In Panjabi (as well as in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian), awāzẽ, awāzā̃, âvâzhâ mean sounds, voices, tunes, reports, echoes - words that resonate with my approach to research and storytelling. The “a” after awaaz makes it plural, emphasizing the multiplicity of voices in my films: the voices of others in dialogue with my own, narratives shaped through framing and montage and accompanied by a questioning voice-over.
Driven by a desire to make stories visible, I explore how music, voices, and belonging emerge in everyday life. Awaaz-a is my platform for showcasing these many forms of sounds, voices, and stories, awāzẽ, awāzā̃, âvâzhâ.
ABOUT
I am Manpreet Brar, a Visual Anthropologist researching the dynamic relationship between music, religion, and belonging. I conducted fieldwork in Amsterdam Zuidoost during my master's in Visual Anthropology. The product of this research was the film Colored Frequencies, in which we learn how dimensions such as creativity, religiosity and spirituality relate to how various musicians and creatives in Amsterdam Zuidoost experience blackness.
I have worked as a junior researcher in the department of ethnology at the Meertens Institute where I investigated how using visual anthropology as a research method can enrich and diversify archives. In this project, I created the ethnographic film Kawina Collections: Afro-Surinamese Music, Heritage & Spirituality, which explores what kawina music means to different musicians, producers, dj’s and listeners. Through films like these, I try to highlight how cultural heritage is not just preserved but actively lived, experienced and (re)shaped in the present.