Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy: Oscar Win For Pakistani-Canadian Who Says She Has Struggled To Make Films In Canada
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a Pakistani-Canadian won the best documentary short Oscar for "Saving Face." The film is about women in her home country disfigured after their husbands’ attacked them with acid.
First Posted: 02/27/2012 11:51 amUpdated: 03/ 1/2012 9:35 pm
Prime Minister Stephen Harper congratulated renowned Canadian Actor Christopher Plummer this morning for his Oscar win in Hollywood last night but his press release was mum on another winner with Canadian ties.
Obaid-Chinoy told the Star she came to Canada after getting married. "It seemed like the kind of country where there were no stories for me — no human rights violations, no women subjugated. But when you live in a country, then you understand its issues," she said.
"Highway of Tears," her film about aboriginal women in Canada was released in 2006. She approached the CBC with a proposal but they didn't respond. Al Jazeera International, however, did and ended up funding the project.
"I'd like to do a film in Canada," she told the newspaper, "but it's too difficult. National Film Board funding takes too long, and there's too much paperwork; by the time the film is approved the topic is dead and gone."
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper congratulated renowned Canadian Actor Christopher Plummer this morning for his Oscar win in Hollywood last night but his press release was mum on another winner with Cana...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper congratulated renowned Canadian Actor Christopher Plummer this morning for his Oscar win in Hollywood last night but his press release was mum on another winner with Cana...
Ruksana told us that she was happily married with two children until she started having problems with her sister-in-law and mother-in-law, who then turned her husband against her. They held her down, threw acid on her and locked her up in her room.
The forthcoming Oscar-nominated documentary Saving Facetrails Mohammad Jawad as he returns to Pakistan, the country of his birth, to help victims of acid violence.
Never go to the second largest country in the world with the smallest population and expect fast food funding. And besides, the issue she wanted to expose is still in the run and will be for years.
Whistlejackett: Never go to the second largest country in the world
If your good, you don't require funding. If you can't do it yourself instead of the taxpayers' dime, move on to a job you can handle and make a living at.
Canadians' don't need more sashaying dancers waving their arms to the tune of millions.
move on.
e_mac: If your good, you don't require funding. If you can't
You're right e mac. Get government out of this sort of funding. And of course out of the business of funding private sector projects of any sort too. Like, oh I don't know... cheerleading and tax breaks for oil pipelines, or mining projects, or car company bailouts... cuz we don't need any sashaying free-market capitalists with their grubby palms out to the tune of millions. That's kinda what you're saying right? You're against any public taxpayer dollars being spent to subsidize anything right? Cuz I'd hate to think you just had a problem with artsy types.
TheatreType: You're right e mac. Get government out of this sort
NFB funding takes a long time, and frogs are waterproof.
Her comments show up the failure of CTV and Global
to fund anything but reality show pablum
with their courtesy of the taxpayer Broadcast Fund.
Her work is shown on More4 in the UK and HBO in the USA,
because their private broadcasters have brains, guts and initiative, which
Canadiain privates like Sun, CTV, Global, Corus, etc, etc, it seems,
do not.
BigLittle: NFB funding takes a long time, and frogs are waterproof.
Typical! Canadian Governments refused to acknowledge Air India victims as a Canadian tragedy, allowed the RCMP and others to get away with murder by tunnel vision, incompetence and ignorance and barely convicted the criminal who caused the deaths.
Canada is falling back because it does not appreciate the best and the brightest who grace its shores.
As in hockey, we scream we're #1 but get beaten by every two bit country.
fromdnorth: Typical! Canadian Governments refused to acknowledge Air India victims as
The glory years of the NFB are long gone. They had their budget slashed by +30% in 1996, under the Liberals, and have continued to be cut, in recent years. They produce less and less original content, because they have a smaller and smaller amount of money for actual film production. Out of fear for additional cuts from a government largely opposed to state-funded cultural institutions like the NFB, they embarking on fewer and fewer cutting-edge, challenging film projects like this one.
The end result: high quality stories like this fall through the cracks, and the credit goes to overseas organisations like Al-Jazeera for supporting a winning project. Meanwhile, the NFB's prestige dwindles.
bentrepublic: The glory years of the NFB are long gone. They
I think this brings up a really relevant issue right now in Canada - there is TOO MUCH government. Too many bureaucrats creating red tape trying to justify their jobs ..
I know nothing will come of Obaid-Chinoy's comments but still it's nice to hear a public figure bring this subject up.
ShelG: I think this brings up a really relevant issue right
I've always heard it's easier to make films in Canada than in the US because of government grant money. That's why so many American TV shows have been filmed in Canada (X-files, Macgyver) and many American directors have made films up there (Bob Clark, George Romero, Terry Gilliam)
ugod84: I've always heard it's easier to make films in Canada
Canada gives tax breaks to tv shows and major studios not so much grants as tax breaks & you have to have the funding in order to not pay taxes on it... location costs are low and at one point the American dollar went a lot further.
she's talking about getting funding, something the National Film Board is supposed to do, Documentaries are not profitable but they are educational and for that reason I support my tax dollars being used for films
The arts are being attacked in this country right now. The economic situation in this country is prime for certain political parties to attack funding for the arts.
youhavetobekiddingme: Canada gives tax breaks to tv shows and major studios
Ha!
Her husband is an investment banker and he didn't seem interested in financing his wifes films.
Oh yeah!
Investment bankers would be expecting to make money on a film.
Whereas the National Film Board of Canada........
Still, no excuse for being too lazy to fill out some paper work.
Enjoy your moment in the sun lady.
Warren_Yuill: Ha! Her husband is an investment banker and he didn't
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First Posted: 02/27/2012 11:51 am Updated: 03/ 1/2012 9:35 pm