New York Foundation for the Arts funds Queens artists’ work

Queens filmmakers Anjali Kamat and Rehan Ansari’s New York election documentary The Believers, was funded through a $3,500 grant for Queens-based artists.  Photo courtesy of Kamat and Ansari

By Ryan Schwach

Last year, political documentarians Anjali Kamat and Rehan Ansari wanted to make a film about Queens.

While attending an event in the borough, they were inspired by the energy among South Asian teens who were canvassing for then-candidate Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign – they had found their documentary subjects.

The two set out to make The Believers, a documentary following teens who had become friends while canvassing for Mamdani.

The film will soon be seen with the help of a grant from the New York Foundation of the Arts and the city Department of Cultural Affairs.

“We're super excited to get this grant,” Kamat told the Eagle in a phone interview last week. “It really means a lot to be supported by NYFA and especially like the Queens Arts Fund, because this is a Queens based story.”

“It just feels like a wonderful endorsement to be getting supported for a project in Queens, by Queens, for Queens, by a Queens based granting organization,” she added.

Kamat and Ansari are two of the more than 100 other Queens artists who had their work funded last month through the Queens Arts Fund.

In April, the QAF dolled out $493,350 to 129 Queens-focused artists, including Kamat and Ansari.

"The artists and cultural workers who live, work, and create in neighborhoods across Queens fuel the energy, vibrancy, and cultural offerings of this international borough," said Cultural Affairs Commissioner Diya Vij. "We’re so proud of this public investment in the work of dozens of individual artists and grassroots arts and cultural organizations, which will give them the resources they need to bring free programming to residents across Queens."

For Kamat and Ansari, the $3,500 in funding will help them complete post-production on The Believers, and bring to reality a project they stumbled upon in Queens last year.

The film focuses on the relationship between Bangladeshi-American teens from Jackson Heights and Elmhurst who formed a friendship while canvassing for Mamdani’s election.

“They were talking about how they had been canvassing for this campaign during their spare time after school,” Kamat said about their early conversations with their subjects. “They were so excited to be part of a film, and they just welcomed us into their lives, and their friend groups and the activism they're doing.”

The artists said that the film explores the personal lives of their teen subjects, but also the complex issues facing South Asian communities who have had little representation in American politics.

“These are communities that have been really for decades, been in the shadows for different reasons,” Kamat said. “Economic marginalization, Islamophobia in the post 911 period, xenophobia. so it was really moving and exciting to see them kind of coming up to the center of this political campaign.”

The funding will help see the film through to completion. It will help pay for filming, an editor and will help them screen the movie in the Western neighborhoods where it takes place.

“This funding will really help us kind of with some of the costs associated with putting all of that together,” said Kamat.

The QAF’s funding will also aid other Queens artists who are highlighting the World’s Borough’s deep cultural diversity.

"Queens is unquestionably home to the most dynamic and engaging arts and culture scene New York City has to offer,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. “These 129 recipients of the 2026 Queens Arts Fund represent 129 reasons why that fact is indisputable.”

Another one of those artists is Eunwoo Nam, who immigrated to Queens and who records Queens residents speaking about their lives and migration stories. Their responses will be compiled into a portfolio that will be shared publicly though the Queens Library and Queens Museum.

The project is called "The Things They Carried,” named after the seminal Vietnam War novel by Tim O’Brian.

“My project is about gathering all together and sharing memories,” he told the Eagle. “The [funding] will really support defining this sort of abstract idea into a more specific project.”

“With the funds, I can really make a plan,” he added.

Nam has his subjects bring in an object that defines a personal memory they can share.

Like The Believers, he hopes the project can tell important Queens stories, and illustrate the diversity and culture present in the borough.

“We can see the landscape of our community,” he said. “Each individual I interview, they always share a totally different aspect of life. This project could map the landscape of our community.”