Jaddoland (Excerpt)

I am the subject of the award-winning feature film Jaddoland, directed by Nadia Shihab. Jaddoland explores the meaning of home across generations and landscapes and the role of creative process in exploring my own journey. Directed by Nadia Shihab.

Awards

• WINNER, Independent Spirit Awards TRUER THAN FICTION Award, Jan 2020

• BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE, Austin Asian American Film Festival, May 2019

• SPECIAL JURY AWARD, San Diego Asian Film Festival, Nov 2019

• SPECIAL JURY AWARD, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, May 2019

• SPECIAL JURY MENTION, New Orleans Film Festival, Oct. 2018

Quotes & Press

“A deeply personal film a fresh and artistic sensibility both in front and behind the camera.”
- Independent Spirit Awards Jury

"Intimate, experimental, and beautifully playful."
- Documentary Award Jury, Austin Asian American Film Festival

​"Jaddoland is a breath of fresh air: a film not tied down by convention or structure, it playfully and thoughtfully plumbs issues of identity, art, and belonging."
- Clint Bowie, Artistic Director, New Orleans Film Festival
 
“As Nadia watches, a picture emerges of what an uncareful observer might call assimilation: an outward adjustment obscuring depths of diasporic longing, the doubling and tripling of identities always grounded by that shifting but insistent anchor, the question of home.”
- Jon Kieran, Senior Programmer, New Orleans Film Festival

 “Shihab’s palpable love for her mother courses through her film and “Jaddoland” functions both as a tribute to her work and life as well as a sincere interrogation of the idea of “home,” how the concept morphs and evolves depending on one’s own comfort with their journey.”
- Vikram Murthi, rogerebert.com 

​“[Shihab's] contemplation of the meaning of home unfolds also as a deeply moving meditation on the impact of time.
- Lisa Elin, Houston Film Critics Society

​"Lying somewhere between experimental and home movie, filmmaker Nadia Shihab’s debut documentary JADDOLAND is a film as much about the shiftiness of place and personhood, as it is about Shihab’s curiosity as she gets reacquainted with a mother who evolves away from her in surprising ways."
- Christina Ree, San Diego Asian Film Festival 

​"Jaddoland’s expansive aesthetics creates new spaces for diverse audience reflections about how identity and culture are not only inherited but re-created and co-created across geography and time."
- Natalie Nesvaderani and Miasarah Lai, Visual Anthropology Review

Plain Speaking: Artists of the Llana Estacado: Lahib Jaddo

I am also the subject of a 2004 documentary series, “Plain Speaking: Artists of hte Llana Estacado: Lahib Jaddo”, which explores my work through the voices of local West Texas artists, collectors and friends. Written, produced, and directed by Chris Caddel.

Moving Paintings

Below is an ongoing series of short “moving paintings” that explore relationships between still and moving images in my work.