Telling tales to inspire and unite the world

Ali is a storyteller from New York, apart from being a renowned social media personality, arts envoy, writer and a filmmaker. DT Next caught up with him at the US Consulate General, when he was in the city recently, to talk about the tales of his wander from across the world, being a Muslim in the Trump era and why India will never cease to amaze him.

Storytelling is not a one-way exercise, Aman Ali says, “It is about bringing people together. If I can tell someone in Toronto that they are not the only one, and that someone in Chennai is undergoing the same ordeal — that’s the power of its therapy. There is so much unhappiness and sorrow amidst us that we need to assure people they are not alone.” The quest for stories has taken him to several places — an interesting one being the journey to the various mosques across the US, almost six years ago, “My friend and I had no plan or any itinerary in place and just took off across many states, finding mosques and most importantly the people and stories surrounding it,” he says. What resulted was 30 Mosques in 30 Days, a 25,000-mile road trip across the 50 states in the US, scouring for ground-breaking  and profound stories about Muslims in America. 

Branching into filmmaking recently, he has yet again ventured into the tales of incredible, but uncelebrated people. Two Gods , a documentary film on how Muslim funeral directors are changing the lives of young boys involved in gang wars. 

“It follows the story of a 11-year-old who is being guided by these men to stay away from meaningless gang wars; they make him meet a mother who had lost her son in one such fight,” he explains. The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and received a positive response. 

His stories have found more significance in the Trump era, but there is something remarkable that has happened, after the political change. “We see more people coming together and standing up for Muslims. In fact, a few weeks after Trump won the elections, we had a group of Jews standing outside a mosque, greeting the Muslims, who had just finished their prayers, with flowers.” Ali says that the grassroots movement is universal and is a healthy change. “Earlier, we had no choice, but put up with everything our governments did. But now we can make ourselves heard and we must take that opportunity hold truth to power,” he says. 

Born to parents originally hailing from Hyderabad, Ali says he can’t help taking back stories from here. “The talent that India possesses is in limelight after decades. Colonisation had robbed India off the glory — in terms of arts, music, literature and even, education. To think that country is yet again standing out in these fields, is heart-warming,” he adds.