AIC Scheme Bursary Award 2022 Recipient (Collaborative Arts and Cultural Diversity): Rehan Ali

Create and the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) are delighted to announce Rehan Ali as the recipient of the Artist in the Community Scheme Bursary Award 2022: Collaborative Arts and Cultural Diversity.

Originally from Pakistan, Rehan Ali moved to Ireland in 2005 at the age of 6. He would go on to spend ten and a half years in Bridgewater House, a Direct Provision centre in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary. During this time, he joined The Tudor Artisan Hub, an arts collective based in Carrick and co-founded a community based amateur film production Company ‘Studio42’. From 2015 to 2019 ‘Studio42’ produced 6 short films.

He was one of the authors of the book Correspondences: An anthology to call for an end to Direct Provision. His work was also published in The Stinging Fly Magazine and for his contribution to the magazine, he was awarded a Narrative of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award by UCC. Rehan most recently won the Virgin Media Discovers Short Film Competition for his script Water Under The Bridge, which he went on to direct for Virgin Media Television.

Rehan intends to use the time afforded by the bursary award to develop a film script with extensive research into the growth/progression of young people who grew up under the system of Direct Provision.

Two aspects of growing up under the Direct Provision system are rarely explored:

1. What is childhood like under this extremely restrictive system for those who have to grow up within it?
2. What is it like for those who have spent the majority of their lives under this system once they leave the system and begin their new journey of adjusting to society at large?

Rehan plans to document his ten years of childhood under Direct Provision and his journey of departing that system along with that of others in order to develop a film script capturing this relevant section of recent Irish history.

The purpose of the AIC Scheme Bursary award is to support and nurture professional arts practice; it is specifically aimed at an artist with a track record of working collaboratively with communities of place or interest in the context of human rights. The bursary of €10,000 provides the selected artist with time and resources to carry out research and to reflect and engage with and reflect on their practice. More particularly, it allows the artist to consider key questions associated with cultural diversity using collaborative methodologies.