Latest Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I became a documentary filmmaker because I wanted to make socially conscious films. I never studied filmmaking - everything I have learned has been on the field.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Fields, Documentaries, Film

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• But the biggest challenge overall was narrowing down the complex narrative elements into a clean and straightforward story while maintaining a sense of the cultural context that makes the film special.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Challenges, Special, Stories

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• There were a lot of unique challenges in producing the film, such as the logistical issues inherent in producing a long-term verite film in Pakistan, dealing with Urdu and Punjabi dialogue with an English-speaking editor and all the difficulties in recording, editing and clearing so many music tracks.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Unique, Editing, Editors

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• Despite their rising international acclaim, Sachal Studios remains virtually unknown in Pakistan. The ensemble is faced with a daunting task: to reclaim and reinvigorate an art that has lost its space in Pakistan's narrowing cultural sphere.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Art, Space, Tasks

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• When the film and music industries declined in the wake of increasingly conservative Muslim laws and social customs in Pakistan, many of these musicians found themselves out of work. They were brought together at Sachal Studios by Izzat Majeed, who built the studio in order to preserve these musical traditions.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Order, Law, Musical

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• As filmmakers, you're not working on just one project, you're producing something, directing something, shooting something, and so it becomes hard to do it by yourself.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Shooting, Projects, Filmmaker

  Source: www.indiewire.com

• Music is a universal language.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Language, Music Is, Universal Language

  Source: www.indiewire.com

• When you play music, you don't need a language. Music is a language.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Play, Needs, Language

  Source: www.indiewire.com

• It's often said that I choose subjects that are sensational! I choose to film subjects that spark difficult conversations and make people uncomfortable. Change only comes about when people are forced to discuss an issue, and that's what I hope my films do.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Issues, People, Sparks

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• My advice to other female directors would be to pay no heed to naysayers. Women can be united in the fact that there has always been someone in our lives who has told us "it can't be done" or "there is only so much you can do." We are constantly encouraged to think that being born a woman means we were born with limited choices and compromised dreams.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Dream, Mean, Thinking

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• By giving our audience intimate access to the lives of musicians, we hope to raise awareness of the region's beautiful cultural heritage and present a more nuanced portrait of its people.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Beautiful, People, Giving

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• I want people to leave the theater with a greater understanding of the rich cultural heritage of Pakistan. "Song of Lahore" moves beyond headlines and stereotypes and shows that a vast majority of Pakistanis are not perpetrators of religious violence - they are victims of it. The beautiful cultural heritage of the region belies its image in the West as monolithically religious, intolerant, and violent.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Beautiful, Religious, Song

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• I grew up listening to my grandfather's stories of our musical past. He would often talk about the orchestras that played at concerts and the musicians who played on Sunday evenings on street corners. By the time I grew up in the '80s, all of this was a thing of the past. I lived vicariously through his stories and often wondered what it would have felt like to have been part of his generation.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Sunday, Past, Musical

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com