Happy Holidays from Shamim & Hanan 🎄
Looking back, moving forward, and sharing gratitude this holiday season.
Dear friends,
Hanan and I wish you everything of the best this holiday season and for 2025.
It’s been an interesting year. I won’t get into politics and world events but both have been much on our minds daily, particularly for Hanan, who is Palestinian and has family there.
In a way, world events – the push for power, the needless killing of civilians, the fervour for control at any cost, the seeming shrinking of rights for our most marginalized communities - seem so much bigger than us, and what we can influence.
But we can make some differences. Whether within our families, towns, communities and beyond, or on a bigger canvas. And speaking up against injustice helps keep our politicians, and the massive corporate and social media interests that control them, a little bit more honest than if we all say nothing. For me and for Hanan, that means putting out our stories into the world, stories that remind people that, as much as it suits power to try to divide us, as humans we work better together.
We were thrilled that Polarized came out (no pun intended!) in the U.S. this year – a love story between two young women but also a love story to crossing the barriers that divide us. And a representation for the Palestinian diaspora – young, scientific, entrepreneurial – that we rarely see.
We’re hard at work on a slate of projects that put women, LGBTQI+ characters and POC characters front and centre. In the meantime, we’ve also started The Enlightenment Podcast – on YouTube and Spotify right now – and our most recent episodes feature many incredible guests, from iconic modern artist Samia Halaby, to Chef Fadi Kattan, who runs exceptional restaurants in London, Toronto and Bethlehem.
This was also the year that Meta decided to remove me, without appeal, from Facebook and Instagram. I’ve started a new IG, but FB broke my heart just a bit, because over 15 years, we had built a positive, happy, supportive community of 50,000 followers, starting with fans of our first films, I Can’t Think Straight and The World Unseen. Perhaps it was political, but in any event, I remain truly even more grateful for your presence here with me on Substack. Please do share and encourage anyone you think would enjoy my content – I would love to rebuild that community with you.
In January, I look forward to sharing a lot of new content about I Can’t Think Straight, and to update you on exciting new work projects too…
For now – as always – thank you for your continued support – it means a huge amount. Happy New Year!
All best wishes,
Shamim and Hanan
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