Filmmaker in Focus : Shazia Khan

6th Chennai International Documentary Short Film Festival 2018

Jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM and Goethe-Institut Chennai

Filmmaker in Focus : Shazia Khan

Shazia khan is an award winning Indian filmmaker , with over 15 years in the field as director, cinematographer and producer, her work often draws upon her own life experience. Her internationally acclaimed and screened  films,  Caravan,(2008) Salam India(2009) and Sama Muslim Mystic Music of India(2014)  profoundly document the historical, ethnographic,  and spiritual coexistence of Muslims in the largest democracy of world, India. 

Having been born in the conflict torn state of Kashmir, she is passionate about human rights , social justice  and migration , giving a voice to the situation in Kashmir, she is working on a fiction film SnowFairies  and the distribution of a  point of view doc I Never left , which won the best pitch in Docedge Kolkatta  and has been awarded the prestigious Chicken and Egg Pictures grant and the IDFA Bertha Fund grant. She also has an upcoming doc with PSBT on women who practice the martial art of Kalaripayattu and has a web series in development  starring Pooja Kumar in USA. In her free time you would possibly find her meditating on a beach in south India or los angles.

Films:

Salam India

Dir: Shazia Khan; 60 min; English

India today is home to 16 million Muslims, the second largest population of Muslims in the world. ‘Salaam India’ documents the extra/ordinary lives of some of them.

The documentary engages some young Muslim adults, asking them a question: what is an Indian muslim?. A group of friends and a radio jockey from Delhi, a trainee cleric at Deoband in uttar pradesh, a gaffer in mumbai’s film industry, even the inimitable Sania Mirza talk about: Are they Indians? Are they muslims? Are these two different questions?

Caravan 

Dir: Shazia Khan; 60 min; English

‘Caravan’ is a documentary that explores the confluence of Islam and India, and the resultant composite cultural integral to India.

Beginning 6^th century AD, there have been several carriers of Islam to the sub-continent: Arab traders, territorial invaders, the Mughal emperors and the religious mystic Sufis. In distinct ways, these carries affected and were affected by, the manners and morals of a changing, evolving India, so giving rise to an Indo-Islamic identity, inseparable from present – day India.

SAMA

Dir: Shazia Khan; 54 min; English

SAMA is the story of Indian Islamic Music, born out of a union of Indian and Islamic traditions, more than a thousand years ago. It explores the intermingling of these, in both form and content, to become a truly magnificent sound. 

SAMA takes the journey to many breathtaking  locations across India and explores how this music organically blends to absorb cultures and flavours , yet retains its original texture.In doing so the film explores the kaleidoscope of Islamic culture in India and the contacts and conflicts of Islamic India with indigenous elements particularly those of Hinduism.