Stories I Told My Mother
کہانیوں نے میری ماں کو بتایا

FEEDBACK

“Nusrat, thank you for sharing your beautiful film with us at this year's remarkable PopTech conference. After being privileged to listen to Nobel Prize winners, amazing scientists, conservation heroes, and a dozen other global thought leaders, for me, your film was the thread that tethered all that courage to a common source. 

I was left asking myself, "Who are all these 'warriors for possibility', were it not for an amazing woman, often a mother, who modeled all the courage, grace and resilience they would need on their journies to change the world, or to simply survive its crushing unfairness on some days?" 

Nusrat, after seeing your film, I was transformed. 

Even with all the inspiring people I meet and write about, your film made me realize that I will probably never know anyone as courageous as my own mother. She survived crossing the entire U.S. alone at age ten, after both her parents had died and the rest of her life mirrored the elements that made that journey successful.

Your film has inspired a new kind of reverence in me, for my own mother, for your mother, and all women who have taken great risk to make a better life for others, which is almost always at the heart of a mother's motivation.”

- DR. LYNDA M. ULRICH Founder & CEO, Ever Widening Circles

“I absolutely loved this film. It is almost perfect in its poetic approach to the yin & yang of humanity’s terrible beauty (or is it beautiful terror?) The quiet elegance of Nusrat Durrani’s voice-over narration provides a powerful counterpoint to the challenging subjects that he reveals, and his photographs, especially, stand out for their ability to convey the deep emotion which links these stories. The framing of the piece is heartbreakingly profound and the soundtrack is beautiful. This is an incredibly important and uplifting film. I’m so glad I watched it.”

- DAVID ATKINS Filmmaker, Director, Novocaine



"Your presentation prompted me to text my mom the next morning and I told her that she is one of the most courageous people I know. She ventured out to California in 1961 on a cross country 3 day train ride from Pittsburgh-  to transfer from Chatham College to UCLA. As she has said, “just a young colored girl from Pittsburgh”. She recalls how the redcaps on that train ride looked out for her. She has modeled for me pursuing her life as an artist when she was a weaver and then at age 50 learned to play the cello. She now is 78 and plays in a community chamber music group. She has encouraged me, my sister and brother through all sorts of challenges and positioned us to prosper. She was an amazing wife and partner to my dad, through all sorts of twists and turns in life.  Isn’t it interesting that the word ‘courage’ is embedded in ‘encouragement’?!  And amazing that my mom doesn’t think of herself as courageous"

- NATALIE NIXON, PHD Design Strategist and Hybrid Thinker, Figure 8 Thinking

"Stories I Told My Mother is moving, a testimony to the power of love and human spirit and the connections, however tenuous in these troubled times, that bind us all. As a mother and daughter, as a citizen of the world, I witness the stories in this film and although aghast at the depravity humans are capable of, I see the grace and beauty that can flower within poverty, war and horror. This film is inspiring, it is brave, it is simple and complex at the same time, and should be essential watching for all leaders, thinkers and change makers so we can all create a world that is more inclusive, more kind, and above all, more loving.”

- JHILMIL BRECKENRIDGE Founder, Bhor Foundation

"From one of its first images of a beautiful smiling young girl living in a Syrian refugee camp, Nusrat Durrani's Stories I Told My Mother is replete with surprise and wonder— A triumph of heart and hope over cruelty and oppression. Durrani covers the world in search of women who are succeeding despite all odds, who, like his mother in India, now slipping into dementia, are not to be deterred in their search for dignity and fulfillment. Part of what makes this film so compelling is the masterful and artistic way Durrani has put it together, bits of film collage, sometimes feeling newsy and sometimes like looking through an old photo album,  set to violinist Martha Mook’s haunting score" 

- MAUREEN ORTH Special Correspondent, Vanity Fair & Founder, Marina Orth Foundation

“I am a regular PopTech attendee, and while I have never stalked a presenter, I follow many. This was my first encounter with Nusrat and his riveting, transcendent work, after which I sought him out immediately to thank and befriend him.  It’s rare for an artist or medium to realistically, deeply communicate the spiritual notion: “Stay with her, for Paradise is beneath her feet.”

Through Nusrat’s love, respect, and adoration of his mother, and the magnificent, courageous women whose stories he’s captured, he achieves the spiritual. Heaven truly lies beneath their and our feet — women. Resonant and yet humble, Nusrat, his good will, his intention, his feminism, and above all, his brotherhood, have encouraged me to stalk him. I look forward to any activism, marches, and movement-making his future work surely has in store for all of us.”

- KIMBERLY MCLEOD KMA Connect

“This short film is lush, inspiring, gorgeous, memorable, sweet, evocative, ardent, lovely and unforgettable.”

- TOM GIBIAN Head of School, Sandy Spring Friends School

“Durrani’s film will surprise, delight, and evoke deep sorrow as he shares his stories with his mother. He uses a full-throated pallet throughout his images, faces that reveal joy in landscapes of sorrow. Durrani’s love of life is evident in this intimate offering to his mother and comes directly from his heart."

- ROBYN METCALFE Founder Food + City, University of Texas at Austin

“My mum, Janet, is still in a mind to get that platinum blond hair done every Friday and get her make-up on perfectly, and yet the fog of her many pain meds has dimmed her former beaming smile. I will, of course, remember her as that female "chieftain" who could entertain 20 people for dinner (with her Maker's Mark and cigarette elegantly balanced in one hand, while loading the dishwasher with the other), and then the very next morning might find her packing up the station wagon for a family outing of impossible scale, all the while, frying chicken the old-fashioned way, making bread and butter sandwiches and supervising some creative escapade that I was on.”

- LYNDA ULRICH CEO and Founder, Ever Widening Circles

GET INVOLVED

Nusrat Durrani’s performance piece and film features courageous women who have done heroic things against tremendous odds; some even sacrificing their own lives for others. Below is a list of women whose stories he told. You can celebrate them by knowing more and helping their cause.

Alzheimer’s Patients

Alzheimer’s Disease International
https://www.alz.co.uk/

Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
https://alzfdn.org/


Syrian Refugee Girls

Refugees of the Syrian Civil War
https://en.wikipedia.org

Save The Children
https://support.savethechildren.org/

UN Agency for Refugees
http://www.unhcr.org/

Salam LADC
https://salamladc.org/ 


Sue Austin: Multimedia, Performance and Installation Artist

We Are Freewheeling
http://www.wearefreewheeling.org.uk/


Laxmi Agarwal: Acid attack Survivor and Activist

Atijeevan Foundation
http://www.atijeevanfoundation.org/

Acid Violence
https://www.acidviolence.org/


Dr. Christine Blasey Ford: Professor who heroically testified against Trump’s Supreme Court justice nominee

Go Fund Me
https://www.gofundme.com/help-christine-blasey-ford

Anne Dufourmantelle: Philosopher who drowned while saving children

Meditations on the Risk of Living
https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823279609/power-of-gentleness/


Nadia Murad: Nobel Peace Prize winner and ISIS sex slave survivor turned activist

Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL: Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_of_Yazidis_by_ISIL

Nadia’s Initiative
https://nadiasinitiative.org/ 


Nigerian teenage girls who escaped Boko Haram

Amnesty International
https://www.amnesty.org/

UNICEF
http://unicefusa.org


Shawna Lynn Jones & incarcerated women fighting fires in California

The Incarcerated Women Who Fight California’s WildFires
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/magazine/the-incarcerated-women-who-fight-californias-wildfires.html

National Fallen Firefighters Association
https://www.firehero.org/