MediaStorm
00:00/00:00
00:00/00:00

Syed had everything. He grew up in a rich, religiously dogmatic family in Pakistan and never had to work a day in his life. But he was the black sheep.

When he told his family he wanted to convert to a minority sect of Islam, they took his wife and child and put a warrant out for his murder.

He survived the horrific attempt at his life, but that is only the beginning of his journey to find new love, survive historic events, and end up on the other side of the world.

Published: September 19th, 2013

Credits

Commissioned by
Film By
Director & Executive Producer
Director of Photography
Editor, Producer & Additional Cinematography
Associate Producer
Title Design
Translation

Related Links


Goal

Neighborhood Centers Inc. is a not for profit organization that brings resources, education and connection to over 400,000 people throughout Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast region every year.

The goal of this project was to find a way to intimately tell the story of a massive organization with a very broad scope. Rather than tell the history of how Neighborhood Centers came to exist and explain all that they do, we decided to take the approach of telling personal, individual stories about people they come alongside everyday.

Through intimate, cinematic narratives revolving around the people that Neighborhood Centers serves, “H Town Stories” was born.

With this story we wanted to show the circumstances and trauma that refugee families go through on their journey to the United States and what that dream means to them. We wanted Syed and his family to be a representation of the refugees that have found their way to Houston and are being supported by NCI.


The Challenge

This film created a unique set of challenges mostly related to working with a family from a different cultural background with different social norms and customs from our own and on top of that a story that was extremely sensitive in terms of the safety and well being of our subjects.

Our main character, Syed, spoke very little English. We debated at great length whether or not to conduct his interview in English or in his native language Urdu. We loved hearing him speak in English and seeing how proud he was to do so, but also knew that we weren’t getting the depth and detail that we wanted out of his story and with something like this where the backstory is so important to the overall narrative we knew we had to have a great interview.

Another challenge was in filming our main character’s wife Sadia. Saida preferred to be filmed with her face covered. This was something that was especially important to Sadia while on camera and we wanted to respect her wishes but at the same time she had such a happy smile and we knew viewers would connect better with her if they could see her face.

Also along these lines was the issue of having a man film a woman alone in an intimate setting like their home. This was something that the family had an issue with and we wanted to respect that.

And possibly one of the greatest challenges in covering this story was finding the right material and having enough of it to cover an extremely detailed and intense backstory because a large part of their story had already happened and we obviously weren't there for it.


The Solution

For the interview we decided that it needed to be done in his native language, Urdu. There was just too much nuance and subtlety about his story that we didn’t want to lose because he couldn’t communicate as clearly in English. This created a lot more work in post, but we feel it ultimately paid off in a big way. And it also made it nice to hear him speak English in his daily life. It stood out and was endearing.

Having a second shooter that was a woman really helped us deal with the sensitivity towards male and female interactions in their culture. We were able to have our Producer on this project, Caitlyn Greene, conduct Sadia’s interview and film the intimate scenes we wanted in her and her daughter’s bedrooms as they went about their day.

There ended up being a few scenes that we captured in which Sadia’s veil was not present. Both scenes were really nice moments that we felt were crucial to allowing the viewers to get to know her and see her infectious, happy spirit. In the end we were able to have an honest conversation with them about why we wanted to show those few moments without her veil and ultimately they agreed with the motivation and purpose behind showing those shots and allowed us to use them.

And finally, in order to cover the intense and detailed backstory of the events that took place in Pakistan and throughout their journey to America, we found great stock footage from inside the prison as well as TV news broadcasts and home video that really helped paint a picture visually of what this family endured to find their way here.


About The Client

Neighborhood Centers Inc. brings resources, education and connection to more than 400,000 people throughout Texas each year. For more than a century, Neighborhood Centers has offered comprehensive community-based programs for people at every stage of life – from infants to seniors. The organization works with residents of emerging communities in 60 service locations to help them discover the strengths and skills necessary to become productive, prosperous and self-sufficient. Building on the strengths of individuals and communities, Neighborhood Centers is transforming them. FOR GOOD. Neighborhood Centers Inc. is a United Way agency. For more information, visit www.neighborhood-centers.org.


MediaStorm Project Showcase

Back from the Brink

Once teetering on the brink of extinction, the Santa Catalina Island Fox made a dramatic recovery. Its resurgence marks one of the greatest conservation success stories in United States history.

Lights in the Shadows

In the shadow of Silicon Valley’s booming technology industry, a growing number of people remain out in the cold. Skyrocketing housing prices in America’s hub of innovation have pushed many onto the streets, straining policymakers to find solutions to a homelessness problem that impacts everyone in the community.

Zora J Murff

This page recognizing Zora J Murff for ICP’s 2023 Infinity Award for Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism features a film about his life, a slideshow of his projects and extra clips of his thoughts about his work and motivation.

Lifetime Achievement: Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado says "a good picture, a fantastic picture, you do in a fraction of a second, but to arrive to do this picture, you must put your life in there."

Emerging Photographer: Esther Horvath

Esther Horvath has sent questions to the universe and she has received answers. She found her calling to tell visual stories that show the full research story behind our climate data.

Photojournalism: Acacia Johnson

See photographer Acacia Johnson’s growth from her earliest explorations of Alaskan landscapes to a National Geographic cover for a documentary project among indigenous people of the Arctic.

Lifetime Achievement: Don McCullin

Sir Don McCullin never intended to become a photographer. He found it hard to believe he’d ever escape the poverty of North London. But a spur of the moment photograph launched McCullin into a career spanning 50 years in photography.

The War Comes Home

As the U.S. prepares for the final drawdown of soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soledad O’Brien and MediaStorm take an intimate look at two veterans as they struggle with the transition from war to home.

Critical Writing: Zadie Smith

Writer Zadie Smith pays homage to photographer Deana Lawson in the artist’s first Monograph for Aperture.

Fight Hate with Love

As a formerly incarcerated person, Michael struggled for work, and found purpose in being a husband, father, and activist. But 7 years since his release from prison, the cost of Michael’s activism is evident.

The American-Made Benny

Benny is a “certified” garbologist. He collects what others throw away. Benny is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge.

Photojournalism - Amber Bracken

Photographer Amber Bracken recognized something deeper than a protest was afoot when hundreds of tribes gathered at the Standing Rock reservation in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

A Shadow Remains

How does the death of a child change a parent? How does the death of a parent change a child? How do these moments change us as we develop and grow further away from who we were as children?

Critical Writing: Maurice Berger

Maurice Berger–cultural historian, and columnist for the New York Times’ Race Stories–has spent his career studying and teaching racial literacy through visual literacy. 

Japan's Disposable Workers

Japan’s Disposable Workers examines the country’s employment crisis: from suicide caused by overworking, to temporary workers forced by economics to live in internet cafes, and the elderly who wander a town in search of shelter and food.

WSJ 2015 Innovators: Karl Ove Knausgaard

Karl Ove Knausgaard is the celebrated author of a massive six-volume autobiography. But Knausgaard remains confused by the attention. This is a portrait of a man who has achieved massive success yet still considers himself unworthy.

The Last Move

Michael Thomasson has devoted his life to video games. It’s been his passion and his obsession for more than three decades. He owns over 11,000 unique game titles for more than 100 different systems.

Michael Christopher Brown: Libyan Sugar

A film about Michael Christopher Brown for the 2017 ICP Infinity Awards.

The Long Night

The Long Night, a feature film by Tim Matsui and MediaStorm, gives voice and meaning to the crisis of minors who are forced and coerced into the American sex trade.

New Media: Jonathan Harris and Gregor Hochmuth

Jonathan Harris and Greg Hochmuth have a complicated relationship with the internet and have worked together to develop an artwork that explored some of the more difficult consequences of what it means to live with the internet.

Inside Tracks

In 1977, Robyn Davidson walked 1,700 miles across the Australian outback. National Geographic sent Rick Smolan to photograph her perilous journey—a trek that tested and transformed them, forming an immutable bond that continues to this day.

Driftless: Stories from Iowa

Once at the center of the U.S. economy, the family farm now drifts at its edges. In Iowa, old-time farmers try to hang on to their way of life, while their young push out to find their futures elsewhere. Driftless tells their stories.

Common Ground

The American family farm gives way to a subdivision - a critical cultural shift across the U.S. Common Ground is a 27-year document of this transition, through the Cagwins and the Grabenhofers, two families who love the same plot of land.

Remember These Days

For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It’s the embodiment of his family. As a third generation seltzer man, he follows the same route as his grandfather. But after 90 years of business, Walter may be the last seltzer man.

Art: Larry Fink

Larry Fink has spent over 40 years photographing jazz musicians, wealthy manhattanites, his neighbors, fashion models, and the celebrity elite. His archive is a thoughtful collection of American history, and Fink’s experience of it.

Publication: LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s body of work “The Notion of Family” examines the impact of the steel industry and the health care system on the community and her family. Collaborating with her mother and grandmother, she uses her family as a lens to view the past, present and future of the town.

Photojournalism: Tomas van Houtryve

Tomas Van Houtryve wants there to be a permanent visual record of the dawn of the drone age, the period in American history when America started outsourcing their military to flying robots. In order to create this record, Van Houtryve sent his own drone into American skies.

Young Photographer: Evgenia Arbugaeva

Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the magical town of Tiksi, Russia. This barren, arctic landscape influenced Arbugaeva in almost every aspect of her dreamlike photography.

Surviving the Peace: Laos

Surviving the Peace: Laos takes an intimate look at the impact of unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam war in Laos and profiles the dangerous, yet life saving work, that MAG has undertaken in the country.

A Thousand More

A family is determined to give their disabled son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – is the blessing that holds a family together.

Lynn Johnson

Inspired by the photographs of the Farm Security Administration growing up, Lynn Johnson has spent nearly 35 years as a photojournalist working for LIFE, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated and various foundations.

Resetting The Table

Resetting the Table takes a unique, personal look at the impact Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA program has had on the American Mug & Stein pottery facility in East Liverpool, Ohio.

Hungry Horse

Hungry Horse captures the spirit of renewal, peace and serenity through stunning landscapes and intimate oral histories.

The Amazing Amy

Using humor and a love of fantasy, "The Amazing Amy" Harlib connects with audiences through performing strenuous yoga-based contortion acts in New York City.

The Bride Price

In many countries, girls as young as eight are forced into marriage by their families, culture and economic situation. This practice destroys their chance at education leading to tragic results.

Photojournalism: David Guttenfelder

Surreal and mysterious, North Korea was a black hole to outsiders wanting a glimpse of the country. That all changed in 2012, when AP photographer David Guttenfelder led the opening of the bureau's newest office inside the North Korea.

Take Care

Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.

A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan

Based on 14 trips to Afghanistan between 1994 and 2010, A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan is the work of photojournalist Seamus Murphy. His work chronicles a people caught time and again in political turmoil, struggling to find their way.

Intended Consequences

In Rwanda, in 1994, Hutu militia committed a bloody genocide, murdering one million Tutsis. Many of the Tutsi women were spared, only to be held captive and repeatedly raped. Many became pregnant. Intended Consequences tells their stories.

The Marlboro Marine

To those who serve in the armed forces, what is the aftereffect of war? The Marlboro Marine is photographer Luis Sinco's portrait of Marine Corporal James Blake Miller, whom he met in Iraq. For Miller, coming home has been its own battle.

Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma

Zakouma National Park is one of the last places on earth where elephants still roam by the thousands. In a land where poachers will slaughter the huge animals for their tusks alone, it takes armed guards to keep them safe.

Kingsley's Crossing

Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's dream to leave the poverty of life in Africa for the promised land of Europe. We walk in his shoes, as photojournalist Olivier Jobard accompanies Kingsley on his uncertain and perilous journey.


Collaborate With Us

We collaborate with a wide range of clients to tell their story. Our services include reporting, post production, interactive design and interactive packaging.

The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet. 

Learn storytelling, filmmaking, video, multimedia production and business skills through MediaStorm’s intensive, hands-on workshops and in-depth online training resources.



Follow MediaStorm


Copyright 2025 MediaStorm, LLC | Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Contact


See more at MediaStorm