GRANDMA SWIM
Rana, an ocean-loving girl, attempts to convince her water-fearing grandmother, Bushra, to swim in the sea for the first time in 50 years on their shared birthday.
Post-Production | Bahrain/Qatar/USA | Narrative | 10 minutes | English/Arabic
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY MARYAM MIR
My favorite photo of my grandmother was taken during her days as a teacher in Kenya. One of her students had dared her to sit atop a wild rhino. Just as she munches on a sugarcane, an elephant approaches from the back to steal it from her. A snapshot of a woman at the height of her own powers: courageous, open, unafraid.
Yet, as my grandmother grew older, what she once found joy in sharing with us—the outdoors—became a source of trepidation. On one of our last drives together to the beach in Bahrain, we watched the waves from the car. I so longed to go in the water with her, and share in its calming and healing presence together, yet I knew this dream would simply remain an image in my mind.
Grandma Swim is an alternative imagining of that last outing to the beach.
- Maryam Mir
TEAM
Maryam Mir
Writer / Director
Maryam Mir is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. As a Kashmiri-Canadian born in Germany, raised in Bahrain, with Kenyan ancestry, Maryam finds inspiration in (im)migrant stories of warmth, joy and gentleness. She is a NYFA Awardee ’22, Gotham Marcie Bloom Fellow ’23 and Pillars Artist Fellow ‘24.
Her latest narrative short, “Sweet Refuge”, was acquired by AMC+, has screened at 25+ festivals and won several awards, including a DGA Jury Award and Best of NFMLA Award. She is currently in post-production for her latest short film set in Bahrain, with support from the Doha Film Institute. She holds an MFA degree from NYU Tisch’s Graduate Film Program, where she was an Ang Lee Scholar and concentrated in writing and directing.
Chheangkea Ieng
Cinematographer
CHHEANGKEA is a Cambodian-American filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in architecture from MIT and his MFA from NYU Tisch Graduate Film Program where he was a Dean’s Fellow. His latest short film, SKIN CAN BREATHE, is a finalist for the HBO Max APA Visionaries competition and is distributed by Max.
Rhea Dsouza
Production Designer / Costume Designer
Rhea D'Souza is a production designer originally from Mumbai, India with an innate desire to birth worlds by balancing the honesty of humanity with the magic of film making. Currently based in New York, she has completed her MFA in Production Design from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (2021). Her films have screened at various film festivals like Tribeca Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Asian American International Film Festival Festival to name a few.
Lina Younes
Art Director / Costume Designer
Lina is a Palestinian Lebanese visual designer in theater, film, animation, and installations, and is based between Dubai, UAE, and NYC, USA. She received her MFA in design from NYU/Tisch where she enjoyed controlling traffic, mapping the skies, imagining the birds and inhabitants of the world in plays, dances, operas, and films.
Nicole Cone
Producer
Nicole Cone is a filmmaker based in the Greater New York area. She received her MFA in Film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. While at NYU, Nicole has been the recipient of the WTC Johnson Scholarship, and a participant in the Creative Career Design Fellowship. She is a 2024 Feature Film Development Studio Fellow at the NYU Production Lab. Nicole works in digital media, television, and podcasts as a freelance producer.
Amna Alhawaj
Producer
Amna Alhawaj is a producer with over 10 years of experience across film and TV, media, and marketing; seasoned with leading multiple, high-profile film and commercial projects in Dubai, Cairo, Amman, and Manama. She has worked on several feature-length projects in the production department including Zero Dark Thirty, Transformers & Theeb (the first film from Jordan to be nominated for the Oscars).
Aya Hamdan
Producer
Aya Hamdan is a Palestinian-American producer based in Brooklyn, NY. She is a Film Independent Producing Lab and The Gotham/Rotterdam Lab fellow. Aya founded 10 Mils Productions, through which she leverages her business background and commitment to representation in the media to support storytellers from her communities. She Produced Maryam Mir’s SWEET REFUGE (2023) which was acquired by AMC+ and is now streaming on Omeleto.