Participants
Selected participants
Film Talents II – Participant’s Profile
Esmatullah Zafari
Esmatullah Zafari is from Afghanistan. He is an independent filmmaker and Bachelors in Film making from faculty of fine Arts, Kabul University. He has eight years’ experience in directing, producing and script writing for TV programs and TV Drama. For past one year he worked as 1 AD on drama of TOLO TV in the name of (Khate Sewom), a professional drama in Afghanistan. He established Quch Film Production on 2019 which producing films and animations. He likes to tell beautiful stories from Afghanistan by his films.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sidra Altaf
Sidra Altaf is a budding documentary filmmaker and photojournalist. She is currently doing Masters in Film and Television. Having done her BA (Honours) in Business Administration from University of Greenwich, Malaysia, Sidra came back to her hometown Karachi aspiring to show the world through her lens. She then joined workshop in filmmaking with PIFF. Trained in Professional photography from Indus Valley school of Art and Architecture. She did certification in visual studies from Karachi School of Arts. She has worked in various capacities contributing to the world of ideas. She is founding member of Mehrdar Art and Production. She has produced various documentaries with Mehrdar focusing on the unsung heroes of Karachi and telling stories untold.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sinan Charania
Sinan Charania is a Karachi based content producer, filmmaker and storyteller with a wide experience of working with clients hailing from different industries all across the world. He’s currently working on several media-related projects with the United Nations Development Programme, Ministry of Climate Change, Taskeen and Cutacut. He has previously worked on award-winning ad campaigns in Greece and the UAE. He recently got selected to be a part of FIFA World Cup 2022's Regional Media Team. Academically, he has completed his Bachelors in Media Studies with majors in Film Production and Journalism, and MBA in Advertisement and Media Management from the Institute of Business Management. Moreover, he has completed two certificate courses from Wesleyan University and Stanford University. Outside of work, he’s focused on putting his passions and skills to good use by supporting causes like Mental Health, Climate Change, and Gender Equality. He enjoys travelling, exploring arts, cities and architecture, trekking, taking photographs and watching films of world cinema.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Masood Eslami
Masood Eslami is from Mazar e Sharif province- Afghanistan, He was trained cinema for 2 years in Young Cinematic Council.
He has made 4 short films and a long documentary, which got award and prize in many national and international film festivals. Masood has been third Assistant director in “between the worlds” long fiction Germany film- 2013. He has attended in Asian film Academy in South Korea country 2014, and was filmmaking trainer for Afghan male and female young filmmakers in Kabul- Mazar e Sharif- Qandahar- Herat- Bamiyan provinces.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rahul Aijaz
Rahul Aijaz is a writer, journalist and film critic based in Karachi, Pakistan. He has extensively covered culture, cinema, music and theatre for The Express Tribune (Pakistan) and Asia Journalists Association in Seoul, South Korea. He has been widely published in Pakistan and Korea and his reports, articles and film reviews have been quoted in international publications such as Deutsche Welle and First Post among others. He represented Pakistan at Lumbini International Media and Peace Conference (2014) in Nepal, Asia Journalists Culture Forum (2013) and World Journalists Conference (2019) in Seoul, South Korea. Currently, he is working on his first feature screenplay as part of Screenwriting Workshops held by Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors program and Vidhi Films.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aroma Anwar
Aroma Anwar is Travel Consultant at Flying World Travel and Filmmaker who belongs to Tarbela Dam. She highlights various social issues on Child Sexual abuse and LGBT+ Rights in her short films. She has certified diploma of Film-making from LUMS in 2017 .She has done her Major in Mass Communications (Public Relations & Advertisement / Journalism) and Minor in sociology from Forman Christian College (A Chartered University). She wants to learn more about film-making as this is the beginning of her career as film maker. She has volunteered for various NGO’s like WWF for community service work, Shaukat Khanam, Akhuwat, Al-Khidmat etc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Razi Uddin
Razi Uddin is a Film and Visual Art student at Department of Visual Studies, University of Karachi. Playing with the camera since he was young, trying his own ways exploring the art of storytelling, stepping into the photography game in 2011. He worked 4 years as a motion graphic artist, later decided to pursue what he always wanted, which was to study film. Since then he has made a number of short films, documentaries and other visual media. Drawing inspiration from culture, being in love with Karachi is what drives his ambition. He worked on a documentary about the civil hospital, which won the EACPE Video Contest 2019, his short film "Choozay" made it into Grand Film Festival.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ahsan Mahmood Yunus
Ahsan is a film director and an advertising Creative with extensive experience of executing projects and campaigns across different countries in Asia and Europe. Recipient of the prestigious National Film Award by the Portuguese Film Academy; he has successfully worked on 40+ productions and has been recognized with his films at different international film festivals. He was widely recognized for his film ‘’After the Fire’’ that won the best film award at DOCLISBOA IFF in 2018.
Ahsan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication from National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan and graduated Cum Laude with an Erasmus Joint Master’s Degree in Documentary Film Directing from Portugal, Hungary and Belgium in 2019.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nadeem Alam
Nadeem Alam Al Karimie is the co-founder of Circus Cinema and Art and Travel. There was no concept of watching films on the big screen in his hometown, Hunza valley, the aim of Circus Cinema is to make one film every year based on real local stories and showcase it for the local community to engage people. Art and Travel on the other hand is a social enterprise that raises awareness about the importance of Art. Nadeem A.Alakrimi is an independent filmmaker and photographer born and raised in Hunza Valley, Gilgit Baltistan. He graduated in Film and TV from National College of Arts Lahore in 2018. His work has been screened in several national and international film festivals including the Persian and Arab Gulf. In the International Arab film festival Alnajh 2019 his film won the jury selection and best short film award.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Musa Yawari
Musa Yawari is a Video Journalist with the BBC Urdu and based in Islamabad. He is a film graduate from National College of Arts, Lahore and also has Master’s degree in Political Science. He started his career as a character animator in 2008 and shifted to filmmaking afterwards. He went to the University of Texas at Austin, USA for an exchange program. During this program he along with his other two classmates wrote a feature film screenplay which was sponsored by the Department of States. As a Qalambaaz alumni he completed his second feature length screenplay. Currently he is developing his idea for a feature length documentary film.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gulzar Nayani
A Film and Journalism majors, with a bachelor’s degree in Media Studies from the Institute of Business Management. A passionate documentary maker/ video producer who believes in media advocacy and the art of storytelling. Having four years of work experience in the industry, she has worked with production houses, namely Grayscale, Shaskay Films, and Wormhole Production. She was also part of a core team that launched a new digital venture called Cutacut, where she worked as a video producer and also performed scripting, directing as well as edited various projects. Her Independent documentary project, No More Backseaters was selected and premiered at Capri Cinema under Goethe-Institut Pakistan’s Sunday Matinee. Currently, she is working as a freelancer to have a further diverse learning experience.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iqran Rasheed
Passionate about storytelling, Iqran Rasheed is a Karachi based filmmaker. Recently graduated from Habib University with BA honors in Communication and Design, he is working on Taboo topics in conservative Pakistani society including Sex and gender, sex work and religion. An award-winning storywriter, a published poet, Iqran also work with the medium of Photography and loves capturing the chaos and architecture of the city and spaces.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fareena Aslam
Fareena Aslam Khanzada hails from Hyderabad - Sindh. She did Masters in Mass Communication from the department of Media and Communication Studies,University of sindh, Jamshoro by 2018. She has keen interest in filmmaking and content writing. Her main areas of interest are religious and minority issues. She has rendered the services of a media instructor at CEAD, MUET Jamshoro in 2018. Now a days, Fareena Aslam is poised to contribute her efforts a professional freelance journalist and filmmaker.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hani Taha
Hani Taha is a Pakistani journalist/filmmaker turned actor who has worked with the BBC, Al Jazeera, Vice News and Pakistan’s two time Academy Award winning documentarian, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. She’s known for her brave reporting on the sensational and complicated murder investigations of two of the country’s most high profile honor killing cases in her critically acclaimed films ‘The Kohistan Story’ and ‘The Killing of Qandeel’. She began her journalistic career as a print journalist reporting from Pakistan, the United States, UAE and the Philippines, and has worked across all mediums of the media: print, broadcast and digital. Lately she’s been involved in reviving Pakistani cinema as a producer and actor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shumaila Khan
Shumaila Khan is an experienced multimedia journalist with a demonstrated history of working in the news media industry for over a decade. She has worked for BBC Urdu Service as Multimedia Producer for six years. She has consistently delivered high-impact material that was not only well-received within the Urdu service but was also published and aired on BBC World TV and Online.She now works as an independent producer on stories of human & social interest and contributes to BBC and Deutsche Welle. She has also worked with Internews as a radio mentor and with UNHCR as a resource person. She is a professional with a masters’ degree in History from University of Karachi.In pursuit of becoming a filmmaker, she is strengthening her skills of scriptwriting, filming and editing. She is also co-writing on a web-series titled ‘Cut Open’