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Non-profit

Maisha Film Lab

Website:

maishafilmlab.org/
Location:

Kampala, Uganda
Type:

Filmmaking and Training Nonprofit
Formation:

2004
Founder & Executive Director:

Mira Nair

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Maisha Film Lab is a Uganda-based non-profit organization that provides training and support for regional filmmakers. 1 The group was founded in 2004 by Mira Nair, the mother of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D). Nair has allegedly received funding for the organization through the government of Qatar as well as members of the Qatari royal family. 2  3

Activities

Maisha Film Lab offers fully funded filmmaking scholarships to its trainees across its film labs in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania. 2  4 Maisha has established partnerships with the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, the Rwanda Film Festival, the Bayimba International Festival of the Arts, the Kenya International Film Festival, and the Zanzibar International Film Festival to publish and distribute its films. 5 Most Maisha Film Lab films are short stories that detail aspects of daily life in Eastern Africa. 6

Since its founding in 2004, Maisha Film Lab has provided over 550 scholarships, produced over 50 films, and developed a year-round curriculum for aspiring filmmakers. Its films have been screened at over 20 international film festivals and have received international awards, including in 2011 at the 21st African and Latin American Film Festival and the African Academy Movie Awards. 2  7

Maisha Film Lab also maintains Maisha Garden, a facility in Uganda that houses the group’s film archives and has several classrooms and educational resources for the instruction of its students. 8

Funding

Mira Nair has previously received funding for Maisha Fil Lab and her own film projects from the Qatari government. Between 2010 and 2014, the Doha Film Institute, which was founded by Sheikha Al-Thani, the sister of Qatari ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, funded a Maisha Film Lab training for Qatari students in screenwriting and filmmaking in East Africa and in Doha. 3

Leadership

Founder

Mira Nair is the founder of Maisha Film Lab. 9 Nair is the mother of Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic politician who is the Mayor-elect of New York City as of November 2025. 3 Nair founded Maisha Film Lab in 2004 after shooting her second feature film, Mississippi Masala, in Kampala, Uganda. 2

Nair is also listed as a film writer, director and film producer. Her debut film, Hello Bombay!, won the Camera d’Or film award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988. Nair’s 2016 Queen of Katwe was also nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. 10 She is also the director of The Perez Family (1995), Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), Monsoon Wedding (2001), Hysterical Blindness (2002), Vanity Fair (2004), The Namesake (2006), Amelia (2009), and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012). Nair is also a former Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow. 11 In 2012, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan—India’s second-highest civilian honor—by the president of India. 11

In 2013, Mira Nair refused to travel to Israel for the Haifa International Film Festival, saying she would only visit the country “when the walls come down” and the “occupation is gone.” She further expressed her opposition to the state of Israel claiming, “I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when apartheid is over.” 12

Director

Musarait Kashmiri is the manager and director for Maisha Film Lab. She studied at the University of Toronto, Laval University, and York University, earning a master’s in project management. Kashmiri is the Operations Director at Ongeza Tanzania Ltd. Prior to this, she worked as general manager of Good African Coffee Ltd. in Kampala and the chief operating officer of a marketing and communications VR Promotions in Kampala. She has also served as deputy managing director for FGA, a registered German non-governmental organization (NGO) operating relief projects in East Africa. 9

Financials

Although its revenue and tax information is not publicly available, Maisha Film Lab lists several of its donors on its website, including the OSI Development Fund, the Agnes Gund Foundation, the MLE Foundation, and the Pannonia Foundation. 13

Maisha Film Lab’s founder and director Mira Nair previously claimed operational costs for the organization were around $420,000 annually. 14

References

  1. “Home.” Maisha Film Lab. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://maishafilmlab.org/
  2. “About Us.” Maisha Film Lab. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://maishafilmlab.org/about/about-us/
  3. Bredderman, Will. “Oh mama! Qatar bankrolled over a decade worth of films directed by Zohran Mamdani’s mom.” New York Post. August 31, 2025. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://nypost.com/2025/08/31/us-news/qatar-bankrolled-years-worth-of-films-by-zohran-mamdanis-mom/
  4. Muvunyi, Steven. “Maisha Lab hones skills of local film makers.” The New Times. July 29, 2016. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://www.newtimes.co.rw/article/132206/Lifestyle/maisha-lab-hones-skills-of-local-film-makers
  5. “About – Partners.” Maisha Film Lab. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://maishafilmlab.org/about/partners/
  6. “Our Films.” Maisha Film Lab. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://maishafilmlab.org/maisha-film-lab-2/our-films/
  7. “Awards.” Maisha Film Lab. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://maishafilmlab.org/about/awards/
  8. “Maisha Garden.” Maisha Film Lab. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://maishafilmlab.org/maisha-garden/
  9. “About – Directors.” Maisha Film Lab. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://maishafilmlab.org/about/directors/
  10. Tutt, Louise. “My Screen Life: Mira Nair on enjoying yoga, cooking dinner and a walk in New York at the end of the working day.” Screen Daily. September 14, 2020. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://www.screendaily.com/features/my-screen-life-mira-nair-on-enjoying-yoga-cooking-dinner-and-a-walk-in-new-york-at-the-end-of-the-working-day/5153104.article
  11. “About – Art of Change Fellows, Mira Nair.” Ford Foundation. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/the-art-of-change-meet-our-fellows/mira-nair/
  12. Sherwood, Harriet. “Mira Nair boycotts Haifa film festival.” The Guardian. July 20, 2013. Accessed October 27, 025. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/21/director-mira-nair-boycotts-haifa-festival
  13. “Donors.” Maisha Film Lab. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://maishafilmlab.org/about/donors/
  14. “Reintroducing Uganda’s Maisha Film Labs Founded By Mira Nair… 8 Years After Its Birth.” Blavity. March 17, 2012. Accessed October 27, 2025. https://blavity.com/reintroducing-ugandas-maisha-film-labs-founded-by-mira-nair-8-years-after-its-birth
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