Najrin Islam is een filmcriticus en curator gevestigd in Londen, met een onderzoeksinteresse in archiefpolitiek en koloniale infrastructuren in de context van de Global Majority. Haar teksten verschenen onder meer in ArtReview Asia, Art Monthly, Sight and Sound, Time Out, Ultra Dogme en ASAP Connect. Ze nam deel aan de European Workshop for New Curators #2 en het BFI Critics Mentorship Programme 2025. Ze was programmator voor het Norient Film Festival (Bern) en het London Short Film Festival, en werkt momenteel aan een reeks programma's over Zuid-Aziatische cinema in het Verenigd Koninkrijk.
Najrin Islam
Najrin Islam nam deel aan de poll “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025, een unieke publieksbevraging als collectieve liefdesbrief aan de kunst van de korte film. yanco en Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, in samenwerking met Talking Shorts, nodigden filmmakers, curatoren, distributeurs, critici en academici wereldwijd uit om tien audiovisuele werken van minder dan zestig minuten te nomineren die zij persoonlijk beschouwen als de “beste” aller tijden. Dit was de inzending van Najrin Islam:
| Movie | Original Title | Director | Country | Year | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Irani Bag | Maryam Tafakory | Iran | 2021 | 8’ | ||
The film identifies the bag as a political tool and assesses its significance in having allowed relationships between men and women to unfold on Iranian screens. The film's essay format allows this story to pan out like a poem, and, in turn, becomes an important archive of human creativity against authority and censorship. |
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| Your Father Was Born 100 Years Old, And So Was the Nakba | Razan al-Salah | Palestina, Canada | 2018 | 7’ | ||
The film uses Google Earth to navigate a land that the filmmaker does not have access to otherwise. It turns this act of 'trespassing' into archival reclamation. The film marks a formative use of the 'desktop documentary'—a genre that has been picking up steam in recent years. |
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| At Land | Maya Deren | Verenigde Staten | 1944 | 15’ | ||
I thought about nominating Meshes of the Afternoon, but I think this film is an underrated achievement in surreal blocking and deserves more attention. |
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| Statues Hardly Ever Smile | Stan Lathan | Verenigde Staten | 1971 | 19’ | ||
Black joy witnessed through children as they engage in playful activities against a museum backdrop—tremendously significant to understanding how history shapes community. |
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| La Jetée | Chris Marker | Frankrijk | 1962 | 28’ | ||
A formally significant film that never exhausts itself despite repeated watches. |
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| Sisters & Brothers | Kent Monkman | Canada | 2015 | 3’ | ||
The film uses montage to establish parallels between the decimation of native bisons and indigenous children—a dark chapter in the colonial history of Canada. It is an important film because it is one of four films by First Nations filmmakers that intervene in archival footage to address Indigenous identity and representation. |
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| Un Chien Andalou | Luis Buñuel | Frankrijk | 1928 | 21’ | ||
A surreal hotpot that never tires. |
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| Two | Satyajit Ray | India | 1965 | 12’ | ||
The film shows the existing class divide in Bengal of the time (of its production, and arguably, the present) through a silent relationship between two children. There aren't many short films from India to behold (from the 60s), but this short has persisted in cultural memory as a significant one. |
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| Dimensions of Dialogue Možnosti dialogu | Jan Švankmajer | Tsjechoslowakije | 1983 | 12’ | ||
Communication and its utter dissolution. A formative experiment in stop-motion animation. |
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| Wasp | Andrea Arnold | Verenigd Koninkrijk | 2003 | 26’ | ||
The film will stand the test of time as an honest portrayal of single motherhood. |
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