“Abortion! Honka Honka!” (2024-2025)

I have always been an enthusiastic writer. Whether it be short stories, abstract personal poetry or verbose academic essays, writing has always been an important creative outlet for me as an artist. When I first started at NYU’s Film program, I found myself missing writing and analysis in a ‘hands-on’ curriculum. The freshman expository writing course was a way for me to continue developing my love for language. I was, of course, used to the standard 5 paragraph essay drilled into me throughout high school and middle school. It was a huge challenge evolving my relationship with writing essays from something that had become muscle memory to a process that revolved around curiosity, but it was also incredibly rewarding to take risks and try new things. As my professor put it, I needed to have ‘conversations’ with my sources and not be afraid to think in real time. This idea of the ‘conversation’ is incredibly important to me, as I have discovered building my relationship with the reader (you!) is just as important as the essay itself.

Thus, the video essay was a unique challenge. I originally approached it in the same way I would any other essay, writing it in its entirety, then altering it to suit the video format. Yet after submitting my first few drafts for feedback, I realized that I had been completely wrong. The biggest piece of feedback was that the essay didn’t ‘sound’ like me—yes, I could analyze works of art, but it completely lacked my personal voice. I cut down my essay by 4 pages, and re-wrote the entire thing (multiple times), and, in its unfinished form, started editing the video. I cut out paragraphs of writing for the sake of visual communication. I submitted draft after draft and conversed with my peers. Finally, I found a new sense of clarity. I wanted a video essay that represented me, as a person and as an artist, and I wanted to truly converse with the viewer about a social issue that means so much to me. I learned so much from the creation of this essay, not only about the subject at hand, but about how art and language can bring us together.

Zahara Slovenski is an aspiring mixed-media filmmaker who is currently studying Film and Television at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Born and raised in Singapore, she is incredibly grateful for the  new freedom to express herself through her work at NYU. 

Much of her work, both artistic and academic, revolves around the rights of marginalized communities, in particular, of women and the LGBTQ+ community. She is always looking for new and experimental ways to explore issues that we see on screen often, and this interest led her to intensely explore how other artists may explore political or current issues in their work.