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In its fourth cycle, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s Patakha Pictures fellowship programme produced films even more dazzling than the stars in the audience watching them.

SOC Films held a screening of the trailers of five films produced by its Her Earth Advocates fellows — 10 female filmmakers from across Pakistan who created films on climate change and the way it’s impacting Pakistanis — and a chance to meet the filmmakers.

In the first two rows of the event were a number of stars — Sarwat Gilani, her husband Fahad Mirza, Mehwish Hayat, Syra Yousuf, Ali Hamza and Samina Ahmed, to name a few. Behind them sat equally big names in the world of advocacy, filmmaking and art. But their combined stardom wasn’t enough to draw the audience’s attention away from the large screen on stage projecting the trailers of five films.

Each of the films was powerful in its own way but each one followed the lives of Pakistanis affected by a problem not of their own making. We’ve been told time again that Pakistan is one of the most affected countries when it comes to climate change, and we saw it during the 2022 floods, but, as one filmmaker from the previous cycle put it, “People think of vulnerable communities when the disasters hit, but not after that. The story starts after, the disaster starts after that.”

The five teams were mentored for seven months by filmmaker Jesse Ericka Epstein. The programme started in April and focused on the central themes of climate change and women’s empowerment in Pakistan and was funded by the United States Institute of Peace.

And with the trailers of these five films, we saw that disaster play out in real time. After the trailer of their film played, the filmmakers were invited onto the stage and asked a few questions by Chinoy.

Nadia Zartaj & Nagina Jabeen

The first film trailer shown was by Nadia Zartaj and Nagina Jabeen on the valley of Avagrach in Gilgit-Baltistan. The village, once a thriving home to over 500 people is now nearly abandoned after a devastating flood caused by melting glaciers in 2012. The film followed the story of Ghulam Safeer and his wife — Jabeen’s parents — and explored their longing for a home lost.

“Nagina told me the story of her parents and when I met her mother, she said a line that stuck with me — ‘when I wake up, I dream of Avagrach’,” Zartaj explained.

“For me, it’s special because I grew up there. The road was destroyed and there was such a massive impact on our family, especially my parents,” said Jabeen. The impact on her family and her community’s economy pushed her to make the film.

“Gilgit-Baltistan and Hunza are very beautiful and tourists come and enjoy the mountains and leave trash behind. Only we know the problems we face. There are lots of other hidden stories there because we’re traditionally and culturally rich people,” she said.

Another motivator for her was that there are no female filmmakers in Hunza.

Zartaj said she’d been working in this field since 2021 but this was her first time participating in a mentorship programme. “[I want to] tell stories that — forget the world, people in Pakistan don’t know them either — I want the world to know these stories and problems.”

Maira Pasha & Shifa Rajput

The second film was about the coastal village of Rehri Goth, a stone’s throw from Karachi. In fact, that it is not considered part of Karachi is one of the issues touched upon by the filmmakers — the systemic exclusion of an entire community. The once-thriving fishing community now faces the devastating impacts of industrialisation and climate change, with the women of the community having to become breadwinners as the men go out to sea for longer periods or fall prey to alcoholism or drug addiction.

One of the challenges the filmmakers faced was reaching the area. “We didn’t even know about it, despite Maira living here for 22 years and me for three,” said Rajput. A lack of accessibility coloured much of their shoot, with internal politics surrounding turfs and industries made it challenging to navigate.

“It’s a community isolated from the city and the country. They’ve formed their own ecosystem of sorts. There are 17 clans in that small area,” said Pasha.

When asked what the community’s understanding of climate change was, Rajput said they understand it in that they’re facing the consequences of it every day, but they don’t know about the terminology or why it’s happening. “They know their ancient way of life is dying out as is fishing.”

An interesting thing she noted is that the women have now started working in the surrounding factories, which is — to an outsider — rather empowering. However, the filmmakers questioned how empowering it truly is because they didn’t choose to work themselves — they were compelled to do so by their circumstances.

“It’s a vicious cycle — they’re working at the same factories that are dumping sewerage into the sea that is killing their livelihood,” said Pasha.

They’re hoping that people in charge of policy decisions see their film and put an end to the systemic exclusion of these people from public discourse.

Saro Imran & Zareen Rajpoot

The third film, titled In Their Shoes, was by Patakha Pictures’ first transgender fellows and focused on trans women affected by the floods in Punjab’s Muzaffargarh. The short documentary follows the lives of Rashi and Mushtaqii who lost much of their livelihood during the floods.

“I’ve been working for trans rights but never thought about climate change. But when it comes to it, trans people are doubly marginalised,” said Imran. She explained that they are not included in any policies and are actively excluded from disaster response and denied healthcare support, leaving them alone and isolated.

Rajpoot, who began her career as a YouTuber, said it is important to raise your voice on social media, because that’s where the youth are. Through her work as a filmmaker, she hopes to give voice to her community. “No trans person has showed their community on a level as big as we have today,” she said.

Imran spoke of the inclusion of trans people in mainstream media. She hopes to emphasise equality through her work. “There have been some visible steps towards visibility, such as Joyland, but that received a lot of backlash. That backlash, however, made us stronger,” she said.

National and international community everyone should know policies say just men and women documents we should be incorporated in all policies related to climate change

Natasha Javed & Nirmal Bano

The fourth trailer shown was on the Sutlej River and titled The Mother, The Sons and The Holy River.

Bano explained that they decided to explore the idea of rivers for their film because Bano comes from Punjab, where rivers are a big part of their myths, legends and history. “But we no longer talk about them.”

While researching, they found out that revolutionary Sardar Bhagat Singh’s ashes had been scattered in the river in 1931. His mother’s were as well in 1975. That brought in the idea that the river belongs to the dead and that it itself is a dying river having been given to India.

Bano said that though she had been in the field for seven years, she had never made a documentary. She was all praises for mentor Jesse Epstein and said that “unlike our educational institutes, I experienced praised and excitement from Jesse” and that admiration encouraged her.

Declaring herself “uncultured” for finding documentaries rather boring in the past, Bano said she watched many during the past couple of weeks and believes she will now be making more of them.

Sabika Noor Ali & Namrah Sikander

The final trailer shown was the most unique — it was on lightning strikes killing people in Tharparkar, transforming rain and lightning from a joyous experience into something to be feared.

“It was strange to us,” said Sikander. “We love music and rain and believe that when we connect with nature, we connect to our creative pursuits better. Tharparkar had a similar love of rain and music — much of their music is about rain, which is a source of sustenance for them.”

While researching, they found about about lightning strikes and how even for survivors, the aftermath is very difficult. “Something so beautiful, something that brought them happiness is becoming a source of fear,” she said.

Ali said that filming their project was great. I’d barely been out of Karachi and hadn’t been exposed to a village before, she said. “Going out to a new environment put into perspective how different their lives are,” the filmmaker said, highlighting the network problems and connectivity issues.

In a panel immediately following the screening hosted by Sarwat Gillani, Epstein said that the goal of the project is to keep people connected to telling the stories they want to tell and creating an incredible ecosystem of filmmakers. “And it’s working.”

“None of this would be possible if we didn’t have the support of yourselves and your wallets,” said Chinoy to laughter from the audience. “[Your support] is so important, we couldn’t do this without you.”

And just how important that support is was illustrated by one of the filmmakers from the previous cycle. “Female filmmakers in Pakistan are struggling. We got lucky by being selected for this fellowship and getting funds, but as independent filmmakers, we struggle to makes our own films. We really need you guys to help us. Keep supporting SOC films and female filmmakers, because we’ll do wonders.”