In his 2025 Oscars speech for finest director (Anora), filmmaker Sean Baker passionately urged folks to help theatrical moviegoing. “In a time wherein our world can really feel very divided, that is extra essential than ever: It’s a communal expertise you merely don’t get at dwelling.”
Sean Baker’s speech couldn’t have come at a greater time. His phrases bolstered the close-knit Tasveer group’s cherished perception in proudly owning a bodily house—a house for Tasveer, the place thought-provoking South Asian storytelling and impartial movies thrive, educate, and encourage the subsequent technology.
The $2.2 million grant from 4Culture King County, acquired early this yr, was particularly designated for a bodily house and represented important recognition. This once-in-a-lifetime award from the cultural funding company validates and helps Tasveer’s essential cultural work in the neighborhood.
The second was ripe—the indie-movie home, the historic Ark Lodge Cinema in Columbia Metropolis, a southeast Seattle neighborhood with a numerous inhabitants, was up on the market after years of difficulties with low attendance and paying lease. Tasveer’s acquisition grew to become official on March 26, 2025.
The closure of the Ark Lodge Cinema after a 12-year run displays a broader development affecting film theaters nationwide. What compelled Tasveer, a nonprofit group, to tackle the problem of shopping for a theater throughout these precarious occasions?
“Tasveer” was conceived quickly after the September 11 assaults in 2001, when South Asians grew to become targets of hate crimes. Co-founders Rita Meher and Farah Nousheen determined to problem misconceptions and stereotypes in regards to the South Asian group by creating consciousness via storytelling.
Tasveer’s earnest work started in 2002 at The Elliott Bay Ebook Firm, a neighborhood bookstore, with a documentary movie screening and a e book dialogue for a handful of viewers. Through the years, the Tasveer Movie Pageant, as it’s now recognized, has advanced right into a globally acknowledged and sought-after movie competition, and the one South Asian movie competition to be Academy® Qualifying on this planet. Its twentieth anniversary will probably be celebrated for the primary time at our dwelling, on the Tasveer Movie Heart, as an alternative of renting areas within the metropolis.
Final yr, Tasveer launched the Tasveer Movie Market at the side of the movie competition after realizing through the years how severely underrepresented South Asian diaspora filmmakers battle to showcase their work. Distributors, producers, filmmakers, and business specialists gathered for the primary time to conduct enterprise with Netflix, NBCUniversal, HBO Max, and quite a few different firms that sponsored the occasion.
With the profitable inaugural movie market in 2024, Tasveer is poised for an even bigger movie market with the addition of a Producers Lab. Tasveer envisions the Tasveer Movie Pageant and Market (TFFM) because the South Asian Sundance.
Along with Tasveer’s capstone occasion, the TFFM, month-to-month screenings, and different occasions will develop into simpler with out having to scout for areas. The Tasveer Movie Heart will function Tasveer’s headquarters, with workplace house tucked right into a nook on the third flooring. The three theaters and a convention room will probably be out there for lease to the group, with particular reductions for different nonprofit organizations and Tasveer members.
Tasveer is unwavering in its dedication to being welcoming to everybody no matter their backgrounds. Whereas DEI applications are being dismantled and deprioritized in all places, Tasveer has bolstered its dedication to the mission via artwork, movies, and storytelling. Board President Sandhya Nathan emphasizes this philosophy: “Inventive expression of any kind is democratic, common, and human. We should guarantee it touches the sensibilities of everybody round us and that we study from one another.”
Tasveer’s subsequent enterprise? A multimillion-dollar capital marketing campaign to fund the renovation of the constructing—a dream to modernize the house with out compromising its historic status. It’s not at all a straightforward process to garner grants and funding when funding is tight throughout the board, however then, with the help of stakeholders, Tasveer is understood to confront challenges and push ahead.
Whereas it’s too early to evaluate the success of a brick-and-mortar presence, Tasveer is dedicated to the idea that it may possibly proceed to foster group underneath one roof, constructing upon 23 years of expertise. The Tasveer Movie Heart will probably be open to all. By way of possession, Tasveer goals to reinforce its visibility and strategically model the venue to align with its mission, thereby increasing its group footprint. Moreover, this possession signifies monetary stability—a positive indicator for potential funders. This initiative successfully positions Tasveer as a vibrant cultural hub contributing to the strengthening of the town’s artistic economic system.
The newest recognition, the 2025 Mayor’s Movie Award for Excellent Achievement in Movie, introduced to Rita Meher and TFFM on Might 15, additional validates the work being achieved. A honest effort to encourage the subsequent technology to look at, study, and recognize South Asian cinema and tradition is a legacy value creating.
