Private Project

Home Sweet Home

‘Home Sweet Home explores the connection of Pakistani queer people with ‘home’. How do queer people navigate through intimacy, belonging, and the future and create a place like ‘home’ in a country where their existence is illegal?

The author uses the method of autoethnography, to document the ‘self’ to establish the positioning in the film, yet keeping the identity of the participants hidden. Using the help of ethno-fiction and sensory methods of filming to focus on the truth rather than visibility because visibility, without protection, can cause negative consequences for marginalised people.

To accumulate the sensuality of a place like home, the film uses sensory and psychedelic ethnographic film methods to create haptic visuals for the viewer rather than passive participation. The film follows a non-linear story-telling structure while playing with the content to create a sense of belonging and vulnerability.

The topic of “home” goes beyond the four walls of the household. It is a complex enigma for Pakistani Queer people. This search for this place of safety is continuous and constantly evolving.

  • Humad Nisar
    Director
  • Osama Saeed
    Producer
  • Abbasi
    Producer
  • Noman
    Producer
  • Uzair
    Producer
  • Ahad Rizvi
    Producer
  • Ali
    Producer
  • Raoul Morales Marquez
    Sound Designer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Student
  • Runtime:
    41 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 14, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Germany, Iceland, Pakistan, Poland, United States
  • Language:
    English, Urdu
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - University of Muenster, Germany
  • Ethnografische Filmtage Bremen
    Bremen
    Germany
    January 18, 2022
    First German Premiere for the Short Version Trailer
Director Biography - Humad Nisar

Humad Nisar (any pronoun) is a visual anthropologist based in Germany, born and raised in Pakistan. Humad moved to Germany for his master's degree in Visual Anthropology, Media, and Documentary Practices.

Currently working on conducting queer and migration film workshops for the BIPOC youth in Germany. Humad Nisar conducts film workshops to make filmmaking accessible for everyone by producing films shot on their mobile phones. Using participatory collaborative and autoethnographic filmmaking methods in art activism to decolonise narrative filmmaking when stories are told by the BIPOC/Queer people themselves.

Queer displacements, kinship, and identity are research themes in the artist's work.

One of the recent ethnographic film, ‘home sweet home’, explores how queer people of Pakistani origin related to the idea of 'home'. It is a semi-autoethnographic, participative collaborative theoretical and media project.

Excerpts from the project were screened at World Pride 2021 Copenhagen(Denmark), Ethnografische Filmtage Bremen(Germany), Muenster Cine Club(Germany), and at the conference Sexuality and Migration: Contemporary Themes and Ways Forward(Sweden). Pakistani premiere happened at Aks International Minorities Festival, along with most of the project participants.

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