Ash Mahmood began filmmaking with his brother Naeem in 1999. The young filmmaking brothers have established a flamboyant visual style, richly conceived characters, crisp dialogue and brilliant casting. Normally Ash directs and Naeem produces, but they are involved in every aspect of production. They conceptualise, write and preplan every detail of their films at storyboard stage, producing, directing and overseeing the editing and music in unison.
In 2001 they won the Prince's Trust Millennium Award, which enabled them to set up Transient Film Exchange, their own production company based at the Riverside Studios in London. Its aim was not only to develop their filmmaking but to also discover striking new talent through their production of passionate and innovative independent films. Thus far the brothers have delivered a range of emotions from very moving personal films to the comic and dark but with distinctive original approaches to film whose themes are challenging.
Their work has been profiled on the BBC and ITV. The Mayor of London recently awarded both brothers for their outstanding contribution to London through their film work. Their feature film entitled Winds of Santa Ana was nominated in the best director category at the Unlocking Talent Awards in Northern Ireland during 2001. In 2003 their film Home Sweet Home, which explored refugee issues was a finalist in ITV’s Whose London? competition. 2005 saw the brothers win the Bronze Medal Prize at the 46th Brno International Film Festtival of Competitive Films. Naeem has recently been selected for the 4th Berlinale Talent Campus at the Berlin International Film Festival. Ash and Naeem Mahmood aim to produce independent films that will go on to become a cool antidote to the film industry, side stepping convention.
Their 2005 film Swimmer was described by Time Out as "a film that shows that you don't always need years of training or massive budgets to make interesting, personal films - passion, ideas and determination are quite enough. This film shows real promise and exudes confidence"
"I have followed the development of work by the Transient Film Exchange - most importantly with a film called The Swimmer. This is an imaginative film in a longer format, made with impressive production values which would not be out of place in the professional arena. Indeed I made a short film about the Transient Film Exchange as they were filming The Swimmer, which was broadcast on BBC London during Refugee Week. I therefore had the opportunity to witness Naeem and Ash in action on location. They had a dilligent and practical approach to the job, which is in keeping with dominant values in today's film and TV industry"
Penny Wrout, Communities Editor/Journalist, BBC London