After winning two Academy Awards and multiple Emmys (amongst other accolades) for her documentary films, filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy made Pakistan proud yet again when she picked up an Emmy at the recently held 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards for Best Documentary for A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness. The ceremony took place at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City on Thursday evening.
After winning two Academy Awards and multiple Emmys (amongst other accolades) for her documentary films, filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy made Pakistan proud yet again when she picked up an Emmy at the recently held 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards for Best Documentary for A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness. The ceremony took place at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City on Thursday evening.
With honour killings as it central theme, A Girl in the River also won an Oscar last year and was nominated in three categories at the Emmys including Outstanding Short Documentary and Outstanding Music and Sound aside from Best Documentary.
“A 17-year-old girl had the bravery to stand up and a commitment to fight a system,” Obaid Chinoy, who was present at the event to receive the trophy, said in her acceptance speech. “And because of that a law was changed in Pakistan and you had newspapers and television channels reporting honour killings in a different way. So it only took the commitment of a single person to do that.”
She also thanked the cast, crew and the entire team who supported her throughout the project.A Girl in the River tells the story of a 17-year-old girl, Saba, who is a rare survivor of an (attempted) honour killing and fights against all odds. The documentary chronicles her reunification with both her husband and mother, her extensive surgery, a fierce court battle and the ultimate resolution of the case that frees her father and uncle.
Coming back to Obaid-Chinoy, the filmmaker has made the country proud on various international platforms through her work. She takes up themes that shine light on injustices against women with the aim to empower them. A recent effort in this direction is her first Virtual Reality documentary series launched last night on the app called WITHIN. The first documentary that released under the initiative is called Look But With Love that talks about extraordinary people of Pakistan who are changing the socio-political landscape of their communities through causes they are deeply passionate about.
