This Film Took ELEVEN YEARS....Every Frame Was Hand Drawn (NO AI WAS USED)

In this landmark episode, we sit down with Usman Riaz—the visionary Pakistani creator behind The Glassworker, the first hand-drawn Muslim animated feature film. A composer, artist, and rebel storyteller, Usman takes us inside the years-long odyssey of building an animation studio from scratch in Pakistan, navigating comparisons to the prestigious Studio Ghibli, challenging the Euro-American monopoly on fantasy, and reclaiming the right to dream in our own languages.We unpack what it means to be a Muslim artist in a post-9/11 world, how The Glassworker blends South Asian, Ottoman, and Islamic aesthetics, and why stories rooted in our worlds should never need Western validation. With the release of his film on the horizon, Usman shares the moments that almost broke him—and the fire that kept him going.