7th Karachi Conference begins with screening of young film-makers' work.

Byline: Peerzada Salman

KARACHI -- The 7th annual Karachi Conference began at the Institute of Business AdministraAtion (city campus) on Friday evening with the screening of more than a dozen short films made by students.

The first batch of four films comprised of Darya Pir, Cassette, My Mom's Birthday and Prime Time.

Darya Pir, directed by Sachal Dars is a seven-minute documentary that traces the journey of a man, a devotee, to a shrine in Sindh. The narration is in the Sindhi language, and it is evident from the footage and the man's voice that he holds the shrine and the saint in high esteem for many reasons, one of which is that it is visited by people of different religious persuasions.

Over a dozen short films made by students screened on the first day of the event

The second presentation was a 14-minute film titled Cassette. Helmed by Ali Tejani it focuses on a young couple, in a car, engaged in a conversation.

The third piece was a five-minute film called My Mom's Birthday directed by Adeel Wali Raees. It is about a man who does a white-collar job but constantly ignores his mother's phone calls. At his office, his servant requests him for a day's leave so that he could take part in his [servant's] mother's birthday, who it turns out has passed on but the boy wants to keep her memory fresh.

The last film of the first group was Prime Time made by Syed Hasan Mujtaba Jafri. As the name of the project suggests, the 14-minute story is about the television media's lust for sensationalism even at the cost of innocent children's psychological well-being. It tells the tale of a TV anchor/presenter who is coaxed by her producer to ask tough questions of a minor girl whose parents have been killed in front of her. It creates a tussle within the heart and mind of the presenter but she can't do much about it.

After the screenings, Rumana Husain invited the directors of the films on stage to have a chit-chat with her and film reviewer M. Kamran Jawaid but only one [Sachal Dars], out of the four, was present in the hall.

It's strange because...