with fergus nicholl of the bbc world service (he hosts “the world today”) and with fellow panelists dr asma barlas and qawal najmuddin saifuddin. the topic of the discussion was “pakistani culture under siege.” argh. was able to inject some culture into our talk. btw here is fergus nicholl’s op-ed piece on why pakistani culture is “under siege.” pls check out my comments at the end of the article.
so tomorrow i’m being interviewed by fergus nicholl, from the bbc world service, as a pakistani american artist. i am happy to talk about my work and my roots but i have huge problems with the topic of the discussion: “pakistani culture under siege.” i have no choice but to be adversarial i guess. let’s see how it goes. more on ARTSwego’s caravanserai program about pakistani culture here.
spoke to two south asian studies classes at st john fisher’s college today about my film “the muslims i know” and their consequent questions. way cool to interact with young people.
check out this excellent interview with brown university professor vazira zamindar. she talks about the “long partition” as a wound and discusses how that event has forced indians and pakistanis to forge distinct national identities in ways which r not “natural” for the indian subcontinent. listen here.
had the privilege to be one of the judges at rochester’s teen film festival today. the best submission was a film about inequities in education – subtle but powerful social commentary. my favorite tho was an animated film about unicycles. more info on the teen film festival here.
screened my film “pakistan one on one” for a group of naga filmmakers. with heather layton (who organized this cultural exchange), linda moroney (executive director of rochester’s film festival) and the naga team. university of rochester, july 18, 2011
still printing printing printing. it’s amazing how good pictures look when they’re 17×20.
i have been invited to meet and screen my film “pakistan one on one” for a group of filmmakers from nagaland, india. pls join us for this terrific exchange of ideas about film – monday, july 18 at 5 pm in the gowen room, wilson commons, university of rochester. more here.
a picture i took in RAW format during lunch time. saturated the yellow and played with brightness to take some of the glare out around the skylight. our instructor thinks it’s a great shot. village gate, rochester, is the best place to shoot interesting objects.
animator gayane bagdasaryan and filmmaker surbhi dewan – i will be collaborating with both for my third film about the partition of india.
got my first quarterly report from the distributors of my film “the muslims i know” – they sold 450 copies in a quarter! of course i’m not going to be paid anything much but so cool to have my film seen by so many. yay!
This week we’ll meet an independent filmmaker whose latest work looks at the war on terror in Pakistan and other issues facing that nation. More here.
march 24, 2011: wonderful premiere tonight at the little theatre. about 200 people in attendance and a discussion (with myself and guest panelists dr thomas gibson and dr aitezaz ahmed) that lasted more than 1 1/2 hr! yay!!!
my interview on our local NPR station. i had not slept much the night before, so pls excuse the constant searching for words. so mad i didn’t say “drone” – should have made a point of that.
listen to interview here.
