“This is what happens when determined women get together”

 AwardsSeason

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy delivers one of the most powerful speeches as she picks up her second statuette at the 88th Academy Awards.

Yesterday morning, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, 37, made history as she picked up her second Academy Award for the documentary short A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.

One of only eleven female directors who have ever won an Oscar for a non-fiction film and the only Pakistani to win two Academy Awards, Obaid-Chinoy receiving her trophy from comedian-actor Louis C.K, spoke from the heart and said: “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 [Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif] has said that he will change the law of honour killing after watching this film. That is the power of film!”

Obaid-Chinoy tells a story that is full of resilience, vision and dreams for a better tomorrow, not just for herself or her two daughters but for all the children of Pakistan.

Catching global attention in 2012, when she picked up an Academy Award for the documentary short Saving Face (that highlighted the horrific issue of acid attacks), Obaid-Chinoy hasn’t looked back. Several awards and global recognition later, Obaid-Chinoy’s conviction to tell stories that provoke and haunt us and force us to pay attention is still intact.

2015 was a particularly strong year for the filmmaker, who worked on several diverse projects such as the animated feature film 3 Bahadur and the musical Song of Lahore. More significantly, she also took on the appalling issue of honour killings which lays at the heart of her documentary short, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.

According to figures by HRCP, over 500 people have died as a result of honour killings in Pakistan in 2015 alone and this salient detail is not lost on Obaid-Chinoy.

As A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness fetched Obaid-Chinoy her second Oscar nomination, it prompted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to make a pledge to fight the issue as well as host a meeting with Obaid-Chinoy and a screening of the film at the PM house in Islamabad.

In an interview with Instep ahead of the Oscar ceremony, Sharmeen revealed her reasons for pursuing these gut-wrenching stories.

“I have looked for issues that people hesitate to talk about or people find it hard because I don’t like looking at my country and seeing these issues,” Sharmeen had said. “I don’t like to know that a thousand women are killed every year for honour killing in Pakistan. By the way, that is the reported number; the unreported number is much higher. I don’t like looking at women having their faces disfigured in this country.”

Though an issue like honour killings has to be dealt with on a grassroots level as well as with advocacy and laws, one can hope that this documentary and the global attention it is generating will force the government to do more than just pay lip service. In the meantime, here’s to SOC for forcing this issue front and center across Pakistan.

 

Oscar’s defining moments

Picking up from the significant decline in ratings last year, Hollywood’s biggest night, the 88th Academy Awards, did not disappoint this year. Be it Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s powerful speech, that hit too close to home, or Leonardo’s long-awaited Oscar win, Oscars were host to a number of unforgettable moments. Social issues were at the centre of this year’s show – from Leonardo’s call for attention towards climate change to the Academy recognizing Spotlight based on the Boston Globe’s exposé of sex abuse in the Catholic Church amidst a number of more popular, louder epics like The Revenant. However, even in all its glory, there were a few instances that left a bad taste in the mouth, particularly actress Stacey Dash’ cameo on stage as the new director of Minority Outreach Program in relation to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. So in case you didn’t wake up at six in the morning and missed out on the ceremony, here are some of the highlights that made the show all the more entertaining:

The journey that started back in 1993 with What’s Eating Gilbert Grape ended yesterday when actor Leonardo Di Caprio finally won the coveted golden statue after being nominated six times over the past 13 years. The 41-year-old actor, who has given some of the best performances in the past two decades, was greeted with a 30-second standing ovation as he walked onto the stage to pick his award, and rightly so. And as the most deserving candidate on the roster, Leonardo did not let his moment go to waste and spoke on the issue of climate change in his speech. “Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It’s the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating,” he said. “We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children’s children and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted.”

Spotlight’s win for the Best Picture category came as a shock to many and at a time when top Vatican Cardinal George Pell testified on Church abuse in the media saying that the Catholic Church has made “enormous mistakes” over sexual abuse. The film that stars Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams is based on the controversial Boston Globe expose on a ring of pedophile priests. The producer Michael Sugar took the opportunity to once again highlight the issue, saying that he hopes that the film’s message would “resonate all the way to the Vatican”. “Pope Francis: it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith,” he added.

When the nominations for the 88th Academy Awards were rolled out earlier this year, the hash tag #OscarSoWhite became synonymous with the show, signifying the lack of diversity across nominations. Keeping this shameless omission in mind, host of the night, Chris Rock took the Academy to the cleaners as he opened his fully-loaded monologue. “I’m here at the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards,” he said. “You realize if they nominated hosts, I wouldn’t even get this job. Y’all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now.” And just like that, he was off. Putting things into perspective, Rock noted: “It’s the 88th Academy Awards, which means this whole no black nominees thing has happened at least 71 times,” he said, referencing #OscarsSoWhite. raped and lynched to care about who won Best Cinematographer. When your grandma is swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to Not sparing anyone, he also took a shot at actors like Jada Pinkett-Smith who announced a boycott of the ceremony. “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”

Oscar nominations visibly lacked diversity but the ceremony itself had celebrities attending from around the globe and from various racial backgrounds. Among them was also Bollywood actress-turned-America’s sweetheart, Priyanka Chopra, who presented the award for Best Film Editing and stole the show on the Oscar red carpet in an ethereal, white Zuhair Murad gown and jewels worth almost $8 million. Her choice of outfit has won her a spot in all Best Dressed lists and the 33-year-old diva, who will soon be seen in season two of Quantico followed by the film Baywatch, has definitely made Bollywood proud.