The first Pakistani-American feature film “Night of Henna” premiers in San Francisco on March 3rd. Written, produced and directed by physician turned filmmaker Hassan Zee, Night of Henna, is about the tradition-steeped wedding night of a Pakistani-American girl during which the predeterminations of society and her own heart are pitted against one another to decide her destiny.

Shot entirely on locations in San Francisco, the film promotes the independence of women. As Zee illustrates, the real problem lies in the gender-imbalance within cultural and societal traditions: "Culture is oriented towards men, and it has created differences and inequalities in lifestyles for women."

For Zee, Night of Henna also illustrates the pressures he felt in his relationship with his own parents and provides an answer to children who experience the same. He believes that parents, whether of Eastern or Western culture, have often imposed their dreams on their children, forcing them to follow their personal and predetermined ambitions. "This is not just because children have dreams of their own," said Zee. "This film builds a bridge of understanding between parents and children to respect what children want in their own life."

Film is shot by three times EMMY AWARD and ACADEMY AWARD nominated cinematographer Hiro Narita. (Never Cry Wolf, Hocus Pocus, The Arrival) with the help of SONY and PANAVISION. Sound design by William Storkson who worked on Lost in Translation and Adaptation. And features a cast from Indian, Pakistani, and American descent.

Night of Henna opens at 4Star Theatre March 4,2005. For show times, www.4starmovie.net.


Review by Ben Hacker in FILM/TAPE WORLD Feb 1, 2005

Written on the wall of Hassan Zee’s bedroom is something you would not expect from a trained medical doctor. "No one can stop me from making my movies." So with the March premiere of the Pakistani-born writer/director’s first feature film, Night of Henna, at SF State’s Jack Adams Hall, will come another milestone in Zee’s unlikely path to creative success. In 1998, despite the wishes of his family, Zee set aside a promising medical career in Pakistan and came to the U.S. to pursue his true passions: writing and filmmaking. Growing up in a conservative, religious family, Zee said that all of his 6 siblings were pushed into the fields of engineering, medicine and computer science by his father, who was a career man in the Pakistani Army. "My heart was always in filmmaking but I had a lot of pressure to stick with medicine," said Zee. "Eventually I realized that I have only one life and I needed to go to America to make movies." Motivated to make films that, "bridge the gap between generations and cultures," Zee moved to San Francisco with an already sizable resume hosting and writing for Radio Pakistan, as well producing and directing a government funded AIDS awareness drama that was aired in 23 countries entitled The Dim Light.

Exposed to American culture for the first time, Zee said he walked down Howard Street in utter amazement over the freedoms women were afforded. "I was shocked to see men and women holding hands and talking freely," said Zee. "In Pakistan women can’t go out without men and there is no communication or physical contact." It is the lasting, often graphic impressions of his own native culture that have moved Zee to make films that not only, "entertain but leave audiences with something to contemplate. "So in 2002, after making a 14-minute short with grant funding from the Film Arts Foundation (FAF), Zee chose a topic for his first feature film that he had first-hand experience with. Both his mother and sister were forced into arranged marriages and Zee said that he has contemplated their fates and those of his entire country for many years. "I have seen woman burn themselves alive over their arranged marriage," said Zee. "People need to know what’s going on."

With this in mind, Zee wrote the script for Night of Henna with the hopes of creating dialogue and a greater understanding between Western and Eastern culture. He also wished to document the universal struggles found in every society and amongst every generation. "Film is a very powerful medium to develop understanding," said Zee. "I wished to show the commonality that these two beautiful cultures share." With a $500,000 budget and minimal connections in the film industry, Zee found himself looking on message boards for a qualified cinematographer. Getting responses from mostly inexperienced or student photographers, he soon found his salvation at Lee Utterback Camera’s and Gear, after resorting to copying a list of academy award-nominated cinematographers that lived in the Bay Area. Zee contacted nominee Hiro Narito (Never Cry Wolf, Hocus Pocus, The Arrival) who loved the script and signed-on that next day. With Narito’s endorsement, the film soon picked up sound designer William Storkson (Lost in Translation, Adaptation) and a lead actress in former Miss India U.S.A., Pooja Kumar. Another key endorsement via Narito came with the sponsorship and donation by Sony of an HD24 panavision digital camera, and a multitude of other equipment that Zee said greatly reduced the cost and pressures associated with shooting with film.

"Using film, there is an immense amount of pressure and stress to get it done quickly," said Zee. "The digital medium is great for new filmmakers because it gives you the ability to go back and get that perfect shot." Zee added that given this freedom, he chose to shoot many of the same sequences in Night of Henna from 10 or more angles. The film itself centers on Hava (Pooja Kumar), a young Pakistani girl who comes to the U.S. to pursue her dreams of going to college, but who subsequently is forced into an arranged marriage by her parents. The man that she is supposed to marry is himself in love with another woman, and while contemplating her fate in the U.S., Hava herself falls in love with an American man. It is a classic conflict of individualism versus tradition. "Whether in the East or West, parents often overlook their children’s dreams and impose their own on them," said Zee. "It’s a universal clash of generations”

Zee likens the films culturally-based content to recent international cross-over successes Monsoon Wedding and East is East, while he says his own influences come mainly from Italian filmmakers Fellini (La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2), Passolini (120 Days of Sodom) and American director Peter Greenway (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover). Night of Henna was shot entirely in the Bay Area in locations ranging from San Jose, Fremont and downtown San Francisco. The film, deemed by Zee to be the first Pakistani-American-themed project, was comprised of 120 cast/crew members and was shot over a 24-day span. Trying to avoid the glow of Tinseltown, Zee said he would like to stay in San Francisco for future projects, including his next feature film "Strange Feelings." "I don’t want to go to Hollywood," said Zee. "This is my city and I want to make movies here. "Zee, a trained medical doctor who now works at Lenscrafters part time as an optician, said the major challenges of making films in the Bay Area (or anywhere) is getting enough funding and publicity, but that the key to both is perseverance. "If I make 20 phone calls and no one wants to help, I don’t care. I know that there will soon be one that does." Zee said. "And do you know what I have written on my bedroom wall?"