ISLAMABAD: Internationally known filmmaker from Pakistan, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s documentary ‘A Girl In The River: The Price of Forgiveness’ has won the Oscar at the 88th Academy Award Ceremony.
She has made history as the only Pakistani to win two Oscar awards. Sharmeen was awarded the Oscar in the category Best Documentary – Short Subject for her documentary “A Girl in the River”, which follows the life of an 18-year-old girl who is a survivor of an honour killing attempt. Wearing a floor-length black coat over a matching dress, Sharmeen had earlier walked the red carpet with her mother and the SOC Films team. “I have another one!” said Sharmeen as she took the stage to accept the award, her second after she won an Academy Award for Saving Face in 2012. The Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker credited her time in Canada for helping inform her powerful storytelling. “When you live in a country like Canada, you begin to realise how right things can be,” she told CBC inside the Oscars pressroom after her win. “Then when you travel back to Pakistan and to other countries which are in conflict, you can see what’s going wrong.” Her winning documentary is about honour killings, told through the eyes of Saba Qaiser.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s documentary ‘A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness’ has won an Oscar award in the Best Documentary – Short subject category at the 88th Academy Awards. Indeed Sharmeen previously won Pakistan’s first Academy Award for her documentary ‘Saving Face’ at the 84th Annual Academy Awards in 2012. She is one of only 11 female directors who have ever won an Oscar for a non-fiction film and the only Pakistani to win two Academy Awards.
The category of Best Documentary was presented by Louis CK to Sharmeen. Upon receiving the award, Sharmeen, “This is what happens when determined women get together. From Saba, the girl in my film who remarkably survived honour killing and shared her story, to Sheila Nevins, Lisa Heller from HBO and Tina Brown who supported me from day one. To the men who champion women, like Geof Bartz who has edited the film to Asad Faruqi, to my friend Ziad who brought this film to the government, to all the brave men out there like my father and husband who push women to go to school and work and who want a more just society for women! Last week, our Pakistani prime minister has said that he will change the law of honour killing after watching this film. That is the power of film.”
The 88th Academy Awards ceremony was held at the historic Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California with Chris Rock as host. Sharmeen wore a custom made outfit by Pakistan’s leading contemporary fashion house Sana Safinaz, with jewellery exclusively designed for Sharmeen for the occasion by Kiran Aman of Kiran Fine Jewellery.
The SOC Films and Home Box Office production film ‘A Girl In The River – The Price Of Forgiveness’ is based on the practice of honour killing in Pakistan. The documentary follows the story of an 18-year-old woman who miraculously survived a brutal attack by her father and uncle and with the support of a local police officer was able to have both imprisoned for their crime. Pakistani law allows for victims of honour crimes to forgive the perpetrators. Most women never survive the attack and virtually no one has ever been sent to jail for an honour killings crime. In her case she eventually had to forgive.
Inspired by her courage and the countless victims of honour crimes in Pakistan, Sharmeen launched an anti-honour killing campaign ‘The Price Of Forgiveness’, which has been successful in lobbying the prime minister of Pakistan to take action – he has vowed to eradicate honour killings in Pakistan!
Honour killings affect hundreds of women in Pakistan every year where women are killed in the name of ‘honour’! Many of these murders are not documented. Honour killing is considered an offence against the individual and not the State and hence the victim can choose to forgive the perpetrator by law. If the victim is killed, which is often what happens in such cases, the right to forgive lies with the victim’s family – who are usually the perpetrators themselves! This law allows perpetrators to take advantage of this impunity. With this campaign, Sharmeen has mobilised civil society, key stakeholders and opinion leaders to push the Parliament to pass the Anti-Honour Killings Laws Bill 2014. The bill will ensure that victims of honour crimes can no longer forgive’ their perpetrators, which has been exemplified by the film. Indeed following the launch of this campaign, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged his support for the campaign and to amending the law. The very objective of the aforementioned bill is to make sure honour killings are stopped immediately, by addressing the lack of attention and implementation of existing laws in an effective manner.
Sharmeen is an Academy Award and an Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker. She has made various multi award winning films in over 10 countries around the world. Her films include ‘Saving Face’, ‘Transgenders – Pakistan’s Open Secret’ and ‘Pakistan’s Taliban Generation’. Her work has aired on channels spanning four continents. In 2012, Time magazine included Sharmeen in their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2013, the Canadian government awarded Sharmeen a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work in the field of documentary films and the World Economic Forum honoured her with a Crystal Award at their annual summit in Davos. She has also been awarded the Hilal-e-Imtiaz by the government of Pakistan – the country’s second highest civilian honour!
‘A Girl In The River – The Price Of Forgiveness’ is set to air on America’s premier television cable network HBO, on March 7.
