Sabiha Sumar

Sabiha Sumar (born 29 September 1961) is a Pakistani filmmaker and producer. She is best known for her independent documentary films. Her first feature-length film was Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters), released in 2003. She is known for exploring themes of gender, religion, patriarchy and fundamentalism in Pakistan.^[1]

She, along with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Samar Minallah, are some of the Pakistani women independent documentary filmmakers to have screened their work outside of Pakistan.^[2]

Early life[edit]

Sumar was born in Karachi in 1961. Her parents were originally from Bombay (now Mumbai) and moved to Karachi during partition. When Sumar was growing up, her parents hosted many social gatherings that included Sufi poetry, music and liquor.^[2] She attended Karachi Grammar School.^[3]

Sumar studied Persian Literature at the University of Karachi,^[3] followed by Filmmaking and Political Science at Sarah Lawrence College in New York from 1980–83. She completed her post-graduate degree from Cambridge University, England in International Relations.^[2]

Career[edit]

Sabiha Sumar has earned acclaim for her independent films, which deal with political and social issues such as the effects of religious fundamentalism on society, and especially on women. Sumar's main interest has been on addressing primarily Pakistani women's place in the world and how different aspects of society have affected them over the past several decades. Sumar's first documentary, Who Will Cast the First Stone, deals with the state of three women in prison in Pakistan under the Hudood Ordinances.^[3] It won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1998. The film led to the quashing of death-by-stoning sentence for Shahida Parveen, who was accused of adultery. In 1992 Sumar founded Vidhi Films. Her documentary films include Don't Ask Why (1999), For a Place Under the Heavens (2003), On the roofs of Delhi (2007), and Dinner with the President: A Nation's Journey (2007). Her film, Suicide Warriors, is about women in the Tamil Liberation Army. For a Place Under the Heavens addressed issues of religion, history and phallocentrism and gender.^[1] For a Place Under the Heavens kicked off a critical debate on women wearing the hijab in the Muslim World. In 2013, her latest feature film Good Morning Karachi was released. Her films have circulated internationally through film festivals, American universities, women’s organizations and human rights organizations. Sumar’s films have not been widely screened in Pakistan due to its content.^[2] Don’t Ask Why aired on a German-French channel.^{[citation needed]} Sumar produced Oscar-winning documentary film Saving Face.^{[citation needed]}

Her first feature film is Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters). It first aired in 2003. Khamosh Pani is a fictional film that looks at religion, gender, honour killings, assault, trauma and colonialism in the wake of partition. It depicts the trauma of partition through a woman’s point of view. Sumar links the violent aftermath of partition to the violence of Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization in 1979.^[4] The latter is a theme she explores in her other work as well, namely For a Place Under the Heavens.^[5] Sumar continues in the tradition of Partition cinema, among the likes of Deepa Mehta, Kamal Hasan, and Chadraprakash Dwivdei.^[1] Khamosh Pani is one of the first films to offer a perspective on partition cinema from a Muslim lens. Khamosh Pani was initially supposed to be a documentary film. When Sumar was researching for the film, she did not want to make her subjects relive trauma. The film is a fictional narrative that looks at the necessity of silence in face of healing from trauma.^[5] Sumar received funding for Khamosh Pani from a number of international sources, including France, Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden. Most of the film was shot in Pakistan.^[6][5] Khamosh Pani won fourteen international awards. It won Best Screenplay at the third KaraFilm Festival in 2003. Sumar won the Golden Leopard for Best Film at the Locarno International Film Festival. She also won the Audience Award and Silver Montgolfiere at the Nantes Three Continents Festival. Khamosh Pani is a First Run title endorsed by the Human Rights Watch.^[6] Sumar faced difficulty finding places to screen the film in Pakistan due to its controversial themes. Sumar organised forty-one free screenings of the film across Pakistan.^[5] The film sparked a controversy regarding the main character’s suicide after its screening at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.^[6]

Personal life[edit]

She has one daughter, Dhiya, who accompanied Sumar in For a Place Under the Heavens. Sumar established the Centre for Social Science Research in Karachi.^[2]

Filmography[edit]

Awards and nominations^[6][7][edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Sabiha Sumar at IMDb
• Profile at vidhifilms.com
• Women of Pakistan feature
• New York Times review of "Silent Waters"
• Video Interview of Sabiha Sumar
• "Sabiha Sumar: "I began to realize I could be in prison."". Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary. National Film Board of Canada. Archived from the original on 3 July 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2009.