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CSAS Film Series | Perween Rahman: The Rebel Optimist

Directed by by Mahera Omar
Saturday, March 30, 2019
2:45-3:45 PM
Room 1010 | 10th Floor Event Space Weiser Hall Map
This documentary is part of Traveling Film South Asia 2018.

"No one is safe in this city. Those who think otherwise are living in a fool's paradise", says Perween's best friend and colleague Anwar Rashid as he navigates the chaotic roads of Karachi. An architect and urban planner, Perween Rahman dedicated her life for the poor of Pakistan. She was shot dead by armed assailants on her way home in March 2013. When she joined the Karachi based Orangi Pilot Project, founded by Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, Orangi's lanes were full of filth and choking gutters. Back in the early 80s, the people of Orangi, most of them migrants from India and Bangladesh, were taking their own steps to improve sanitation. Dr. Khan assigned Perween the task of developing a low cost sanitation model for Orangi. Perween's pioneering work in Orangi led her on a collision course with the various mafias in the city. She surveyed the water supply to Karachi and pinpointed locations from where water is being stolen from the bulk supply lines. She mapped and documented Karachi's informal settlements to provide the poor security against land grabbers. Perween had an alternate vision for the development of Karachi. "Development doesn't come from concrete. Development is not five star hotels and mega road projects. What we need is human development."

About the Director:
Mahera Omar is a documentary filmmaker and co-founder of the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology. After a brief stint doing laboratory research on the structure of proteins at the Tufts University Department of Biochemistry, she moved back to the city by the sea, Karachi. While in college, she co-produced and directed Dispatches from the Loo, a feature film about a love triangle shot entirely in a loo. Her short film Piano premiered at the vintage 3rd Kara Film Festival. Her other short films include Makhan Toast, Time's fun when you're having files and Aik tha jin. She directed Janu Janwar, a weekly series on animals for Geo Television. Her documentary Sea Turtles was nominated for the Humane Society of the United States 22nd Genesis Award in the Brigitte Bardot International category. She's currently working on a feature length documentary about the birds of Karachi, and is on a dream journey recording qawwali and classical music across Pakistan.

If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend this event, please reach out to us at least 2 weeks in advance of this event. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Building: Weiser Hall
Event Type: Film Screening
Tags: Asia, Film
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Center for South Asian Studies, International Institute, Asian Languages and Cultures