The scene opens on a tent made from UNHCR tarp, the logo emblazoned on the makeshift mall, a cup of tea rests on a surface that spells ‘Refugee’. An old man, Baba jee, the subject, tunes a clunky radio and smiles fondly at his apple-cheeked grandchildren. The lines in his face are deep and his eyes quietly describe the unspeakable crimes they have witnessed. The camera is left in place as a time lapse of this family’s day is shown. A boy runs to the lens only to go back playing with his sisters.

This is the opening scene of A Walnut Tree, one of the three documentaries shown on November 17, the second day of the two-day Chalta Phirta Festival, a project of the Documentary Association of Pakistan. The three documentaries shown were Sindhutsan, A Walnut Tree and the Emmy award winning Armed with Faith. The common thread linking all of these was identity, war and the search for peace-inner and outer.

Sindhustan is about searching for a Sindhi identity, post partition. Through the process of getting her legs tattooed with gorgeous symbols of the province, Sapna Bhavnani, the filmmaker pieces together a history of Sindh, through interviews with partition survivors and tattoo artists.

Another motif connecting her journey is how a Sindhi curry comes together. Shots of a bubbling yellow coloured curry pepper lend it a homey feel. The idea of home is central to Sindhustan as Sapna asks, “what is a home when your entire way of living is taken away from you and you cannot go back?” When she is unable to get a visa to come to shoot in Pakistan, the India-based documentary filmmaker uses the power of the internet to collect shots and stories needed. As she walks with her tattoo in various stages of the film, the camera focuses on her legs and her voice over says: “Home is where the legs are.”

In a Q-and-A with the filmmaker after the screening, Sapna states, that her motivation to make the film was to move away from history books and focus on the stories that make history. Hence, her quest to seek out partition survivors who migrated to Sindh. As the tattoo comes together and ink fills the surface of her legs, Sapna comes to an understanding of herself and the land she is from.

The second film A Walnut Tree is a heartbreaking look at the fall-out of war. Filmmaker Ammar Aziz has been careful to include the voices of Baba jee’s daughter-in-law in the film. The scene where she laments that migration to camps from their village has destroyed their lives and wonders whether her children should be raised in such an environment is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the film. In another scene, the Baba jee cries and says his heart is full of despair, he just wants to go home. There is no production here, just the stark reality of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Jallozai camp. The UNCHR logo on the tent wall watches over them mockingly like the eyes of Dr T J Ecklburg over the valley of ashes in The Great Gatsby.

The last film, Armed with Faith follows the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bomb Disposal Squad and the brave men who deffuse bombs in the Peshawar area. There is a component of addiction to adrenaline, within the squad, as Rahim one of the members of the squad moves to Saudia Arabia only to come back and join the squad again.

In a Q-and-A, Haya Fatima Iqbal, the producer, speaks sensitively and openly about the process of making the film. She says the ‘danger allowance’ for the squad, was Rs 50, has since been raised to Rs 5,000. She says that this has caused lower-income men to join the squad with very little skill and training as Rs 5,000 is a lot, for them. The fall back is on the four men in the film, which is stressful.

A patron asked why the documentary mentioned the APS attack and not Charsadda. Haya was clear in her answer: “I will not be diplomatic about this. APS was given attention because the children looked like us and had profiles like people in urban settings do. And so, as news desk heads are in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, they give coverage to these stories.” This creates a self-selective bias in the way we see people.

Sara Nisar, a culture consultant in Karachi, said, “In the current political climate it is [simultaneously] easy and difficult to have festivals like these as censorship is always present in some form. You have to fight for them. Armed with Faith was an important screening because how bomb disposal squads work and how the police forces operate are such removed realities for viewers; it becomes imperative to see these stories. As for documentaries, a global audience is often aware of what is on the production circuit but for people in Pakistan, these festivals are important because these stories are about our people and our country, there is no American musician coming to Pakistan for a positive image. The laws and policies formed in hallowed halls impact human lives and documentaries are one way of showing that impact.”

Laila Sohail, a professor at the IBA, said that while she felt the documentaries were great the event did not feel like a festival. “A break would have definitely been good - but I get that they had to end at 9.30 and they barely made it without the break. The event could have started early though and spanned out the three movies.” Personally, I felt that a Q-and-A with Ammar Aziz, the maker of A Walnut Tree should also have been a part of the festival.

The Chalta Phirta Documentary festival was a successful event, given its humble beginnings and a three-person team running the show. To coordinate across 11 cities is a monumental task and the Karachi edition was executed well. The festival will continue to Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Quetta, Peshawar, and Gilgit.

For more information regarding screenings in your city, check out their Facebook page @documentarypakistan or visit their Instagram @docassociationpakistan.