‘The onus is ‘The onus is
on people on people
like me,more like me,more
than ever,to than ever,to
bring about bring about
Dr Jawad, in the film says
‘In a way I am saving my own
face. Because I am part of
this society which has this
disease. I am doing my bit,
but there is only so much I
can do. Come join the party!’
change in change in
Pakistan’Pakistan’
harmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who
is just 34, is the first
Pakistani to win an Academy
Award, for Saving Face.
This remarkable, important documentary, which
tracks a group of poor
Pakistani women who are victims of
acid attacks, committed by their husbands or other family members, follows British-Pakistani plastic surgeon
Mohammad Ali Jawad’s efforts to help
these women with surgery. Though the
women are almost always marginal-ized, they are also strong-willed and
have the spirit to find justice for the
wrong that has been done to them.
About 100 acid attacks are reported in
Pakistan every year. Many more go
unreported.
Obaid-Chinoy’s film, co-directed
with American documentary filmmaker Daniel Junge, is as much about the
women, as it is about Dr Jawad who
keeps revisiting Pakistan to perform
surgeries on the women. It is his way of
giving back to the country of his birth.
As Jawad says in the film: ‘In a way I
am saving my own face. Because I am
part of this society which has this dis-
S
ease. I am doing my bit, but there is
only so much I can do. Come join the
party!’
Obaid-Chinoy is a Karachi-based
documentary filmmaker (she lives
there with her husband Fahd Chinoy
and daughter Amelia) whose work has
always focused on social and political
issues in Pakistan. Obaid-Chinoy also
won an Emmy for her film Children of
the Taliban that focuses on Taliban
recruitment tactics among Pakistani
youth.
Saving Face premiered in the US on
HBO March 8. There will be repeat
broadcasts.
India Abroad met Obaid-Chinoy and
Junge at an Asia Society event in New
York City organized by HBO to celebrate their Oscar win.
Sharmeen, you were well known for
your work, but the Oscar takes you to
another level. What has it been like?
It’s been incredible. And more
incredible because I believed that this
film needed a global voice and platform
and the Oscar will give it that. (Like)
; M4
Daniel on working with Sharmeen: ‘It worked really surprisingly, unbelievably well. I am really good at the front end
and back of the films. She’s good in those parts too, but she is also good in the middle part, being out in the field.
There is so much in this film that would make me so conspicuous as a Caucasian man… She was so good at
getting the intimacy necessary for the film.’
ASAD FARUQI/HBO
In conversation with Aseem Chhabra,
Oscar-winning documentary
filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and
Daniel Junge discuss the challenges of
making of Saving Face in a country as
complex and conflicted as Pakistan
