SYNOPSIS
ABU is a journey to the center of a fragmented family while they grapple with religion, sexuality, colonialism and migration. Through a tapestry of narratives composed of family footage, observation and classic Bollywood films, gay-identifying Pakistani-Muslim filmmaker Arshad Khan takes viewers through the tense relationships between family and fate, conservatism and liberalism and modernity and familiarity.
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DIRECTOR'S PROFILE​
ARSHAD KHAN
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Khan is a multiple-award-winning filmmaker, film festival director, festival strategist and film educator from Canada. Born in Pakistan, Khan believes in cinema as a catalyst for change. He hopes to make films that shed light on subjects that are ignored by the mainstream media. He is interested in realism in cinema and the new wave in South Asian cinema, yet not restricted to any one cinematic genre. ABU is his first feature documentary and has already won awards and critical praise around the world.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
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My family happens to be obscenely well documented. My father loved photography and he loved technology and documentation. We have photos from as far back as the 1930s. I wanted to use as much archival video and photography in my film as possible because I wanted there to be as clear a testament of our history and culture as possible in my film so that future generations will know - yes, the Wasi Khan family was a family worthy of our respect.
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​The need to keep the film as archive heavy as possible with the least amount of new footage meant the challenge to edit it was a gargantuan task for my editor Editor Gagnon, but he worked his magic because this film is nothing short of a miracle. ​
FILM CREDITS
Writer/ Director/ Producer : Arshad Khan (gray matter productions)
Producer: Sergeo Kirby (Loaded Pictures)
Editor: Étienne Gagnon
Sound Design: Sylvain Bellemare
Music Composer: Michael Robert Snow
Animation: Davide Di Saro
Characters: Arshad Khan, Asma Mahmood, Arjumand Bano
AWARDS
Winner Jury Prize - Seattle Twist 2017
Winner Jury Prize - Austin aGLIFF 2017
Honourable Mention - New York Newfest 2017
STILLS
