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Patakha Pictures, helmed by four-time Emmy Award winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, announced its first funding and mentorship programme, Pakistan Stories, in partnership with the Scottish Documentary Institute and British Council. The programme is exclusively for women filmmakers.

The programme was launched to celebrate 75 years of Pakistan through the female gaze. Pakistan Stories is the first national funding and mentorship programme of its kind and aims to support a new generation of female Pakistani documentary filmmakers who wish to create engaging films that reflect on and question society.

Pakistan Stories will work with 10 emerging filmmakers working in pairs over a period of 10 weeks to develop and finance their creative skills in a safe environment. Participating filmmakers will explore documentary creativity for the international film festival market. This practice-led workshop — led by experts from Scotland and Pakistan — will allow participants to:

• Develop an understanding of creative documentary for local and international festivals
• Develop and finance an idea into a short creative film
• Work with characters, sound and visuals dramatically and emotionally
• Produce a 10-minute documentary ready for national and international distribution
• Network with other filmmakers from different regions across Pakistan and internationally

Obaid-Chinoy described this programme as a "passion project". "Telling stories that matter is what I truly believe in so with our first ever funding and mentorship programme, we want to empower and champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of emerging and the next generation of female filmmakers who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision," she said. "We realise that filmmaking is not easy, so together with our partners Scottish Documentary Institute and British Council, we are here to help our female filmmakers achieve their dreams."

Interested filmmakers can apply for this programme here. The last date to submit the application is February 22. The announcement of shortlisted applicants will be made by February 24 and the Pakistan Stories workshop will begin from March.