DON´T GET TOO COMFORTABLE

Don’t Get Too Comfortable is a heartfelt introspective letter to my deceased grandfather. The letter questions the continuous pattern of movement amongst Yemenis in diaspora. The film fuses archival photographs, sourced footage, parallax animation, abstract videos to create an audio-visual body of work that calls attention to the collective feeling of statelessness and sense of being felt by Yemeni (or non-Yemeni) migrants.

SHAIMA AL-TAMIMI is a Yemeni East African visual storyteller. Her work explores themes such as migration, identity, and culture through introspection and a deeply rooted documentary approach. Using photography, film, audio and writing as mediums, she merges historical and family archives with present-day portraits and visuals to create vivid narratives. Challenging mainstream and linear notions of identity, her work offers unique perspectives into the lives of her subjects and calls for a more nuanced understanding of native experiences. Shaima was a 2020 Social Justice & Photography fellow with Magnum Foundation, which resulted in the multimedia film Don’t Get Too Comfortable.