Narrative Us Recite

Narrative Us Recite is a research project that delves into the remains of Lahore’s once-thriving film industry, Lollywood, which saw a dramatic decline in the late 1970s. What began as an inquiry into how one marks the end of an industry has become a mark in itself—an attempt to produce something that reverberates through the remains of what has been left behind. 

For the past eight years, I have responded to the gradual disappearance of resources and studio spaces, engaging with Lollywood not as a monument of the past, but as a space for reflection, response, and creation. In the early stages of my research, the industry acted as a reflective surface for the ideas I brought to it; over time, it has become an opaque space where those ideas disperse. A recent and deeply personal shift occurred after the demolition of a part of Bari Studios—where I had worked for years and planned future works—turning me from an observer of loss into someone who directly inhabits it. 

I now see myself as an insider. Even in its ongoing decline and marginalization, Lollywood remains generative in my research. Alongside those still connected to it, we recite narratives of the past that echo forward, practicing forgotten skills together to pronounce ourselves living each time we are forced into disappearance. 

Jaar

2025