Award-winning filmmaker Samar Minallah Khan on documentaries as tools for social change
Samar shares how she advocates for Pakistani girls and women through her films. (Courtesy of Samar Minallah Khan)
Samar shares how she advocates for Pakistani girls and women through her films.
For Pakistani filmmaker Samar Minallah Khan, documentaries are more than an art form — they're also a tool for social change.
In her first film, “Swara (A Bridge over Troubled Waters),” Samar profiled victims of Swara, a practice where families force girls into marriage as reparation for serious crimes committed by their fathers, brothers or uncles. The 2003 film proved to be an important tool in raising awareness about this issue and even helped ensure the government amended the law and made Swara a non-cognizable and non-bailable offence.
Originally a freelance journalist for local English newspapers in Pakistan, Samar wrote about issues affecting girls and women in rural areas, such as child labour, early marriage and honour killings. (Courtesy of Samar Minallah Khan)
Following the success of “Swara,” Samar created the award-winning documentary “OutSwing,” which tells the story of a girl’s cricket team in the outskirts of Islamabad and illustrates how sports can break gender barriers and empower girls.
Originally a freelance journalist for local English newspapers in Pakistan, Samar wrote about issues affecting girls and women in rural areas, such as child labour, early marriage and honour killings. She transitioned into filmmaking after she realised the girls and women she was writing about wouldn’t be able to read her articles. “So that's when I realised that if I make films in our local languages, I'll be able to share those things with our audiences in the rural areas,” Samar explains.
“The most important thing is that whatever I make should be okay with the girls or women that I have interviewed, so that when I show them, they don’t feel cheated.”
When working on a film, Samar’s priority is her subjects. “The most important thing is that whatever I make should be okay with the girls or women that I have interviewed, so that when I show them, they don't feel cheated. They don't feel betrayed,” she shares. “I want them to feel comfortable and not feel betrayed by the way I’ve shown them.”
I spoke with Samar to learn more about her journey to filmmaking and how she used her films to spark change and fight for unheard voices in mainstream media.
Chisom Onyekwere (CO): What does your creative process look like? How do you plan and prepare a story to tell?
Samar Minallah (SM): When I started, I knew it had to be something that moved me emotionally. A story that I felt from my heart I need to do something about. That's when I would pick up my camera. I knew how to edit it. So, I would do it all on my own. For like 10 years, I would just pick up the camera, go to different areas just to record the voices of children and women and then amplify their problems in cities and for policymakers. Now whenever there's a film, I work with other cameramen so that I can focus on the form of storytelling and let them do their job — the editing and filmmaking. That's how it evolved.
CO: You created an amazing film called “Outswing,” which is about a Cricket coach empowering girls in Islamabad through the sport. What were the challenges you faced when creating that film? How did you overcome those challenges?
SM: “Outswing” was a film where I would just go and visit a school, which is in the suburbs of Islamabad. The school's name is called Mashal. And it has been started by a lady called Zeba as a charity-based school. The aim of the school is to give education to children who can't afford it. Most of these children work as child labourers or have to earn money to support their families. For them to get a chance to go to school was like a dream come true. So I visited the school and thought, how can I volunteer there? How can I help them in whatever they're doing? That’s when I came across this cricket team that they have. I saw these little girls coming in all covered in their white trousers and playing cricket as if gender was not at all an issue. And the main thing that inspired me was the coach who was working with them, teaching them how to play cricket. He was a man. Yet the kind of role that he played in their lives — reaching out to their families to convince them how important it is for these girls to play cricket and just treating these girls like sportspeople, not as tiny, fragile girls who have other issues in them — was so inspiring.
The biggest challenge was that since their lives were otherwise so difficult and so challenging, I just had to let them decide when they were comfortable talking to me in front of the camera. At times a death would happen in a family and the project would be stalled. And so the whole process was very challenging because I had to be very, very sensitive. I had to talk to their parents and get their permission. That's why it took very long for me to finish this film.
CO: What advice would you give to other young women around the world looking to create impactful films and inspire change?
SM: From what I've learned so far, the more authentic it is, the stronger the impact. Because at times we forget and we want to follow a particular formula that happens in Hollywood or internationally. But we have to follow our own instincts, our own gut feeling. What would be more impactful? What would be more authentic? Even if it doesn't resonate with the international media. So for me, the most important thing is that whatever I make should be okay with the girls or women that I have interviewed, so that when I show them, they don't feel cheated. They don't feel betrayed. I don't care what the West thinks about my work. I want [the girls and women I interview] to feel comfortable and not feel betrayed by the way I’ve shown them.
CO: Can you share any specific anecdotes from your filmmaking career that taught you a valuable lesson?
SM: When I started making films, I started as a very angry activist. But the more I interviewed fathers and mothers, I realised there was a soft part in them. For them, to stand up for their sisters or daughters was a very heroic act. And that is what I learned from my filmmaking experience.
“One should never underestimate what one is able to achieve as long as it's coming from your passion and your heart,” Samar shares. (Courtesy of Samar Minallah Khan)
CO: What do you enjoy most about being a filmmaker?
SM: When whoever I'm interviewing starts to trust me and opens up in front of me. It just makes me very happy and humbled. And of course, the encouraging response I receive once a film is made and I share it with a wider audience.
CO: When you look back on your career path, what surprises you?
SM: When I was making my first film, I reached out to people in different companies, asking them if they could keep me as an intern. I was not interested in being paid. I just wanted to know how filmmaking happens. For me, it was the ultimate dream —- that someone should show me the process. But when I look back now, I just feel so grateful that I just need to pick up the story that interests me.
CO: Is there anything else you'd like to add that we haven't covered?
SM: One should never underestimate what one is able to achieve as long as it's coming from your passion and your heart. And then you don’t know what types of goals you can achieve. And I think empathy is one of the strongest tools one can use while storytelling.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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