TCF-UK Film Night - hosted by SOAS

TCF-UK Film Night
Hosted by the Centre for the Study of Pakistan, SOAS

TCF-UK Film Night
... an opportunity to explore issues facing Pakistan today through the medium of documentary film. All proceeds from the evening will be donated to The Citizens Foundation’s (TCF) distinctive work in Pakistan. Come and support TCF-UK at our film night hosted by the Centre for the Study of Pakistan, SOAS.

Program of the event

1) Introduction to TCF- UK
2) Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy Documentary on TCF (5mins)
3) Aatif Nawaz – Postcards from Lahore (20mins)
4) Anca Dimofte – Madam Kazmi and the drivers (23mins)
5) Q & A with Anca Dimofte, Aatif Nawaz and TCF– chaired by Dr James Canon (SOAS Lecturer in Islamicate South Asia)

About TCF-UK

The Citizens Foundation (UK) is a UK registered charity raising funds and awareness for Pakistan’s leading education charity for underprivileged children - The Citizens Foundation (TCF). TCF builds and professionally manages the largest network of non-governmental schools in Pakistan, offering high quality education at low cost to the most marginalised communities.

TCF:
-work in every province of Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir
-manage close to 1,000 primary and secondary school units
-provide education to almost 145,000 underprivileged children
-maintain a non discrimination admissions policy with almost 50% female enrolment rate
-employ and highly train a full female teaching faculty
-encourage community participation
-promote female empowerment through a Female Adult Literacy Programme, Aagahi which has provided nearly 20,000 women with the opportunity to attain numerical and literacy skills later in life

Short abstracts of the films

‘Postcards from Lahore’ follows a young British man's journey to the place of his origins: Lahore, Pakistan. His intention is to recreate the only mementos of his childhood trip: 6 picturesque photographs that resemble postcards. On his journey, he visits Lahore's historic sites and meets the locals, learning of how terrorism and a decline in international relations have resulted in this beautiful city being under-appreciated.

The documentary won an Honourable Mention Laural at the Los Angeles Movie Awards. The film also holds a distinction of being the only Pakistani film to be screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

‘Madam Kazmi and the drivers’ tells the story of the first woman taxi driver in Pakistan and her day-to-day encounters and the realities surrounding them. Zahida Kazmi started to work as a taxi driver in Islamabad in 1992, and she is still the only woman who holds a license to drive a cab in Pakistan. The documentary depicts the complex layers of her personality as she successively becomes a woman, a taxi driver, a leader, a friend, a mother and even a ‘man’. Moreover, the film goes further than portraying the dynamics of a woman evolving in a patriarchal society and shows how Madam Kazmi exploits her current visibility for control and empowerment.

Short info of the directors

Aatif Nawaz is an award winning British-Pakistani filmmaker and stand-up comedian based in London. One of the most respected acts on the circuit, Aatif has quickly become a popular British-Asian comic in the UK. He has toured The Netherlands, Ghana and Pakistan whilst performing alongside the likes of Shazia Mirza, Omid Djalili and several other comedy veterans. His most recent show ‘Talk Roti to Me’ was performed to a sold out crowd at the iconic Leicester Square Theatre. He is currently hosting comedy talk show which has been nominated for awards by ‘Music of Muslim Orientation’.

Anca Dimofte is a Romanian born London-based independent documentary filmmaker. Her observational documentaries are often uncovering new facets to groups or people misunderstood in society. Creating an intimate narrative on immigration and displacement, her first short documentary enjoyed much interest as it followed a community of Romanian gypsies in London living in abandoned buildings trying to support their families by working as day labourers. She has since worked as an ethnographic filmmaker for Naked Eye Research, as well as a self-shooting researcher for a recent documentary for BBC Four (Storyville). At the moment Anca is working with MAMA Youth Project, a charity where she trains young people from marginalised backgrounds and helps them find meaningful employment in the TV and Film industry.


To book a place for this event, please visit TCF-UK website. NB website in the process of being updated so please email [email protected]