LAHORE: An international film screening on the theme ‘People’s history of Pakistan’ was held at Punjab Institute of Language Art and Culture on Monday.

The screening was part of the 6th International Thaap (Trust for History, Art and Architecture Pakistan) conference that kicked off on Nov 6 in Lahore.

The Thaap international film screening was attended by foreign and local filmmakers along with other guests and students from different art institutions.

People faced a great deal of inconvenience in reaching the venue owing to closure of gates at both sides of the Qadhafi Stadium (due to security issues) since a student match was being played there.

The chief guest was Prof Sajida Haider Vandal.

Speaking on the occasion, she said the conference had some wonderful views from around the world during paper reading sessions.

Speaking of film screenings, Ms Vandal said, “We have great hope in young people; the cinema in Pakistan is taking a healthy positive turn and young filmmakers have a great scope in this regard.”

She introduced a German filmmaker, Till Passow, to the audience, who is in Pakistan, and would conduct a workshop on an interesting theme dealing with making films from cell phones with Thaap people.

She said the theme of next year’s Thaap conference would be ‘People and the city’ and same subject would be for documentaries and films.

The jury which selected films for screening at PILAC included art educationist Prof Zafar Iqbal, art gallery owner Abdullah Qureshi, educationist and filmmaker Akfia Mian and Abida Ali.

Short films were exhibited before the major screening of the film Manto.

The films had thought-provoking themes and titles such as ‘Is Pakistan safe for minorities’ directed by Ali Raza, the documentary explored the scenario of minorities in the current state of turmoil, another film ‘Daughter of Kalash’ directed by Mehak Asad had the question that do people forget about their own culture, ‘Mast Qalandar’, a docu-film by German filmmaker Till Passow talked about the experiences the traditional socio-cultural spirit of the ancient mystic Islamic way of life is all about.

The screening of film Manto was the main attraction.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2015