A diverse selection of short films and documentaries by contemporary Pakistani filmmakers, varying in themes from personal to social and political, this program is curated by Laila Kazmi, founder of Jazbah.org and Associate Editor of Chowrangi, a Pakistani-American magazine of arts, culture, and politics.

Your Beautiful World (Manizhe Ali, 2004, DV, 2 mins 20 sec)
Based on a poem by Manizhe Ali, the film is about the incomprehension and helplessness that accompany despair in life.

Hina (Beena Sarwar, 2004, DV, 11 mins)
Seventeen-year old Hina is the youngest and the first girl in her family to complete her education and contemplate a career. Hina is the exception in a country where one in two Pakistani girls are still illiterate.

Tabdeeli (Babar Shaikh, 2004, DV, 9mins)
There is an abiding image in our folklore of a child lost in a carnival. The city - in this case, Karachi - is also a carnival for the child who resides in each one of us. The imagery is illustrated using Urdu poetry of Akhtar-ul-Eeman and Noon Meem Rashid.

On a Razor's Edge (Sharmeen Obaid, 2004, DV, 24 mins
Reporter Sharmeen Obaid journeys across her native Pakistan to gauge people's feelings regarding the crackdown on domestic terrorism and the efforts to secure peace with India.

Untitled (Shalalae Jamil, 2003, DV, 3 mins)
A young muslim woman pays tribute to what she considers to be 'True Islamic faith' simultaneously calling into question her own oscillating and contradictory views on the faith.

Death in the Garden of Paradise (Nurjahan Akhlaq, 2004, Beta SP, 21 mins)
An elegy for a painter and a dancer, and a travelogue through Lahore's empty "paradise gardens" and the desert necropolis of Makli.

Program sponsored by Jazbah and Chowrangi

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