Name: Rafiuddin Bin Jahangir

Recipient Year: 2024

Name of Film: The Heart Grows Old in Autum

Description: Rafiuddin bin Jahangir is a documentary filmmaker and a Rohingya-Burmese refugee who came to the United States as a child after his family survived a genocide in Myanmar. He grew up in Chicago, and became interested in filmmaking after meeting the crew working on a feature documentary about his Rohingya-Burmese community. After working on the film as a translator, he began directing scenes with his family and interviewing people in his community, eventually becoming the co-director of the film. As a director, he is driven by a deep commitment to telling the stories of his family and Rohingya community, and to speaking up for people of all backgrounds who have endured genocide. For his first feature documentary, about his community and family's lives in Chicago after surviving genocide in Myanmar, he is a recipient of a Ford Foundation Creativity and Free Expression Grant, the Islamic Scholarship Fund National Film Grant, and a Mountainfilm Commitment Grant.

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