Pakistan may have a declining film industry due to budget shortage and discouragement but that certainly does not mean that the country has no talent when it comes to making a film. Countless proofs are there to support the statement such as Shoaib Mansoor’s ‘Khuda Kay Liye’ winning the Roberto Rossellini Award for Best Film, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s documentary ‘Saving Face’ winning the very first Oscar for Pakistan, Bodhichitta Film Works’s Lamha (internationally known as Seedlings) winning two awards at the New York City International Film Festival (NYCIFF) and more recently, a short film by Umer Riaz – a Pakistani student from New York University – has been selected to screen on the 20th Raindance Film Festival.
The short film is set in 1947, the year of the partition and birth of Pakistan – and focuses on an old British colonialist and his butler (portrayed by Umer Riaz himself). The creative Pakistani student was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science out of approximately a thousand college entries from across the globe. On a further note, the short film also screened at last year’s Locarno Film Festival.
The 20th Raindance Film Festival took place at the Piccadilly Circus in the United Kingdom on the 4th of October.
