Riding Time
Short film Completed 2026
Director
Roopa Gogineni
Director
Farhaan Mumtaz Husain
Producer
Fahd Ahmed
Producer
Roopa Gogineni
Neza bazi, an ancient South Asian cavalry sport adopted by British colonial officers, has
two distinct scenes in today’s UK. There is the national team (posh, tweed-wearing) and
a quickly growing Pakistani British circuit at the heart of this film. Then there is Jaleal, a
dual-heritage competitor who braids manes and sharpens lances while quietly
dreaming of show jumping.
Filmed over three summers in the northern town of Bradford, RIDING TIME meanders
from the absurd to the profound. Juxtaposing the boisterous play and caretaking of the
stables with the pounding hooves and fine kurtas of competition, the film follows its
protagonists into a transcendent space between geographies, childhood and
adulthood, people and horses.
Crew
Roopa Gogineni
Director
Roopa Gogineni (director, producer, editor) is a Paris-based
filmmaker and photographer. For a decade, she lived in Nairobi,
developing a collaborative practice alongside communities of
resistance in East Africa. Her films, described as intimate and
urgent, have premiered at festivals including IDFA, SXSW, Hot
Docs and Sheffield Doc/Fest. Her work has been supported by
the Sundance Institute, BFI Doc Society, CatchLight, Firelight
and Chicken & Egg Pictures. She is the coordinator of Night
School, a network of grassroots film clubs for displaced
Sudanese.
Farhaan Mumtaz Husain
Director
Farhaan Mumtaz (director, associate producer) is a director,
researcher and primary school teacher from Bradford. His
short documentary Dear Bradford was one of the most viewed
Guardian documentaries of 2022. It went on to screen at the
Whitechapel and Bow Arts galleries and the Bradford Literature
Festival. He directed and produced Loughborough Junction, a
film exploring gentrification, for Public Works. He worked as a
researcher on India in a Day, the worldʼs largest crowd-sourced
documentary.
Fahd Ahmed
Producer
Fahd Ahmed (producer, editor) is an editor and producer who
grew up between Bradford and London. He was the producer
on the leading multi-series Arab Ramadan show, Kannak Tarah,
and has edited for the BBC and PBS-funded docuseries A Town
Called Victoria. He was a fellow in the Gotham Edit Lab, Close-
Up Initiative Edit Lab, and Sundance Story and Edit Lab. He
edited and co-produced the first feature doc, Q (Jude Chehab,
2023), which won the Albert Maysles Best New Documentary
Director Award at Tribeca and the Grand Jury New
International First Feature Award at Sheffield Docfest.
Roopa Gogineni
Producer
Roopa Gogineni (director, producer, editor) is a Paris-based
filmmaker and photographer. For a decade, she lived in Nairobi,
developing a collaborative practice alongside communities of
resistance in East Africa. Her films, described as intimate and
urgent, have premiered at festivals including IDFA, SXSW, Hot
Docs and Sheffield Doc/Fest. Her work has been supported by
the Sundance Institute, BFI Doc Society, CatchLight, Firelight
and Chicken & Egg Pictures. She is the coordinator of Night
School, a network of grassroots film clubs for displaced
Sudanese.
