KARACHI: Five films made by young filmmakers — two from the UK and three from Pakistan — under the Re-Imagining Freedom Project as part of the British Council’s Pak-UK: New Perspectives initiative were screened at the Indus Valley School (IVS) of Art and Architecture on Wednesday.

In her opening note, Dr Faiza Mushtaq said the event in the making for a year. It was in 2022 that IVS partnered with an NGO and secured a grant from the British Council’s Pakistan-UK New Perspectives programme meant to fund short films of five emerging filmmakers.

“A year ago, we received a large number of applications from Pakistani filmmakers out of which a panel of judges selected three Pakistan-based and two UK-based projects. The event will showcase the films that the five young artists have worked on. It is an exciting moment for all of us.

“This project supports young artists and aims to provide a platform for them to benefit from transnational perspectives. It connects Pakistan and the UK’s contemporary cultural identities and artistic expressions. The five films have also been officially selected for the UK Asian Film Festival taking place from May 4 to May 15 this year in the UK. Their screening will take place on May 10,” Dr Mushtaq said.

Five movies of young filmmakers were shown at Indus Valley School

Saaz Vora via video link introduced the two UK-based films. They are Rootless Connections: An AI Experiment by Humira Imtiaz and The Dandies of Albertopolis by Omar Kent.

Adeel uz Zafar, who moderated the event, introduced the three Pakistani films and also briefly talked about the process through which the five projects passed before seeing the light of day. The short films are: Hania by Sameen Ali, Republic of Wailing Trees by Nirmal Bano and Vachan by Kuldeep Khatri.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2023