The Second Wave

shandy:

wonderfully detailed:)

doing any new documentary?

lve

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PACC and Films D’art invite you to a screening of
a selection of films and teleplays by the late
Mr. Mushtaq Gazdar, award-winning filmmaker, on
30th November and 1st December 2004.

Programme

Tuesday 30th November

6pm Girhastan (1994): When a woman who has
spent her entire married life looking after her
family and home is faced with her husband’s
unfaithfulness, she decides to leave- only to
realize her vulnerabilities... A teleplay on the
rights of the homemaker starring Shugufta Ejaz,
Mazhar Ali, Mehak Ali.

7:30 pm Shattered Dreams- Jaeeyen to Jayyen
Kahan (2000): - A docudrama based on the
real-life stories of women who have been bought
and sold by the agents of slave trade. The film
documents their stories as they make the
perilous journey from Bangladesh through India to
Pakistan and what happens to them once they
reach Pakistan.

Wednesday 1st December

6pm: Girl Child Not Wanted - Beti Nahin
Chahiee (1991) made on the occasion of the UN
Year of the Girl Child, the film looks at
society’s preference for a son on the one hand
and the determination against all odds of a
family in rural Sindh to educate their daughter
on the other.

6:30: They are Killing the Horse (1979) Grand
Prix Award at the Tampere Film Festival in
Finland. Shows the plight of a young woman who
suffers depression on account of social and
sexual suppression all around her. Instead of
consulting a psychiatrist her family takes her
to various shrines and pirs for cure which
results in her condition becoming even worse and
complicated.

7:00 O’Little World (1999) This video
documentary takes a close look at the activities
of blind and deaf children at their school in
Karachi, Ida Reiu School for Special Children

PACC: ph 5215305
Films D’art: ph 4551482

Thanks for submitting this thorough piece on Pakistan`s upcoming filmmakers.
Is anyone of them looking into making a documentary on the rise of the Farhat Hashmi phenomena.

#2: I don`t know, but I met an Irani girl last summer whose description of their movies seemed closer to Indian blockbusters/formula movies (hence closer to Oscars) than the Cannes material I had thought they were from reviews in the Pakistani press. Maybe they too have a divide between what is popular and sells at home and what is more understated and hence appreciated more abroad.
#4: Yes, where can we see this stuff? And please don`t ask us to attend the karafilm festival - sometimes it just isn`t possible.

And this reminds me of two other groundswells: the popular music thing after Zia and the current boom in higher education.

Thanks for the piece. Much appreciated.

Shandana,

Thanks for this peice, but where can we get hold of these films from????? Channel four in the UK shoed Khamosh Pani, and we recorded it on Sky Plus.

But what about all these other films, they are almost impossible to get hold of, even in Pakistan.

We want to watch them, but cant get to them!!!

Pakistani cinema is in an unenviable position. It has to compete with Hollywood for quality and with Bollywood for mass appeal. Comparisons with Iran are not that valid since it does not have to deal with the huge behemoth next door. Moreover, while producing films which are a critical success, I am not sure how much of a commercial success Iranian cinema is. An industry cannot survive on medals and awards alone, it needs to generate receipts at the box office.

I think that the Pakistani cinema should try to fill a niche which was never covered by Hollywood and now seems to have been more or less abandoned by Bollywood, namely, wholesome family entertainment. There are very few films made by Bollywood which parents and children can watch together, either in theatre or in their living room. If they do, I think they can recreate the magic produced by PTV with its dramas during their hedays.

Everyone says Pakistani cinema is dead, poisoned by cultural atrophy, stabbed by official incompetence and shot by extremists.

The first sentence of this article is collosal bullshit. The media and film industry in Pakistan is infinitely more free than in neighboring Iran. The films, in Iran, the so-called mullah-ruled hellhole, on the other hand are becoming Oscar material. As a matter of fact Iranian film directors can teach a thing or two to Scorceses, Oliver Stones, Stanely Kubericks of Holywood. Whereas, the best of Indian directors appear intellectual pygmies in front of them. The movies like `Children of Paradise`, `Khalid`, and `Baran (The Rain)` are Oscar material and won awards at Caans from world wide critics. The problem with Pakistani directors is their intellectual malaise and self inflicted inferiority complex. The genuine art, throughout the history of mankind, has never used to crutches of government or even that of society. Some of the world`s best literature has emerged through the greatest period of turmoil. The work of Tolstoy, Manto, Krishan Chandar, Alexander Dumas, attest to that fact. Pakistani artists must take the leap and have faith in themselves. And why should we look elsewhere. During the Zia era, PTV as a state owned media, muzzled by state, has seen the golden era of creative production. The programs presented in that time have been etched in the minds of a whole generation.

I love the thoroughness and comprehensiveness of this piece. Thanks!