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Austin South Asian | May 2019
Short Films The Hours and #UsToo Win at Indie Meme Youth Film Festival By Sumaiya Malik @sumaiyasaidthis Photo credit - Animon Bose Young filmmaker Kirra Putnam’s short film, The Hours, became the top choice of the jury at the 2nd Indie Meme Youth Festival at the AFS Cinema on April 14.
Gil Garcia, an independent filmmaker and KLRU Community Advisory Board member, and Tanya Romero, also an award winning independent filmmaker and a teacher at Anderson High school, conducted free filmmaking workshops to guide the students in making the short films.
Avni Singh’s #UsToo received special recognition amid great fanfare and an audience of about one hundred and twenty attendees. After the recognition and filmmaker q/a by Gil Garcia, the audience saw short film Gubbare and feature film, Chuskit. Raka Sandell, who led the youth initiative at the Indie Meme Film Festival (IMFF) explained that Indie Meme accepted short 5-minutes films from high school and college students throughout Austin. The films had some South Asian ties — either in cast, crew or theme.
The three-panel jury included Ann Kelly, Executive director of Austin School of Film, Nishtha Jain, independent filmmaker from India and Sachin Dheeraj, also an independent filmmaker and graduate student at UT Austin. The jury selected six films in the
Jury’s award category and 3 films in the showcase category. The winning film, The Hours, and the special mention film, #UsToo, were shown to the audience along with some others. The Hours is a symbolic film. The film is less than four minutes long, but reverberates for much longer in on e’s mind. A lot is left u n said, leavi n g t h e viewer to interpret the thoughts of the protagonist. According to its director Kirra Putnam, the film is a reflection of unchartered territory that a young person might feel or experience for the first time. #UsToo is a film that brings atten-
tion to what is going on in high schools even after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford spoke of sexual harassment during Brett Kavanaugh hearings, Harvey Weinstein case, and after #MeToo movement has started. Female students are still faced by harassment, vulgarity, and verbal comments. Girls are scared to come forward. “It is important to have these conversations and bring them to light,” said Avni Singh, the director of #UsToo. Through the film, the filmmaker has provoked mature thought amongst the audience. The festival also gave an honorable mention to short film Aurat Ki Izzat. Filmmaker Zara Tappal talked about the Women’s March going global and it’s effect in Pakistan where it was called Aurat March. She talked about how many Pakistanis were against it and many for it.
She also touched upon the role of women in Pakistani society and how Pakistan has had a female prime minister Benazir Bhutto as head of the country something that US is yet to see. Another film mentioned was Dhol in which the director Ana Dragomir worked with a two-year-old non-actor and was able to get all the required responses relevant to the film from the young actor. “You have to communicate with non-actors in ways familiar to them,” she said. By recognizing the young filmmakers, Indie Meme has validated their efforts and hopefully given them a push they need in the direction of further creation. The winners received badges for the Indie Meme Film Festival from April 26 to 28. For more information about Indie Meme or its Youth Festival please visit: www.indiememe.org
Get To Know Jawad Sharif – Director Of Indus Blues And K-2 And The Invisible Footmen
By Sumaiya Malik
Award-winning independent documentary feature Indus Blues (2018) is a part of the Indie Meme Film Festival while K-2 and the Invisible Footmen (2015) is available on Amazon Prime for free for members. Independently produced in Pakistan, both films highlight neglected subjects that are in dire need of spotlight, something Jawad Sharif, the young director holds great expertise in doing. Jawad Sharif, is a living legend. No, seriously! Chatting with him for a few minutes one realizes that there is a wealth of wisdom this young filmmaker is holding. One could debate whether this wisdom is the result of what he loves to do… something he calls his catharsis, or his desire to ‘unsilence critical thinking,’ for he does both
with such focus that one is left with the thirst to keep hearing him speak. He speaks through his films, his interviews, his photography and his ability to zone in to a subject that has been ignored for centuries and is near extinction.
and the message was actually being received.
Before that whoever he talked to would discourage him (except for the few) to find other subjects as he would never be able to get back the
Indus Blues is one such documentary. It highlights the struggles of folk musicians to keep their art alive. It examines ‘the last generation of craftsmen and artists who create and play boreendo, alghoza and others.’ [Rahul Aijaz for The Express Tribune] The film’s first trailer went viral with more than a million hits in the first few hours, says Sharif. It gave him the needed support that there was a dialog being created between the film and the public
commercial projects are his bread and butter “but, these (independent documentaries) are my passion projects. That is why it takes a lot of time.” He is especially thankful to Zeejah Fazli of FACE Pakistan (someone who Austinites know well through his work for Pakistani musicians during SXSW), Areeb Azhar, Pakistani sufi and folk singer who took sufi music to another level with his song ‘Ai husn-e-haqeeqi noor-eazal,’ and his own team especially naming cinematographer Asmat Bashir, and writer, Haroon Riaz. I spoke to him on Whatsapp: SM: Is there a market for independent documentary features on serious subjects in Pakistan?
true worth of his teams efforts. The film took four years in making. Sharif talks about how his
JS: There are very few projects in Pakistan… I am always looking for collaborators. The biggest challenge is apply to
international funds. 99% [of the time] you get rejection email after lots of paperwork. Why would anyone be interested in a dying art of Pakistan when more pressing issues are there? SM: What is the ideal scenario for independent feature documentaries such as Indus Blues to continue to be made in future? JS: [There should be] a film fund for independent filmmakers in Pakistan eg. Norwegian film institute has public funds to support their people and show their stories. A film institute should be on government level. There are individual foundations in Pakistan eg. Daud Foundation, which sometimes funds [project]. We need Government level support that should be merit based. (Continued On Page 15)