlem, followed by a discussion with Prof. Bald and the film’s Editor and Co-Writer, Beyza Boyacioglu (MSc, MIT Comparative Media Studies, 2019), led and moderated by students and members of Cambridge/Boston’s South Asian communities. The event is made possible by the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) and is in collaboration with community partner SubDrift Boston. It is sponsored by the departments of Comparative Media Studies/Writing and Art, Culture, and Technology, with additional support from the Asian American Initiative and the South Asian Association of Students.

As a teen in 1980s New York, Alaudin Ullah was swept up by the revolutionary energy of hip-hop. He rebelled against his Muslim immigrant parents and rejected his Bangladeshi roots. Now an actor and playwright navigating post-9/11 Islamophobia, he embarks on a journey to tell the stories of the parents he never truly knew. IN SEARCH OF BENGALI HARLEM follows Alaudin on this profound quest from the tenements of mid-20th-century Harlem to the villages of present-day Bangladesh, revealing the lost, intertwined histories of South Asian Muslims, African Americans, and Puerto Ricans and the challenges and necessity of inter-generational healing.

“In Search of Bengali Harlem is remarkable in the way it tells the decades-long story of the Bengali community’s integration in Harlem, and the way Black and Brown people found each other, peeling back layer after deeply personal layer of one subject’s life. With a charismatic lead and beautiful musical accompaniment, this film provides a unique perspective of the immigrant experience and honors the singular place New York City has held throughout America’s history.” – Juror’s Statement, DOC NYC 2022, Metropolis Competition.