Launching a film festival is no easy feat, and it’s even harder when you’re doing it in an area with little film industry infrastructure, plenty of political and social instability and a global reputation as a haven for Islamic extremists. But those odds against a strong festival in the southeastern Pakistani province of Sindh, which includes Karachi, actually make it all the more urgent for its organizers to create a successful event. Assad Zulfiqar Khan, an independent filmmaker who studied at the London Film School in the U.K., is among those spearheading the festival, and he spoke with me about […]
by Randy Astle on Jan 6, 2014Benazir Bhutto, the two time Pakistani prime minister who in 2007 was assassinated just days after she returned from military imposed exile in Dubai to once again attempt to take control of the country, was the countries’ most significant civilian political figure of her generation. Using the tragic life and times of the Muslim world’s most dynamic and successful female politician as a lens through which to capture the larger political machinations and social upheaval that has led to the sixty-seven year old Pakistani state constantly being handed back and forth between an imperiled civilian government and a conservative military establishment, […]
by Brandon Harris on Dec 1, 2010