Zehra Zehra and Kilo Kish’s “American Gurl: Seeking…” Film Series at The Academy Museum

Zehra Zehra, founder of the curatorial and production platform Womxn in Windows, and acclaimed recording artist Kilo Kish have curated “American Gurl: Seeking…,” a filmic series at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures spotlighting works by women of color and centering the perspectives of Black and Brown women protagonists. From Jazmin Jones’ genre-defying Seeking Mavis Beacon to Janicza Bravo’s unparalleled Zola and Nisha Ganatra’s nuanced dramedy Chutney Popcorn, the lineup—which unfolds from July 24 through August 16—is as thought-provoking as it is inspired. Further, each feature is paired with a short film of equal merit.

It is the latest artistic collaboration between Zehra and Kish, who first partnered in 2020. Then, Zehra curated a Womxn in Windows show featuring Kish’s work. This new exhibition channels themes from Kish’s 2022 American Gurl music album. Zehra curated Kish’s music videos for those tracks for Times Square Arts’ “Midnight Moment” program in 2022. Since then, Hauser & Wirth LA presented an “American Gurl” exhibition in 2023, which traveled to the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in 2024. Most recently, MOCA Los Angeles hosted “American Gurl: home–land.”

There is a visionary undercurrent through all of the “American Gurl” exhibitions. “With this project, I am interested in exploring how we can reimagine the American Dream to include women of color and our hopes and desires,” Kish tells Surface. “These moving images represent the intersection of our past and present, exploring new ways of dreaming through their fusion.” Zehra adds, “It’s time to embrace the multiplicity of the American Gurl and share it with the world.”

 “In learning more about the concepts Kish was questioning and investigating through her American Gurl music album, I felt there was so much to be further explored,” Zehra Zehra continues. “I have personally always been fascinated by the idea of the American girl, as I feel it has and continues to inform such a large part of popular culture around the globe. This felt like the perfect opportunity to turn that fascination and questioning into a curatorial project with someone who was American and had started the process already.”

Seeking, as a concept, came into focus as the curatorial duo ruminated on “the nuanced spaces between things—hustling, navigating, and surviving our world while different,” they shared in a statement. “Some of the films speak to searching for something specific, but really we question how these women navigate work, love, school, society, and their own grapplings with their identity and identities imposed upon them.”

Kish says that they never anticipated bringing “American Gurl” from institution to institution as different iterations, but the project naturally evolved and taught them both how poignant the ideas are and how ready we are as a culture to hear new stories. “As we shape our version of how we want the future to be, and whose stories we want to center and include, it feels really nice to highlight women of color and their contributions to art, film, and performance,” she says. “It’s been exciting to highlight new filmmakers and pair them with super-established artists, and bring in artists and filmmakers that oftentimes don’t work in a traditional art context.”

The curators have approached programming more from an experiential sense—creating spaces where people feel seen, represented, and inspired.  “We’re looking forward to shifting and molding this through the years and evolving the project to create this holistic space where people can commune,” she concludes.