Quick Facts
Biography
Sabiha Sumar is a Pakistani filmmaker.
Personal life
Born in Karachi in 1961, Sabiha Sumar studied Filmmaking and Political Science at Sarah Lawrence College in New York from 1980–83 and then read History and Political Thought at Cambridge University.
Career
Sabiha Sumar has earned acclaim for her independent films, which deal with political and social issues such as the effects of religious fundamentalism on society, and especially on women.
Her first feature film, Silent Waters (Khamosh Pani) played in film festivals around the world. Silent Waters won the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2003.
Sabiha's first documentary, Who Will Cast the First Stone, about three women in prison in Pakistan under Islamic law won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1998. It led to the quashing of death-by-stoning sentence for Shahida Parveen, accused of adultery
Her documentary films include Don't Ask Why (1999), For a Place Under the Heavens (2003), On the roofs of Delhi (2007), and Dinner with the President (2007). In 2013, her latest feature film Good Morning Karachi was released. For a Place Under the Heavens kicked off a critical debate on women wearing the hijab in the Muslim World.
In 1992 Sumar founded Vidhi Films.
Filmography
- Films
- Khamosh Pani (2003)
- Good Morning Karachi (2013)
- Azmaish – Trials of Life (2016—Filming)
- Television
- Khuda Dekh Raha Hai (2015)
- "Kalki Koechlin teams up with Pakistani director for a documentary". The Indian Express. 19 May 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2016.