Staff Report, "Karachi-based filmmaker wins award" - Daily Times - Lahore, PakistanMonday, January 5, 2009
Karachi: Karachi based renowned young filmmaker, artist and director Sharjil Baloch’s famous classical documentary film Ki Jana Main Kaun (Who knows what I am) has won the first prize in the South Asian Interactive Documentary Film Festival held in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu last week.
About a hundred documentary producers, leading directors and journalists from eight South Asia countries, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka submitted their films in the festival.
Ki Jana Main Kaun, reflects the cultural festivals of Sufism, one of the national identities of the Sindhi culture.
It took Sharjil a year to complete his documentary and during that year, he visited dozens of shrines of Sufi saints in Sindh. Baloch’s entire perspective on life changed when he exposed himself to Sufism.
The idea of making such film came to him suddenly when he visited Sadh Belo, a historical Hindu religious place which is located on an island in River Indus.
“I found a watchman praying and reciting the Quran inside Sadh Belo. Surprised, I asked the watchman how he is allowed to pray inside a Hindu temple, he told me that in Sufism this is not strange. So I started researching and collecting information on Sufism and I found it to be very interesting and thus I started working on the documentary.”
[See the documentary (31' long) at http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/794/Ki-Jana-Main-Kaun--Who-knows-what-I-am-]
[More about the Festival at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/28/content_10570406.htm].
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment