Part of the Time Inc's newsreel series, "The March of Time", this 1950 documentary on Pakistan aimed to orient a global audience eager to understand the new nation state.

The short documentary covered Pakistan's heritage, culture, music and architecture along with highlighting the country's early development. Clips of the old Karachi airport, one of the largest airfields in Asia at that time, are also shown.

The tribal leadership and their customs were also described to a global audience, which was new to Pakistani culture. The documentary also highlighted the earliest form of media; Radio Pakistan and the Pakistan Times which claimed to enjoy ‘complete freedom’.

Background:

• The newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century.

• The March of Time was banned in Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union and censored widely even in democratic societies, the series managed to survive in the United States for 16 years—from 1935 through 1951.

• The makers of the documentary also produced ‘Inside Nazi Germany’, ‘Russians in Exile’, ‘Crisis in Iran’ among others.