1. A Message from the East
The story of Muhammad Iqbal, a turn of the century poet/philosopher from South Asia. Through Iqbal's work we open a dialog between the East and West, refute the notion of a class of civilizations and discover our shared humanity.
2. Unmanned: America's Drone Wars
This documentary from Brave New Foundation and director Robert Greenwald, investigates the impact of U.S. drone strikes at home and abroad through more than 70 separate interviews, including a former American drone operator who shares what he has witnessed in his own words, Pakistani families mourning loved ones and seeking legal redress, investigative journalists pursuing the truth, and top military officials warning against blowback from the loss of innocent life.
3. Památník národní kultury (Památník národní kultury)
(Památník národní kultury)
4. All the World's Memory (Toute la mémoire du monde)
Toute la mémoire du monde is a documentary about the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It presents the building, with its processes of cataloguing and preserving all sorts of printed material, as both a monument of cultural memory and as a monstrous, alien being.
It has an average vote of 6.975 on TMDB.
5. Zabardast (Zabardast)
An expedition film in the form of a multi-voice travel diary, where all emotions pass through the spectators who are immersed for three weeks with these riders and guides in the Karakoram massif in Pakistan.
It has an average vote of 7.8 on TMDB.
6. Ishq e Qalandar - The Beautiful Sindh
Ishq e Qalandar - The Beautiful Sindh is a travel film that takes viewers through one of the most ancient civilizations on Earth called Sindh. Shezan Saleem Jo-G takes a journey of self-realization, the discovery of his roots, and building a connection with people and spirituality in Sindh.
7. MALALA: A Girl From Paradise
Sixteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban for being outspoken about her country’s education system. The Pakistani government spends seven times more on its military than on education. The Taliban banned girls from attending school. Pakistan’s literacy rate is among the lowest in the world, with the number of school aged children who don’t attend school is second highest globally. Malala survived and is now the youngest person to ever be awarded the Nobel peace Prize for her activism for female education. This is the story of Malala’s fight for a right to education and freedom.
8. Snow Leopard: Beyond the Myth
BBC The Natural World. In 2004, a team from the Planet Earth series captured the first ever film of a wild snow leopard in the mountains of Pakistan. For Nisar Malik, who led the expedition, these images sparked a passion that compelled him to return. With cameraman Mark Smith, he spent two years documenting the snow leopard's daily life, finally lifting the veil on the most elusive of all cats.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
9. Biblioburro, the Donkey Library (Biblioburro, the Donkey Library)
This documentary follows the life of a one-of-a-kind man, and his one-of-a-kind library. Luis Soriano is a Colombian schoolteacher who spends weekends taking his donkey, and book collection, to the poverty-ridden towns of Magdalena Province. Facing down drug dealers, dangerous creatures, and overbearing heat, Soriano bravely faces down fear to promote education and literature.
10. How I Like It (How I Like It)
In Pakistan, the public space is dominated by men. The confidence with which they walk the streets or weight train quickly disappears once they are confronted with female sexuality. Off-screen, several anonymous women talk about their sexuality. The images of the conventional partiarchal society are in sharp contrast to the liberating explicitness of the accounts of clit stimulation, sex with multiple partners, pissing, abortions, and rape.
11. Bats, Balls and Bradford Girls
This BBC Three film follows the first all Asian girls’ cricket team over the summer holidays as they train for their last ever tournament together. The team started at school four years ago when their only experience of cricket was their dads and brothers watching it on the TV. In spite of this, they took to it like naturals and began winning almost all of the tournaments they entered. Last year they lost out on becoming National champions at Lords by only one run.
12. In the Shadow of Karakorum (Im Schatten des Karakorum)
In 1954, a German-Austrian expedition led by Mathias Rebitsch set off for the difficult-to-access Karakoram Mountains, geographically north of the Himalayas. They come across the Hunza, a people who live in the valley of the same name and believe they are descended from the soldiers of Alexander the Great. The documentary conveys impressions of the poor life of the Hunza people, the harvest, a court hearing, festivals and the children's everyday school life. Finally, the expedition sets off again and sets up its main camp on the moraine ridge of a glacier, where they measure the glacier and the earth's magnetic field. Finally, some men from the research community set off for a sub-peak of Batura.
13. Outlawed in Pakistan
Outlawed in Pakistan tells the story of Kainat Soomro as she takes her rape case to Pakistan's deeply flawed court system in hopes of getting justice. The 13-year-old Kainat accuses four men of gang rape and shortly after is ordered to be killed by her village elders. Spanning over five years, the story is told through the perspective of Kainat and the four men accused of her rape.
14. Mazar Sharif (مزار شریف)
An Iranian diplomat who miraculously survived Taliban's raid on the Iranian consulate in Mazar E Sharif narrates his 19 days of hide and escape to reach Iran's borders meanwhile on the other side, the Iranian troops are preparing for retaliation.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
15. Glorious Resolve
The film based on a true story, tells the story of two soldiers who fought off an assault by 1500 attackers while defending section level outpost of an Infantry Battalion in South Waziristan Agency. 43 soldiers were killed in the battle on the night of 29 May 2009.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
16. Information for/from Outsiders: Chronicles from Kashmir
Chronicles from Kashmir seeks to create a sense of “balance”: between differently positioned voices that emerge when speaking about Kashmir; between differently placed narratives on the “victim”/“perpetrator” spectrum. While there is an inevitable streak of political commentary that runs throughout the work – a political current that cannot be escaped when talking about Kashmir – Chronicles from Kashmir does not espouse any one political ideology. We see ourselves as being artists and educators, using aesthetics and pedagogy to engage audiences with diverse perspectives from/about the Valley.
17. Bo Kata (Bo Kata)
Bo Kata, loosely translated in English means hacked! That is the victory battle cry when kites are eliminated in raging sky duels, sometimes lasting hours. Filmed entirely in Lahore, Pakistan, over three continuous days, Bo Kata is a rare cinematic documentary treat, depicting uniquely the rooftop kite flyers of Lahore, who have been a traditional part of Pakistan's culture and heritage that has lasted for over 400 years. Their sport is now under threat from a complete ban, after a series of tragic fatalities involving children and motorcyclists, resulting in decapitations and dismemberment from illegal chemically coated strings used to fly the kites. The documentary highlights a population that is associated with the mysterious art of kite dueling amidst the political backdrop of an impending ban
18. A Word for Human
The library is a stronghold of humanism, but today libraries are more than places for borrowing books. At the Royal Library in the heart of Copenhagen, researchers and intermediaries work side by side with the library's visitors who come to read and study, but also to participate in talks, concerts, lectures and exhibitions that fill the halls all year round. This documentary looks behind the scenes in a year where Marina Abramovic and Olafur Eliasson contribute to the program, and where colonial history and climate change take center stage.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
19. Displaced Perssons (Familjen Persson i främmande land)
Per Persson left Sweden 40 years ago. In Pakistan he fell in love and became the father of two daughters. Trouble starts when the girls grow up and the family decides to emigrate to Sweden. When they end up living in a caravan outside Hässleholm, all their expectations are dashed.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
20. Sadpara The Mountaineer (Sadpara The Mountaineer)
(Sadpara The Mountaineer)
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
