Behind the Scenes: The Women Filmmakers of New Pakistani Cinema

Abstract

In order to locate and contextualise the space women filmmakers occupy in what I refer to as New Pakistani Cinema (NPC), this article highlights the eight women directors of NPC, whose films were released between 2013 and 2018: Afia Nathaniel, Iram Parveen Bilal, Meenu Gaur, Mehreen Jabbar, Momina Duraid, Sabiha Sumar, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Shazia Ali Khan. In doing so, this article also touches upon women working behind the scenes as producers and writers (often in multiple roles on the same film as director, producer and/or writer) to illustrate how women filmmakers have played a key role in establishing NPC in its early years. Starting with initial releases in 2013, NPC functions within a complex terrain, informed in part by new industry players, the crossing of borders in the production of films, the role of foreign content in Pakistani cinemas and an engagement with regional and global themes situated within a local context. Therefore, NPC and the evolving cinema culture that surrounds it demand unique and innovative forms and avenues of production, distribution and exhibition, along with distinct emerging imaginaries that are an amalgamation of the local, national, regional and global. It is within the temporal and spatial intersections of these different processes that we can begin to situate these women filmmakers.