In case any of this wonderful siteÂ’s (donÂ’t fire me!) glorious readers (leave me happy comments!) are in Karachi for the next couple of days, I highly recommend that they check out the 6th KaraFilm Festival being held at the Arts Council and/or the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs. According to the website:
There are a grand total of over 170 films being screened this year, including over 40 features, over 30 documentaries and over 95 shorts. They are from 37 countries as diverse as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, USA, Canada, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Portugal, Jamaica, Brazil, Ireland, Romania, Sweden, Guatemala, Sudan, Chad, UAE, Sri Lanka, Peru, China, Poland, Estonia, Austria, Australia, Turkey, Greece, Finland and the Czech Republic . They include a number of World Premieres and Asian premieres, while most are at least Pakistan premieres. Many of them have won prizes at other well known festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, London, Sundance and Mumbai as well as international critics’ FIPRESCI jury awards.
The film festival will also be running a retrospective on François Truffaut, and showcasing the works of Irani (not Iranian, thank goodness) director Jafar Panahi and Pakistani director Jamil Dehlavi. What I love about this festival, despite my inability to actually attend it, no matter how many times I swear to myself in the months leading up that I WILL go to at least a handful of screenings, is that it manages to also (albeit somewhat tangentially) hit other visual arts media. To wit:
Accompanying the film screenings will be a unique curated art exhibition of the work of 5 Pakistani artists who draw their inspiration from the hand-painted imagery of popular cinema and billboard advertising.
In a city like Karachi, where the only forms of public entertainment revolve around food (which, hey, no complaints from me or the owners of my gym) and the occasional (overpriced) concert, this is an unsurprisingly popular event. Tickets tend to be relatively cheap, and the organisers of the event tend to try and cater to a variety of income groups, for example showing movies like The Incredibles dubbed in Hindi/Urdu (the voices are by Sharukh Khan, no less! Eeeee! Not really.) for kids, and charging about Rs. 50 (about 90 cents) for a ticket to a showing. ItÂ’s not a bad deal at all, but I think what I find really encouraging about the whole event is that it tends to remind Karachi that it can well function as a city with cultural projects, as a locus not necessarily limited to bombings and huge amounts of criminal and sectarian violence or a massive economic class divide.
On the off-chance that there are any readers in Karachi whoÂ’d like to go and are having trouble finding tickets or getting sorted out, leave a comment and IÂ’ll try to help out. ItÂ’s well-worth the effort.
Um. Hate to Nitpick, but
Shouldnt that read dubbed in Hindi?
Whoops. You’re absolutely right. Should be fixed now.
“for example showing movies like The Incredibles dubbed in Hindi/Urdu (the voices are by Sharukh Khan, no less! Eeeee! Not really.)”
Sin, are you absolutely sure about that? I was watching SRK’s auto-biographical documentary recently (The Inner and Outer Worlds of SRK) and there was a scene where he WAS doing a voice-over for The Incredibles!!
Oh sorry. Yes, he’s definitely doing the voice-over. The “not really” was regarding the “eeee!”, since I seem to be one of the few people on this planet who don’t have a raging crush on him.
“…the works of Irani (not Iranian, thank goodness)”
Can you explain? I didn’t realize one was preferred over the other.
Sorry, I also do not understand the distinction. I always thought the term Irani was used for Parsis in India, whereas Iranian was used for, well, Iranians (and yes, I know that Parsis originate in Iran, but I’m not talking about origins, I’m talking about current community self-identification). Panahi seems to be the latter. I’m not sure if Dehlavi fits into either. Maybe I’m wrong and/or you’re joking. Who knows. Either way, edify me!
So tell me… is this related to Sepia Mutiny? If yes, how?
Oh Dennis. You’ll figure it out. Eventually, I’m sure. [Hint, think REALLY hard. You can do it!]
Re: Irani vs. Iranian, I was under the impression from most of my Iran-born Farsi friends that “Iranian” is very much a foreign construct, one that they find annoying. Hence the “Irani not Iranian”; one of them likened it to someone being called Pakistani vs. Pakistanian, or Iraqi and Iraqian. Dehlavi is not, to the best of my knowledge either Parsi or Farsi, but he’s definitely Pakistani; I don’t know a great deal more about him.
Sin..Pakistanian??…damn, I wonder how Bush missed it for the last 6 yrs. It would have ranked up there with Strategry, Nooclear…etc. And of course, Pakistanian would be ridiculous 🙂
Any idea what determines, “anian” vs “ani”? Also why not Indiani or Lankani or Burmanian?
I’m from Delhi, maybe I should change by last name to Dehlavi. Sounds really cool.
^ Actually, Bush went the other way and used the pejorative term for ‘Pakistani’. Though, he would have been right if Pakistan was a real ‘-stan’. I guess Indi or Indiani doesn’t work because the word ‘India’ is an English word(?). Bharati and Hindustani on the other hand work because Bharat and Hindustan are proper words in local languages.
The name itself is Persian/Farsi. This was a common surname for poets from Delhi in the Mughal court.
Most of the Iranians I know prefer to Persian to Iranian, especially those who aren’t muslim.