Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was one of the speakers at the TED2019 conference that was held from April 15 to 19, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. The theme for this year’s TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, was ‘Bigger than Us’ and offered a new set of thought-provoking talks under the tagline of ‘ideas worth spreading’. Sharmeen Obaid was the speaker on day 3 (April 17, 2019) along with Hollywood director Jon M. Chu and actor Rafael Casal, who spoke about diversity in film and onstage at 2019 TED Talks.
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy took the stage and discussed how film can make positive change by exposing people to alternate views of the world, shifting how we think about ourselves, our cultures and our societies. She also spoke about the journey of their mobile cinema, Dekh Magar Pyaar Se (Look but with Love), across Pakistan; her documentary film on honor killings, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, and the lengths she went to in order to get the film seen in her country, Pakistan.
The filmmaker, who seeks to push people to have difficult conversations about inequality and injustice, said, “I think it’s important to have representation on screen and it’s important for us and for our voices to be represented.”
Talking about connecting with the audiences, Sharmeen said that there is more diversity in documentary filmmaking, which has fewer barriers to entry. “Would I have had the same luck if I was a fiction features director? Never,” she added.
The entire version of Sharmeen’s TED Talk will be available online soon and we just cannot wait.
