Gandhara film festival – which will be held in Karachi – is a hope for all the aspiring and avid filmmakers across Pakistan who wish to have their work recognized for what it is.

The 2-day festival will be held in Karachi; and will invite filmmakers from across Pakistan and connecting areas to participate in the festival with their films.

The two day festival will start with 20 selected feature films where they will be screened throughout the day and the directors for their respective films will interact with the audience in a 10 minute questions and answers session essentially giving the filmmaker and the audience a full experience. Short video tutorials for basics of filmmaking i.e. camera, lighting, sound and production will be showcased by The Creative Brigade providing an enriching learning experience for the participants and film students.

Now, we had the honor of interviewing one of the judges and he shared some wise insight into what Ghandara film festival is all about.

“First of all, this is not a role that we have to play. It is a serious job. We have a lot of young and amateur film makers who’s work, efforts and actually dreams we have to go through and decide on. It is not an easy task at all and one that all of us are taking very seriously. “ said Mr, SYED MOHAMMAD AHMED, one of the judges on the panel.

He assured us that other judges too like him, are skilled veterans of their respective fields, “If you notice, there are different categories of films. The films of each category were judged by people who had the credentials for them. As for me, I’ve seen films that belonged to my category. “

We raised the question that why isn’t “Advertisement” one of the categories of visual art-form for the film fest, and Mr. Ahmed replied quite enthusiastically with, “Their should be an event dedicated to just that. Unfortunately I don’t think they can be part of a film festival. Two entirely different genres.”

He further went on. ”No one can decide something like that. Things like this happen with time when the society is ready and ripe for them. One can not decide, “Let the age of graffiti/pop/renaissance begin now or ten years from now.” If the people and the society have evolved to that level, it will be the next natural thing to happen. Believe me. “

The deadlines for submission was a week ago and the judges have spent the last few days going through some very creative work.

He ended the interview by expressing his utmost desire to see more such events taking place in Pakistan, ”But I hope festivals like this happen as frequently as possible.”.