Road to Fame: Pakistani Film Festival to Tour Edinburgh!
“You never know what the future holds” – this statement definitely holds true in the case of Ghulam Sarwar, master-painter of trucks in Pakistan, who had been invited to showcase his artistic flair for the UK film, Nina's Heavenly Delights.
The tremendous success of the first ever Pakistani Film, Media and Arts Festival outside Pakistan, organised by Heer Productions in Glasgow in September 2005, highlighted the abundance of talent which has been hidden away for so many years. And now, the festival will be showcased at the Edinburgh Filmhouse from 24th -25th February 2006.
With the film première due to be shown on Sky TV in 2006, this will be a wonderful opportunity for father-of-six Ghulam, who is in his fifties and yet who had never been out of Pakistan before, to use his wonderful creative talents to paint a van which is central to Nina's Heavenly Delights and thus to bring the van to life! Ghulam was extremely excited about the project – “I was extremely happy to be a part of the Festival to start with, but to then be given the opportunity to be involved in such an interesting and exciting projects is fantastic. I look forward to working with the different styles and cultures in Scotland and hope that this will encourage others to be given the same opportunity”.
The artistic director of Heer Productions, Alina Mirza was also extremely enthusiastic – “It is fantastic that Ghulam will be involved in such a fun and creative project. I am sure that his contribution will be invaluable and hope that we can provide further opportunities to showcase talent”. Heer Productions is a film and cross-arts form company based in Glasgow. It is working towards raising the profile of South Asian films, arts and artists in Scotland and the UK. The company is actively involved in engaging young people from Ethnic Minority Communities and providing them with opportunities in film and other genres of media. The company has had its work recognised by the Scottish Executive www.scotlandistheplace.com which profiled the artistic director as the special guest for January 2006.
The Pakistani Film Festival is set to tour Edinburgh from 24th -26th February 2006, at the Edinburgh Filmhouse.
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In the Beginning…Showcasing Contemporary Pakistani Independent Cinema, July 2004
One of the Heer Productions first projects was hold a series of successful film and media events in July 2004 to mark the visit by acclaimed Pakistani Film producer/director Hasan Zaidi. Hasan is also the coordinator of the Karachi International Film Festival in Pakistan (www.karafilmfest.com), which has already gained a prestigious place among the South Asian film festivals, with prominent Indian directors and producers such as Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt launching their feature films at the festival. These screenings and events included:
• Screening of Pakistani short films at the Glasgow Film Theatre with a question and answer session
• Youth Workshop at Glasgow Media Access Centre
A cross-art form event at the Carnival Arts Centre with performances from Pakistani and Indian artists.At the Kara Film Festival, two Scottish short films received awards, these were for:
• The Best Short Film, awarded to ‘Original Bob' by Zam Salim
• Best Short Animation Film, awarded to ‘The Tree Officer' by Neil Jack.
The Scottish delegation also did a presentation at the festival and showed the award-winning community film made by Edinburgh-based director, Annie George, ‘Curry and Irn Bru', which was very well received by the audiences.
Abdul Majid, a young person from Woodlands Youth Initiative, Glasgow was sponsored by Heer Productions to attend the KARA Film Festival. This was the first time that Abdul Majid had had the opportunity to attend a film and media festival of any sort either in Scotland or in Pakistan. He found it to be an overwhelmingly positive experience and subsequently has keen to work and share his experience with the 12-14 year old youths in the Initiative. He has also felt more empowered as he has formed positive links with his culture and roots.
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Representing Glasgow Media Access Centre (Gmac) in Pakistan: a Report on Kara International Film Festival by Alice Stilgoe
Gmac was delighted to accept Heer Productions' invitation to join a Scottish delegation to participate in the 4th Karachi International Film Festival in Pakistan in December 2004.
KARA is a recently-established independent film festival that has already gained a prestigious place among the South Asian film festivals. It was very exciting to take part in this young festival, and to witness the enthusiasm and enormous energy of the festival organisers, independent filmmakers and audiences, and their commitment to their national film industry.
It was a great privilege to have the opportunity to watch so many films produced in the South Asian region, to learn about the Pakistan film industry as well as to foster links with KARA and to create a dialogue with filmmakers and artists based in Karachi.
Two films produced through GMAC ' s short film schemes Cineworks and DigiCult were awarded prizes. Zam Salim, writer and director of ‘Original Bob', won best short film and Neil Jack, writer and director of ‘The Tree Officer', best animation.
Through attending the KARA festival, the delegation created many links that will develop over the coming months as GMAC works with Heer Productions towards a planned three-day Pakistani Film Festival in Glasgow in September 2005. We hope that the link with KARA will encourage participation from Glasgow ' s Pakistani community, as well as creating an opportunity to showcase work that has been produced in Scotland by filmmakers of Pakistani origin.
This festival forms a vital part in GMAC ' s formal strategy for social inclusion and its diversity initiative. We recognize the historical under-representation of people from ethnically diverse backgrounds in the media, and in recent years we have been working hard towards encouraging ethnic minorities to become engaged in the activities of GMAC and filmmaking.
The Pakistan Film Festival provides a fantastic springboard for GMAC ' s Diversity Film Project, an initiative to run film-related projects working with ethnic minority groups in the city. The proposed projects will generate short films which look at the challenges and issues which face black and Asian Scots. The films will create a greater understanding of cultural issues, as well as providing the participants with an opportunity to develop their talent and skills in moving image culture. The project will culminate in a public screening of the films. The Pakistani Film Festival offers an excellent forum in which to screen this work.
GMAC began collaboration with Heer Productions Ltd in June 2004 by hosting a workshop with Hasan Zaidi, journalist and filmmaker from Pakistan, and Coordinator of KARA. The workshop involved a screening of short films by Hasan, followed by a question and answer session. Hasan talked about his experiences of producing the award winning digital movie ‘ Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke ' and the current state of the Pakistani Film Industry, including Lollywood (the Lahore based film industry) and Quality or Alternative Cinema in Pakistan.
After this collaboration, Hasan Zaidi and Heer Productions invited GMAC to join the delegation to KARA, and subsequent to the visit to Pakistan, to support the work of Heer Productions towards the realisation of a three day Pakistani Film Festival to be held in Glasgow in September 2005.
I would like to thank Alina Mirza for her superb organisation of the delegation, and for the generous hospitality of the Bilgrami Family. Thanks also to Hasan Zaidi and the KARA team for their warm welcome to the festival.
Alice Stilgoe
GMAC Representative
