Iram Parveen Bilal

Iram Parveen Bilal is an international filmmaker and entrepreneur. In 2012 her first feature film Josh: Independence Through Unity debuted at the Mumbai Film Festival.

Bilal was raised in Nigeria and Pakistan, she came to America to study at the California Institute of Technology. She graduated with her B.S, honors, in Environmental Science Engineering. Upon graduating, Bilal was awarded a unique opportunity with the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a travel fellowship grant that took her around the world.

Filmmaker

Bilal began her career in film by getting her M.F.A. at the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California. Her most recent film Josh: Independence Through Unity is a mystery thriller set in Karachi that follows an upper class woman who becomes determined to find out what happened to her missing caretaker. Her journey takes her to a nearby village run by a feudal lord, and in the process endangers herself and others. The story tackles themes of feudalism, youth movements, poverty, and the challenges of trying to do good amidst social unrest.

Other feature projects in development have received attention by IFP, The Academy’s Nicholl Writing Fellowship, Mumbai Sankalan Lab, Film Independent and Women In Film. Prominent awards and honors include the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Stark Special Project Scholarship, Mabel Beckman Leadership Award, Paul Studenski Fellowship and the Dean’s Cup. In March 2013, she was asked to give a TedX talk entitled "Get Uncomfortable Now" at Caltech.

Qalambaaz

In 2014 Bilal initialed Qalambaaz, a platform that provides mentors and nurtures the growth of screenplay writers through competition. The screenplay writing competition was recently launched at The Second Floor (T2F) under Bilal's banner Parveen Shah Productions. Bilal clarifies that the platform does not promise funding for filmmakers, but guarantees a final product that can be sold as a possible feature film production.