SOC’s Sitara to screen at Los Angeles Animation Festival: Earlier this year, Pakistani animated short, Sitara: Let Girls Dream, written and directed by two-time Academy Award and three-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, premiered in theaters in New York.
Earlier this year, Pakistani animated short, Sitara: Let Girls Dream, written and directed by two-time Academy Award and three-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, premiered in theaters in New York. This was followed by the news that the animated film, which revolves around the life of a 14-year-old girl, Pari, who wishes to become a pilot, would release on Netflix come next year. This will be Pakistan’s first animated project to make it to the streaming giant that will be available in over 190 countries while it will be distributed by Netflix USA. According to recent reports, Sitara is all set to screen at the Los Angeles Animation Festival 2019 (LAAF), which is scheduled to take place on 7th and 8th December 2019.
Sharmeen Obaid took to social media to share the news. “Peeps in L.A.! On Saturday, 7th Dec the LAAF 2019 (Los Angeles Animation Festival) will be showing our newest animation short, Sitara: Let girls dream, as part of their lineup,” she wrote on her official Facebook handle.
LAAF is Los Angeles’ only International Animation Film Festival which has been running since 2007. “This year we’re offering more networking opportunities and over $1000 in prizes, awards and benefits, attracting both the best in international work and the cream of L.A’s independent studios and animators in a truly unique venue,” read the post on the festival’s website. “We’ll be holding an even greater event – featuring the best shorts, commercials and features from around the globe, plus celebrating classics with rare screenings, panels and special guests.”
Coming back to Sitara: Let Girls Dream, the fifteen-minute long short, is a silent film [no dialogues] that takes the audience on a journey through the old city of Lahore and highlights the burdens of a family and the impact of a culture where girls are still struggling to fully realize their dreams. Pari’s story is told through the perspective of her six-year-old sister Mehr, who is unaware of her family traditions that lay in the path of women from her family.
