Our Stories strand of international filmmaking has launched with the latest iteration, Pakistan Stories.
In celebration of the 75 years of independence in Pakistan, all chosen filmmakers are female and will shine a light on filmmaking through the female gaze.
10 filmmakers in Pakistan have began a series of workshops in collaboration with British Council, led by Sharmeen Obaid-Chonoy, director of Patakha Pictures and Noe Mendelle, director of SDI.
When we sifted through the applications we realized that there are so many young women in Pakistan who aspire to tell stories about their communities and that it is imperative that we provide them with the right tools to achieve their dreams. Today, I hope we are taking a small step towards that.” said Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
“Scottish Documentary Institute is delighted with the selection of the ten upcoming female talent for our new scheme Pakistan Stories. The collaboration with Patakha Pictures is conducive to the perfect creative environment for our participants to bloom as documentary filmmakers and tackle challenging stories that will reflect contemporary Pakistan through the female gaze.” said Noé Mendelle, Director of Scottish Documentary Institute.
“We are very pleased to be supporting this project because it is going to give opportunity to young women filmmakers in Pakistan. And we are really fortunate to have Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Professor Noe leading it – both are celebrated for having done amazing work in documentary filmmaking” Mariya Afzal, Director UK-PK Season, British Council, Pakistan
Pakistan Stories received an overwhelming number of submissions from female documentary filmmakers across the country, out of which the following pairs of applicants were chosen from different regions of Pakistan to be a part of this initiative:
Amna Maqbool and Beenish Sarfaraz, “Sinf-e-Taal”
Ahmen Khawaja and Mariam Kha, “One by one”
Seema Iqbal and Sehrish Kanwal, “Disability can’t stop education”
Farzeen Aziz and Bushra Pervaiz, “Haqeer”
Fatima Syed and Areeba Naveed, “Sazish: A Feminist’s Struggle”
For more information go to our Stories website and Patakha Pictures website.
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