Documentary Films By Anwar Jamal

The biggest reason for female foeticide is illiteracy. And the second biggest reason is, there aren't enough people like Anwar Jamal.

The Documentary Circle of the Hyderabad Film Club and COVA are together screening the documentary film Uska Aana, and two episodes from the series Zinda Itihaas, directed by Anwar Jamal, at Prasad Studios, near L V Prasad Eye Institute, Banjara Hills, on 3rd October 2006.

The 30-minute Uska Aana, produced by the Delhi-based NGO Ekatra, addresses the issue of female foeticide, one of the most alarming issues India is facing today. Without being preachy, the film seeks to jolt the conscience of civil society.

Ekatra is engaged with the issues of female foeticide and violence against women in the states of Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.  The film is a visual presentation of these themes.

Anwar Jamal supported himself through freelance journalism for his Masters in Hindi Literature, and later in Mass Communications. While studying, he actively supported Anand Patwardhan, a well-known documentary filmmaker, and worked on 3 of his films.

Anwar's first independent documentary was The Call Of Bhagirathi, on the question of development and big dams. This film was selected in the Indian Panorama, and won the First National Award as Best Investigative Film, in 1992. Anwar Jamal has done a series of sensitive biographies, for National Television, on various Hindi writers and and poets like Upendranath Ashk, Baba Nagarjuna, Hari Shankar Parsai and Ale Ahmed Suroor. He has produced and directed Zinda Itihaas, a series on living cultural legends in India.

He has also produced independent documentaries, The Women Betrayed, Sonamaati and Kol Tales, all of which received national and international awards. Jamal has also won critical acclaim for his film Swaraj - the Little Republic, which bagged the National Award and has been shown in about 50 international film festivals.

Please contact Bh S S Prakash Reddy, Secretary of Hyderabad Film Club, at 93910-20243, or Sumanaspati Reddy at 98852-69369 for further details.