Zeshawn Ali
New America Fellow, 2027
Zeshawn Ali is a nonfiction filmmaker and organizer. His feature documentary film Two Gods, about a Muslim casket maker and ritual body washer in Newark, was supported by ITVS, the Ford Foundation, and the Sundance Institute. It was broadcast as a part of Independent Lens on PBS and named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. The film won Best Feature Documentary at the New Orleans Film Festival and was nominated for a Cinema Eye Spotlight Award. In addition, he was selected as a Pillars Artist Fellow, which supports emerging Muslim filmmakers, as well as the HBO and Gotham Institute Development Fellowship.
In 2025, he released his subsequent film, Gioncarlo Valentine: Exposures, which captured the work of photographer Gioncarlo Valentine. The film world premiered at DOCNYC Film Festival and premiered as a part of the In the Making series by American Masters on PBS.
Ali’s next documentary, Highways, won the BlackStar pitch prize and is currently being executive produced by Multitude Films. The film is an intimate observational portrait about cross-country Punjabi truck drivers in the United States. Told in both places of rest (including a truck stop in Oklahoma that serves as a gathering place for Punjabi drivers) and on long trips along the highway routes across the Midwest, Highways explores the changing demographics of cross-country truck drivers in America, as many are now immigrant men looking to provide for families and build lives as they learn about America and themselves on the open roads.
This bio reflects the fellow’s work and affiliations as of their fellowship year.
Selected Work
- Gioncarlo Valentine: Exposures: A documentary short film that explores how intimacy is a radical act of self-exploration for photographer Gioncarlo Valentine as he leaves behind a formative chapter of his life, turning the lens inward as he searches for home.
- Two Gods: A feature documentary film about Hanif, a Muslim casket maker and ritual body washer who takes two young men under his wing to teach them how to live better lives.