“Pakistan: One On One,” a film by Mara Ahmed, had its world premier at the Little Theatre, Thursday [3/25/11], to a full house, which is quite a testament for Rochester. This reviewer could not help, seeing a lack of diversity in the audience, most notably missing was a strong contingent of younger people in the 25-35yrs range, which is in contrast to what we are seeing and hearing global wide, a voice of a current generation poised, demanding and asking the hard questions.
Worldwide, many peoples of kidnapped governments are rebelling against dictators, armies, terrorist, mercenaries and, oh yes, even some democracies. When given an opportunity, we are often amazed by how much we share in common as “global citizens” and how much the, “family of man” stands to lose given the current, “players,” on the world stage.
“Pakistan: One On One,” clearly brought the voice of the voiceless and faceless Pakistani, up close and very personal to the American public. These were not news clips although edited as a series of thought provoking question and responses from a range of people in Pakistan, whom most of us would not be privy to. These were not contrived, “sound bites,” brought to us by a would be sponsor, but rather, candid, sincere and often heartfelt contemplations on how a cross section of Pakistani see themselves, their issues, even their thoughts about America, Americans and their keen intelligence to distinguish between the latter two.
This was not a very complex film, nor was it terribly cinematic and it was quite short. However, it was, it is incredibly timely and profound in messaging the American psychic out of hibernation since the times of, John Wayne. In the film, one could see how many people in Pakistan still hold onto the image, we Americans once dawned as champions of the poor and down trodden, liberators for freedom and most of all, the primary marketers of the world enticing phenomena, “democracy.” Unfortunately, this image has been updated as stories abounded about how intimidating it is to live with the likes of, “Blackwater” soldiers of fortune, with loaded M-16’s, who will obviously shoot one suspected to be a Taliban or, “oops, I’m sorry, I thought your father was a Taliban.”
“Pakistan: One On One,” to its credit, is not a terribly political film and probably has less of an edge than this writing [which is trying to hold back], however, “Pakistan: One On One,” uniquely succeeds on its honesty, its realness, sincerity and owing to its tireless filmmaker, Mara Ahmed, who has a sustained mission of educating American populations to the history and reality of the people in her homeland, Pakistan.
“Pakistan: One On One,” fosters a direct conversation with everyday, American people, in which we see little difference in values and desires. This film, leads you to ponder, how close are we to considering and building, global communities based on common values and principles. How close are we, to casting off corrupt governments and their practices, eliminating material greed and hoarding and abject poverty, how close are we?
When the earth quakes, it is sometimes followed by an even more powerful storm. When an earth quakes, there are often many smaller tremors forecasting the frailty of time. As we have been reminded, the difference of natural disasters and man-made disasters, often matters so little to the victims.
Upon conclusion of the screening, the filmmaker, Mara Ahmed and her two additional panel members fielded questions from the audience, which showed no sign of ending. Although it was slow in getting started, it was great to see the conversation between peoples of the world with a seemingly great divide, moving much closer together in principles. Mara Ahmed’s filmography is showing great promise as well as a deserved fan base of support. This project was actually inserted while she was on her way to India to collaborate on a project focusing on the, partioning of India which will clearly bare her probing sense of excellence. See, "Pakistan: One on One."
Ayorinde
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