Filmmaker Statement

HOLD UP is based on an interaction I had with an Eritrean man, Hashim, late one night on a Harlem subway platform in late 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Of my many encounters with people experiencing homelessness in New York, none was as poignant, revealing or tragically star-crossed. The pandemic uprooted countless lives, thrusting honest strivers like Hashim into desperation and vagrancy. My exchange with Hashim laid this suffering bare on a human scale, and has haunted me ever since. With HOLD UP, I am inviting audiences to join me in confronting my privileged role in an unjust socio-moral system, while seeking to subvert harmful stereotypes.