Flight from Dubhai to Kabul: 176 turbaned, caped and hat’d Afghan traders, white guy with two Phillipino girls and me. Won $180 in the lottery on the flight! No food or drink but they do a lottery. First money earned on this project.
I arrived at the hotel sat down to breakfast and the windows blew open in front of me from the bomb blast at the Indian embassy.
CSFilm continues to provide legal and logistical support for our Afghan colleagues as they seek a path to safety and stability. Many of the evacuation and resettlement appeals and parole cases that we have filed continue to languish in US State Department systems. Several cases have been denied, leaving the families without hope for resettlement.
It was August 19th 2021, three days after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. I received a startling email from Rahmat, one of our editors:
Dear Michael,
Hope you are doing well. Now I got to Poland. Warsaw airport. This is the contact number of a polish woman who was responsible to assemble us to travel to Poland. Hope you and Basir can find a solution to evacuate all members here.
A year ago today three Afghan families that worked with Community Supported Film (CSFilm) went...
What a welcome!
hotel has a nice courtyard, a breather! I guess it is from the darkness of the room and the gloom around that the gems of your art will shine…..
praying for your safe return.
all the best and may the protective energies always be with you.
Wow, just wow. What an unceremonious welcome to a country whose people deserve so much better from their political and religious leaders.
I know there is a strong tension between creative expression and safety, but I hope you’ll err strongly on the latter. I’m sure your art will still manage to speak and shine brightly.
All the best.