Haya Waseem

Haya Waseem is a Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker, raised in Switzerland and living in Brooklyn. Constantly adapting to new environments and people, Haya developed a keen sense of observation that she weaves into her work. She began her career as a documentary editor and then went on to directing. Her short films have screened at prestigious festivals such as TIFF, Cannes, Berlinale and across all Air Canada flights. She is an alumna of the Director’s Lab program at Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre. QUICKENING his Haya’s debut feature.

Director’s statement

“Quickening is a personal film but meant as a shared experience. Many of the stories we hear or see on screen resonate with me on an emotional level but there was always a disconnect between the specific characters and my circumstances. Myself and others like me would often have to translate the stories to fit our experiences.
With this film, I gained an opportunity to set the characters and their environments based on what I found familiar. What it proved to me was that the stories and emotions we experience are indeed universal, but what difference does it make to see it through a particular lens? It creates space for dialogue. It invites other observers to join.
[...] There is something undeniably special about sharing stories. It acts like a mirror and allows us to grow our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. I am overwhelmed by the support and community that has emerged as a result of this film. Worlds that I thought were separate are coming closer together.
Emotions that were held onto find ways to release through the lens of a character. I am fortunate that cinema and storytelling had an impact on me from a young age and with naive ambition, I pursued this path. There are many others like me who have thought this path to be inaccessible to them. This is not true. In involving the community on and off-screen, I feel a small shift. Nothing is more fulfilling than bridging a gap in any small way possible. [...] This is only the beginning of an exciting shift. Who knows what we have yet to discover, but the mirror of storytelling will reveal in due time.”