Just a month until principal photography begins, stay tuned for news & updates!
Here's a blurb about Road to Peshawar's chicago screening! DesiTalk Chicago Article
It's exciting to announce Shamak's initial videos are all available online - watch the videos below to take a tour of the Leave a Footprint campaign! The Shamak Story Shamak & Partners
Leaving a Footprint Why Education
It's been a long road getting Shamak ready for launch, but we're very close and I'm excited to share the video campaign that will go along with it :) Also, I'll be announcing the working title of my thesis film soon....stay tuned Sadly some links such as RTP's first review have expired. However the editor at the Desert Sun was generous to dig out the article for me. So here it is!
ShortFest Reviews: 'Road to Peshawar'
By Bruce Fessier - The Desert Sun
Director: Hammad Rizvi
Cast: Yasmine Al-Bustami, Philip Kreyche, Mustafa Faiz, Isabela Costine
Story line: An Afghan father takes his blinded daughter across the dangerous Peshawar Pass during the Afghan-Soviet war to receive better medical aid than they can get on the Afghan side of the border. When the dad steps on a land mine, a Russian soldier feels compelled to respond to the little girl's cries for help.
Score card: 9 (out of 10). Rizvi has written and directed a remarkable image-driven student film. The story depicts the humanity of individuals on both sides of the war and the sad reality of the old saw, "No good deed goes unpunished." Faiz tugs at the heart strings with his performance as a father trying to respond to his frightened daughter as his lays dying, and Kreyche takes the drama to another level when he shows a soldier's conflict between helping the little girl and complying with his commanding officer's order to leave her stranded amid the field of land mines. The ending is surprising, perhaps unlikely, but satisfying.
Road to Peshawar will be playing alongside an awesome group of films at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival! Here's the film guide:
Complete Film Guide
I'm not sure if I can make it, but if you're in Chitown come on out. It will be playing alongside Rat Race on September 21 - here's the screening info:
Screening Schedule
Saturday, June 23 at 1:00 PM.
Camelot Theatres, War & Remembrance
Be sure to come out! I'm also super delighted to announce Road to Peshawar has been nominated by Cinema Without Borders for the 2012 Bridging the Borders Award :)
If you can't make it, DVD screeners are also available at the Shortfest film market!
Road to Peshawar will be playing during the "War and Remembrance" segment of the 2012 Palm Springs Shortfest - June 23 at 1PM @ Camelot Theatres. CLICK FOR PROGRAM!
The lineup looks really exciting, so if you're in the area come on out!! In other news, Shamak is making good progress with the first promo "Story" completed - as well as merchandise well on it's way to ATX. Stay tuned :)
Road to Peshawar will be playing at Palm Springs Intl. Shortfest this year, June 19-25; I'll post details when I get them - but in the meantime check out their TV Spot link...RTP is featured in it! :)
Road to Peshawar will be screening at the Longhorn Film Showcase tomorrow (May 12, 6PM reception, at McCullough Theatre) along with a number of awesome, award-winning films! Come on out, it's free (yes, I'm sure there'll be snacks too). Here's some press on it:
http://weareaustin.com/lifestyle/features/austin-live/stories/vid_366.shtml
http://www.austin360.com/movies/the-best-of-uts-rtf-department-on-display-2350123.html
Don't forget to also check out the graduate thesis and pre-thesis screenings!
My upcoming thesis film is a finalist for the San Antonio Student Film Project! It's a pretty awesome grant with lots of goodies and $$$$$
www.studentfilmproject.com
Also in the running is my classmate Paavo's Tiny Tape Recorder. Keep fingers crossed!
The Houseboy, my upcoming short doc, is nearing its fine and final cut. After sound design and some final edits it'll be done!
With Shamak sandals nearing its launch date, Farhad and I agreed to shoot some relevant promos. Hence the idea was to obtain some footage of under-privileged Karachi children that would bring light to Shamak's focus on child illiteracy. However I soon realized "some footage" in a country like Pakistan was massively misleading. I got swept up in story after story, character after character, scenery after scenery. Few days and several late-night chai's later I obtained footage that could be the seedling for a very engaging documentary. Let's just see where this goes. [gallery]
Road to Peshawar is having a premiere at the San Francisco Intl. Asian American Film Festival. If you're in the Bay Area come on out!!
It plays in the White Elephant program at:
Friday, March 9, 9:45pm, Kabuki, San Francisco Saturday, March 17, 9:00pm, CAMERA 3, San Jose
Haze will be showing at the 37th Boston Science Fiction Film Festival!
February 10-20 at the Somerville Theatre. Possibly "the oldest genre fest in the world"?
Road to Peshawar just won student 2nd runner-up at Kuala Lumpur Intl Short Film Festival!
http://www.facebook.com/klis2012
The festival chose 40 shorts from 1,132 submissions - I'll post more details when I get them!
Rizvilia is growing up, and so is our website. Keep up to date with new projects, films, and random stuff all right here!
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