#Oscars2012 #Pakistan #Saving
Face #Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
When Pakistani documentary-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was nominated for the
Oscars, the first and only from the country, she gave herself a fair one in five
chance at winning. On Monday, she won for Pakistan its first Golden Boy for her
52-minute documentary Saving Face, co-directed by US-based Daniel Junge, in the
short documentary category. The documentary traces the lives of of acid attack
victims and a doctor who comes to Pakistan to treat them.
Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy accept the Oscar for the Best Documentary
Short Subject for their film "Saving Face" at the 84th Academy Awards in
Hollywood. Reuters
Chinoy was born and raised in Karachi, received a bachelors degree from Smith
College and completed two masters degree from Stanford University. In 2012, she
won an Emmy for her documentary Pakistan: Children of the Taliban. She has made
13 documentaries on conflict situations.
Previously her journalistic work has won her Broadcast Journalist of the Year
award in the UK for The New Apartheid, a series of documentary films about
xenophobia in South Africa. She has als0 won The Overseas Press Club Award, The
American Women in Radio and Television Award, The Cine Golden Eagle award and
the Banff Rockie Award.
Born in Karachi to mohajir parents as Sharmeen Obaid, she attended the Karachi
Grammar School.[5] Sharmeen graduated from Smith College with a bachelor of arts
in economics and government and then went to complete two master's degrees from
Stanford University in International Policy Studies and Communication.
Obaid's career in documentary filmmaking began when she examined the plight of
Afghani refugee children in Pakistan for one of her articles. Their situation
was so dire, and their stories so compelling, that Sharmeen decided to return to
Pakistan and create a film about them. She petitioned Smith College and New York
Times Television production division for the grants that would allow her to
accomplish her goals. Intrigued by her story, both organizations gave her the
funds as well as production equipment and training. She is currently a faculty
member at media sciences department in SZABIST (Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
Institute of Science and technology, Karachi).
Career as Documentarian
Known for documentaries dealing with life in the Muslim world, Obaid became the
first non-American to win the Livingston Award.[6] Her films have aired on such
networks as Channel 4, CNN, PBS, and Al-Jazeera.
Obaid began her career with New York Times Television in 2002 where she produced
Terror's Children, a film about Afghan refugee children, which won her the
Overseas Press Club Award, the American Women and Radio and Television Award,
and the South Asian Journalist Association Award.[6] Since then, she has
produced and reported on more than twelve films around the world.
Obaid produced and reported on four multi-award winning documentary films for
New York Times Television. In 2003, Reinventing the Taliban was awarded the
Special Jury Award at the BANFF TV festival in Canada, the CINE Golden Eagle
Award, the American Women in Radio and Television award, and the Livingston
Award.[6] In 2005, her film Women of the Holy Kingdom, which provided an inside
look at the women's movement in Saudi Arabia, won the South Asian Journalist
Association Award.[6]
In 2005, Obaid began working with Channel 4 in the United Kingdom reporting on
four films for their Unreported World series. Pakistan's Double Game looked at
sectarian violence in Pakistan, City of Guilt explored the Catholic Church's
pro-life movement in the Philippines, The New Apartheid looked into growing
xenophobia in South Africa, and Birth of a Nation delved into the politics of
East Timor. In 2007, Obaid was named "journalist of the year" by the One World
Media awards for her work in the series.
In 2007, Obaid travelled to Afghanistan and reported for Channel 4 and CNN. Her
film, Afghanistan Unveiled/Lifting the Veil, focuses on stalled reconstruction
and the repression of women in the country.
In 2010, she won an Emmy Award for her documentary, Pakistan: Children of the
Taliban, which explores Taliban recruitment strategies, their effect on the
youth and their methods to radicalize the country’s young and often dejected
populace.[2] Children of the Taliban premiered FiLums (2011) - the largest film
festival in Pakistan held annually at the Lahore University of Management
Sciences.
In 2012, she became the first Pakistani to ever have won an Oscar for her
documentary 'Saving Face', highlighting the plight of women in the Punjab
province dealing with acid burns on faces that occur as a result of male
domination.