My Street Afghanistan from Afghan Voices on Vimeo.
Note from James Blue on 11th June 2011 : “We are a day from heading to London and this is what it means. Every piece is being finished: subtitles, exporting, and becoming real HD. Most importantly we are excited about our ability to go to London and say something smart and unique. These are Afghan Voices and it is time for people to hear them.”
Led by James Blue and Najibullah Sharifi, a group of young Afghan filmmakers have been inspired to make a series of MyStreet films: short films that tell the story of their everyday lives. MyStreet is many things, a UK filmmaking competition, an education programme and a new way of documenting the face of the nation through filmmaking. Here at Open City in London we are enormously proud to know that the MyStreet idea has struck a chord with filmmakers in Afghanistan.
From the films made there, four filmmakers have been chosen to come to London, hosted by UCL, the British council and Open City. They are Airokhsh Faizmohammad, Mohammad Masoud, Mohammad Tamim and Sayed Suleiman Amanzad. Such was the excitement amongst the young filmmaking community that Afghan Voices, the company that provides training in documentary filmmaking in Afghanistan, is making a documentary about the whole process including the trip to London.
The films made look at life, subjectively and honestly from the perspective of the young filmmakers. Their work reflects the new skills they have acquired and their urgent desire to make clear to a broader public the reality of life in Afghanistan with its normality and its horror. It is difficult to highlight any one of the films over another but to give you a flavour: Massood’s film presents a searing and uncompromising insight into the life of a woman badly disfigured during the war; and Airokhsh’s funny and poignant film presents the unexpected tale of a young woman learning to drive in Afghanistan.
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Nina Alvarez led the training and development process that made these films possible. On two separate visits to Kabul she worked intensively with the young filmmakers to help them make this transition to documentary storytelling.
Filmmaker Biographies:
Massood Ziaee is 21 years old and native of Herat. He studied in the U.S. At Garfield High school in Woodbridge, Virginia a during the 2006-2007. Currently he is a Computer Science student of Herat University. He would like to become a world famous filmmaker and through that show the real face of Afghanistan. His next project will focus on Afghan youth and drug use. While he in London he hopes to raise money to help the subject of his current project.
Aged 19 and a resident of Herat, Tamim Abdullah studied at Garfield High School in Seattle during the 2009 – 2010 school year. His film, shows how Afghans are generous and helpful, no matter what comes their way. “I want to introduce Afghanistan to the world as it is, not as they hear or they watch on news. Yes, there is war, but beside war we have values that make it possible for us to endure this for such a long time.”
Airokhsh Faiz Qaisary is 20 years old. She was born in Maimana in Faryab Province and now lives in Mazar-e-sharif. During the 2006 – 2007 school year she studied at High Tech High International in San Diego. She is currently a student in the Education Faculty at Balkh University in Mazar. Airokhsh is a brave filmmaker who repeatedly challenges the status quo in her work. She hopes to reveal Afghanistan’s developments through her films and she plans to look at the Afghan tradition of child brides at some point soon. “I am excited about coming to the UK and I hope I will be a good representative of Afghanistan. I wish to show the world just how strong Afghan women can be.”
Sayed Suleiman Amanzad is just 17 and hails from Bamyan Province – home of Afghanistan’s famed Buddhas. He now resides in Kabul with his family. He studied as an exchange student at Robert E. Lee High School in Houston during the 2009- 2010 school year. In the years to come he hopes to tell stories of Afghanistan to the world, and to tell the world’s stories to Afghanistan. He looks forward to the possibilities of the festival.
Afghan Voices’ managing director Najib Sharifi, 30 is a medical doctor by training. over the past ten years he has worked for some of the leading news organizations around the world including the New York Times, BBC, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), and the Washington Post. He has researched for the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) and Human Rights Watch. In addition, he served as senior political officer for the Office of the Special Representative of the EU for Afghanistan.
Open City London Documentary Festival runs from 16th to the 19th June at UCL on Malet Place off Torrington Place opposite Waterstones
MyStreet Afghanistan is screening on 17th June 2pm in the Darwin Theatre. Click here for tickets.
To attend the Afghan Voices party on Saturday 18th June in London click here.
www.opencitylondon.com
www.mystreetfilms.com
For further press information please contact elizabeth@margaretlondon.com andrew@opencitylondon.com
The Afghan Voices blog communicates news and developments about our content development programme in Afghanistan. Stay tuned for future posts.