From Curiosity to Craft: My Path to Filmmaking
Rayan Mohamed
My filmmaking practice began as a way of asking questions about home, identity, and belonging. Over time, it has become a form of research: a way of listening to people and places that are often spoken for but rarely heard. Working at the intersection of film and anthropology, I approach the camera not as an instrument of observation, but as a tool for collaboration, a means to build relationships and translate lived experiences into shared meaning.
I didn’t set out to become a filmmaker. For a long time, I was simply searching for a way to hold onto stories. Born in Somalia and raised in an Ethiopian refugee camp before resettling to Syracuse, New York in 2014, I grew up surrounded by fragments of memory.
Starting at the peak of COVID in 2020, I joined the Narratio Fellowship, an intensive storytelling and leadership program designed to provide for youth refugees with the tools and opportunities to share their stories and creative works. I joined during the program’s second year and the first year of the film cohort. I was drawn to the fellowship because of its mission to create space for refugee youths to tell their stories publicly. As a fellow, I created my first film, My Daily Routine, which in 2022 was screened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Ever since, I’ve continued to stay involved with the fellowship, and this year I’m returning as the Artist-in-Residence, co-leading the second film cohort alongside musician Ameen Mokdad. Working with six new fellows, each participant selected an object from the MET that inspired them, wrote about their personal journeys, and performed their pieces at the MET accompanied by Ameen’s original compositions. They will then transformed their stories into short films.
Storytelling through the camera became a form of empowerment for me. I was committed to being an advocate for my community here in Syracuse. From the moment I started college, I knew I wanted to continue pursuing what I was already passionate about: storytelling and filmmaking.
Starting at Syracuse University as a Film major with a minor in Anthropology, I strive to combine ethnographic filmmaking with community-engaged work.
Although I was already familiar with the SU campus as a long time resident in Syracuse, once I became a full-time student, I began to notice the gap between the university and the larger Syracuse community. During my sophomore year, Professor Brice Nordquist introduced me to the Engaged Humanities Network, a space that works to bridge that divide.
As an undergraduate research assistant, I worked closely with the Narratio Fellows, facilitating workshops and guiding the fellows as they developed their own storytelling projects. I also worked with the Teens With Movie Camera, mentoring high school students in filmmaking fundamentals, guided students through pre-production, production, and post-production, instructed on proper use of camera, sound, and lighting equipment and supported storytelling development for short film projects.
In addition, I worked in collaboration with Syracuse University and the Narratio program, an exhibition titled Take Me to the Palace of Love. There I documented a community workshop event by artist Rina Banerjee about the process of collaborative art-making including short interviews with braiders speaking where I was hand-on filmmaker and editor which later was part of the SU museum exhibition. This experience taught me about community collaborative work in publicly engaged work.
As a 2023 Imagining America JGS fellow, I had the opportunity to create a community based project and also a chance to attend the National Gathering. I worked on a documentary project Broken Memories where I interviewed two refugees in Syracuse with different demographic backgrounds about their resettlement and how it affected youth refugees mental health. Fall 2025, It was accepted at the IA national gathering in New Mexico to present alongside a storytelling workshop that opened the audience to connect with their stories and how they can use storytelling to health and grow.
As I continued to work within public filmmaking, I became clear to me that this is what I wanted to do. Fall 2023, I arranged my first exhibition screening at the Artrage gallery as part of an on-going exhibition with Mahtab Hussain “Muslims in America: Syracuse Edition.” With nearly fifty audience members, I screened Samir, Yusuf, and Broken Memories and led a storytelling workshop. I did film screenings across the US, participated film festivals and exhibitions.
Spring 2025 was a very pivotal moment of my life. I went to abroad to FAMU international, Prague where I worked on film sets and got to experience the world outside of just what I was exposed to my life. That experience taught me how bridging the art world and community engagement can create spaces for shared understanding, cultural exchange, and storytelling that transcends borders . How can I bridge film and anthropology and throughout my travels across europe, i learned that you don’t have to stick to one another.
Looking ahead in the future, I hope to work at the intersection of filmmaking and research, bridging creative practice with interdisciplinary inquiry. With the hope of continuing to grad school, i hope to connect my passion for filmmaking and community engagement to better make films that represent the kind of voices and stories I want to engage in. With the support of EHN I’ve learned that engaged humanities comes in many form and i’ve been blessed to learn how i can use better use my voice to help my communities and create spaces that opens discussion for all of to be heard, seen and make real changes in our communities.
