Pakistani filmmaker bags two awards at New York Film Festival

Pakistani filmmaker Shehzad Hameed Ahmed won two awards for his acclaimed documentaries ‘Whiter Shades of terror’ and ‘Caught in the Crossfire’ in the category of human rights and human concerns at New York International Film Festival 2020.

In the category for ‘human concerns’, Ahmed’s documentary ‘Whiter shades of terror which is based on white supremacist terrorism in the Christchurch shootings last year, won the Silver Award whereas in the second category of ‘human rights’, his film titled ‘Caught in the cross fire’ bagged the bronze award.

The film ‘Caught in the cross fire’, is a part of Ahmed’s two-part documentary, orbits around the plight of people living in the war-torn country Afghanistan.

Revolving around the lives of three civilians: a journalist, a female street artist and a young army cadet, the film portrays their never-ending struggles during the war between Afghanistan and Taliban.

For the second part of the film titled ‘The battle for Kabul’, Ahmed got rare access into Taliban badlands, to understand why the Taliban have such a grip over the territory despite 18 years having passed since America's invasion of the country.

While embarking on the project, he was also on the front line with the Afghanistan Army to better understand how to project a true-to-life version of events.

Ahmed graduated from the New York University in 2014 and has also won several international awards, including the 2014 International Cooperation Award from the King of Spain.

Previously, Shehzad also won a gold medal at the New York Festival in 2016 for his documentary ‘Flight of the Falcons’, a Silver World Medal for Kasur’s Lost Children in 2017, a Silver World Medal for ‘Rise and Fall of Mujib’ in 2019, along with a Bronze for Nepal’s Child Brides.