Pakistani filmmaker Shehzad Hameed, who has some award winning documentaries to his credit, including Kasur’s Lost Children that won the Silver Award in the Human Concerns Category 2017 at the New York Festivals, has another feather in his cap.
Recently, the filmmaker won the award in the Documentary Feature category at Canada International Film Festival for episode one - Caught in the Crossfire - of his two-part documentary series titled Enemy Within, which is filmed from the front line of the war in Afghanistan.
Hameed took to social media and dedicated this win to the Afghan journalist, Samim Faramarz, who was killed in a bomb blast in Kabul, on the first day of their shooting.
The 48-minute long episode, Caught in the Crossfire, is about journalists documenting Afghanistan’s war ravaged history and discovers the sacrifices they endure at the battle lines. And, amidst mounting Taliban Spring Offensives and a resurgent Islamic State, brave young Afghans enlist in the Afghan army, in hopes that peace might finally prevail in their homeland.
Through this documentary the filmmaker has made a conscious effort of throwing light on the lives of individuals who are making a difference in society and highlighting issues that many refrain to talk about.
Apart from this, Shehzad Hameed’s documentary called Flight of the Falcons, which falls under the community portraits category, received a gold medal at the New York Festivals, 2016. The documentary features Sister Zeph and her tireless efforts of providing education to the girls in her town of Gujranwala along with highlighting her struggle against religious discrimination.
