Urooj Niazi 
canadian film fest showcases culture in lahore
Canadian Film Festival Promotes Culture in Lahore
The Lahore Arts Council collaborated with the High Commission of Canada to host a Canadian Film Festival at Alhamra to foster cultural exchange and understanding between Canada and Pakistan.
The festival screened eight wonderfully compelling films, each dealing with themes of social impossibility. The festival opened with Monsieur Pug, an animated film that investigates the themes of identity and self through telling the story of a character that chooses to hide inside a pug dog in order to escape society’s technology and judgement.
Moving to the 21st century, the film called Social Me assessed the sometimes complicated effects of social media. Tying Your Own Shoes celebrated characters with Down syndrome and appeared to celebrate resilience, despite seemingly clear social barriers to inclusion.
Metamorphosis was an environmental documentary which referred to the lifetime change of a butterfly as a metaphor for change of human behaviour relating to the urgency to act on climate change and the conservation of biodiversity. There was even a horror film called In Flames, directed by Zarrar Khan and Anum Abbas, which added an hilarious, sudden dynamic to this festival – set in the local environment of Karachi, this film was celebrated for its powerful emotional experience while blending interesting aspects of cultural transformation, including the juxtaposition of oddly-seeming symbols.
Two very relevant films to show were Voices of Tolerance and The Spread of Hate Speech in Pakistan by soscript media’s Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, which identified discrimination in all forms and advocates for diversity.
