Faculty members of media schools discuss what went wrong when we tried to formalise film education in Pakistan.
It is no coincidence that the rebirth of cinema in Pakistan has coincided with a rise in universities offering degrees in programmes like Media Sciences and Filmmaking. Despite this, universities tend to treat programmes such filmmaking in the same manner as other more popular degree programmes such as Business Administration, Social Sciences and Computer Sciences to name a few.
A perfect example of this can be how many of the institutes offering undergraduate degrees in these programmes tend to have a standardised test as part of the admission process. The tests tend to be very similar (or are exactly the same) to the entrance exams conducted for business and social sciences programmes being offered in the university. This not only reflects the non serious attitudes of universities towards a technical craft like film but also puts a question mark on the very existence of film schools in Pakistan.
Daniyal Ali Khan, a member of the Sindh Censor Board and former instructor at the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology Media Sciences department and Dean South Asian Academy of Motion Picture and Television (Saampt) before it closed down, concurs the absence of film schools in Pakistan.
“At the moment, there is no film school in the country as all of these departments are part of Business Schools and universities and are operating like businesses as well,” says Khan.
Dr Framji Minwalla, Assistant Professor and Chairperson of the Social Sciences & Liberal Arts department of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), on the other hand, noted that institutes should restructure their curriculums to ensure that they are not just producing “technicians”.
“Courses in film-making and film studies should be part of, but not the focus of, programmes in media studies. These programmes should offer courses on media and communication processes, media and communication history, theory, and so on. Students need to learn something about the media before they receive any practical training,” states Dr. Minwalla.
Despite being unable to maintain the same level of intensity and quality of the program universities have increased their student intake in the Media Sciences and Filmmaking programmes, which has resulted in a high student-to-faculty ratio.
“It is very impractical to have a high student-faculty ratio as each student would not be getting the attention they require. You can have more students in theoretical courses but not in practical courses in filmmaking,” states Khan
Ejaz Wasay, Dean of the Media Studies department at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM), explains the reason behind universities having standardised testing as part of their admission process saying, “Colleges and universities all over the world practice standardised testing and even art schools abroad require SAT and ACT scores.”
Despite this, he believes that the need for differentiating college admission testing by discipline cannot be “under-emphasised”. He added that one thing must be assessed before administering a proper testing process is that “how strong a foundation has been laid for the discipline, at the school level”.
On the other hand, Syed Hisham Masood, the Programme Incharge and Lecturer for the Department of Film & Video at the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture (IVS), believes that the best way of gauging any student’s aptitude for a program like film and television would be through a show reel or portfolio. Masood goes on to reason that since students are not given any prior education in film and video at school level, they don’t have any knowledge on how to make a portfolio or show reel.
Wasay is of the opinion that a major reason why universities have been unable to improve the standards of Media Sciences in Pakistan is due to the fact that institutes tend to offer the programme as “an alternative” to students who are unable to gain admission into their major programmes, such as business studies and sciences.
“That approach is wrong — as the burden then falls on the concerned department’s teaching faculty to not only improve the students’ language and critical thinking skills, but also raise their general motivation level,” remarked Wasay.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2015.
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COMMENTS (46)
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I don't actually see any research undertaken before writing this article, neither primary nor secondary. The writer and almost every person he quoted is misinformed. It's awfully sad how people of the higher authority in the hierarchy are so unaware of their own profession going on around in their own country. May it be the case with the universities of Karachi but then that does not allow you to give a statement out loud for all of Pakistan film institutes.
I happen to be one of the fortunate ones who have been studying film for the past 7 years. I took Media when I was in the 3rd year of my igcse in Roots Islamabad (which happens to exist on the Pakistani soil). I continued it in my Alevels. And then I took admission in the undergraduate film and tv program at NCA Lahore which held an absolutely 100% different admission test and an interview procedure as compared to a business school. (So, your point of 'no film on school level' and 'flawed admission procedure' is invalid). The number of intakes per year is 20. I repeat 20. I don't think that is much of a huge crowd on a university level for a teacher to handle. The opportunities and the amount of experience colleges are trying to provide their students despite the current circumstances of the country are worth appreciating.So, instead of demoralizing educational sectors. Kindly, do something good about it. The liberal film institutes are doing their best to survive in this country where our economy is in an absolute decline and where our people are looking for an excuse to kill each other.
Research my friend. Research!
The write up clearly emphasizes on the need of Film Academy in Pakistan! NCA Lahore and IVS Karachi are Art Institutions and offer filmmaking as a four-year discipline of choice and as minor studies respectively. However, it may be of some interest to you all that the South Asian Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Television (SAAMPT) was a film school in Karachi that was closed down abruptly. Please find link below for full story. Thank you,
http://tribune.com.pk/story/541057/is-the-show-over-drama-unfolds-at-film-school/
@Narimaan Aziz: Very well said Narimaan.
I'm amazed at some of the comments people have given here. It seems like the importance of having a cinema (a sophisticated and educated way of representation) eludes this nation. Quite a few of the commentators don't know film or film business. We are more comfortable in downloading pirated copies of Hollywood and Bollywood films and watching them on laptop screens. We don't even understand that a film is not made for such a small scale display. A film is made keeping in mind the dimension and proportions of a cinema screen.
I wish that reviving the cinema was as easy as it is being pointed out. We have film schools and departments in Pakistan which produce talented filmmakers. Unfortunately they cannot produce the investors or the producers. We need people who are willing to invest in films and people who are willing to trust young filmmakers with their money. Film is not a frivolous activity. It is a serious business. Countless people are involved in making a film. It is a collaborative art. Do have a look at the end credits when you watch a film (Almost all of the people get up from their seats the moment the film ends). The big budget of a film does not only go in the pocket of the actors. The real game is behind the camera. There is a whole army of crew involved in the making of a film. Many people earn their living through this business. Believe it or not there is nothing glamorous about the actual making of a film. For most of us film means red carpets, celebrities and awards. A film is only 0.1 % the red carpet. Rest of the 99.9% is sweat and blood. All those who have made a 5 to 10 minute film (script to screen) would definitely understand what I am saying.
I think the news channels and newspapers are doing more than enough to address the more pressing issues like shortage of patrol, load shedding, Imran Khan's wedding, wars and the political upheavals.
We, as a nation, need to rethink our priorities. Believe it or not in the world acting, filmmaking, painting, writing books, composing music, singing etc are serious full time professions. Arts, Cinema, Culture and Literature are not luxury. They are a necessity. Every human being needs relaxation. We all deserve a break. If cinema was a useless activity or if arts and literature were unimportant they would be extinct in today's world. They generate debate and float ideas in a society in a creative manner instead of shoving issues in the face like news media does. They survived and are flourishing in today's world because they enhance and enlighten human beings and help them grow. They make us humans. We need them because they are necessary for the survival of humanity.
Pakistan will have good film schools the day the industry starts making good films and producing good directors who can come and share their knowledge and skills with the students.
People need to come out of their tradition based approach of forcing their children to pursue serious degrees like BBA and Medicine. Liberal Arts and Communication studies are equally impressive degrees and are among the few qualifications that are respected abroad.
Why is an article on film schools generating so much interest. Wake up and smell the PETROL people there are other issues and conflicts that this country needs to sort out before taking care of film schools.
There are film schools ib the country. People always overlook Iqra University. Not only dooes the university have an excellent faculty but also brilliaant students who have made a name for themselves in the industry.
@Emjay - "we need people who can use the field of arts to spread awareness of social issues in the masses who seem to have been intoxicated to a deep sleep and only respond to mediums such as movies and dramas."
The same was said as the Internet and cable TV boom set in just after 2000. However we're seeing the effects of this with people like Amir Liaquat, Zaid Hamid using these media. Net-net - Any good tool in the hands of bad people will produce bad results.
Having said that, I agree with your post... Arts are vital to the society....
The only renowned film schools outside Karachi are NCA and BNU. And not even those two in my opinion qualify as proper film schools. As per my observation no Pakistani filmmaker is a product of the local film school. The closest we have come to is Nabeel Qureshi and he was a student at Napa; a place where they don’t even teach filmmaking.
I would also like to mention that the experts quoted in this article are giving broad and sweeping statements. Their statements might be true for institutes in Karachi. They are surely not true for the Film Departments in Punjab where we have specially designed syllabus and entry tests to make sure that we get the right students (who want to be filmmakers) and that we don't produce technicians.
Regards
I must say that the article is not well researched. The experts quoted in this article are actually not experts or filmmakers. The author decided to stick to Karachi only when he makes this sweeping statement. Karachi has never been the hub of film. Lahore is the hub. We have NCA and BNU who offer 4 year undergraduate degrees in Film & TV production. I must also mention Jamal Shah's Hunerkada. Dep of Film & TV, NCA has introduced 4k editing lab for students. This is the first time such a facility has been made available for the students in a public sector institute. The department has also been chosen by the US Embassy for pairing with a US university.
The education sector is doing its best to do its part. The government also needs to do its share. LUMS also held a conference in this regard. http://lums.edu.pk/sdsb/news-details.php/asp-lums-holds-research-dissemination-conference-2316. Kindly have a look. Keeping in mind the security situation in Pakistan for the past decade it is almost impossible to get foreign faculty on board. Still under the circumstances workshops are held with foreign tutors. Shayam Benegal, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri have visited NCA and BNU.
The experts quoted in this article are giving broad and sweeping statements. Their statements might be true for institutes in Karachi. They are surely not true for the Film Departments in Punjab where we have specially designed syllabus and entry tests to make sure that we get the right students (who want to be filmmakers) and that we don't produce technicians.
Regards
This article is not well researched. The author has limited himself to Karachi only whereas Karachi has never been the hub of Film. Lahore is the center. We have Film departments in Punjab too. BNU and NCA offer 4 year undergraduate degrees in Film & TV. I would also like to mention Hunerkada in Islamabad. Dep of Film & TV, NCA has introduced a state of the art fully functional 4k editing lab for the students. This is the first time that such a facility is available for students in any public sector university. It has also been chosen by the US Embassy for pairing with a US university.
I must mention that the education sector is doing its best. Instead of appreciating the efforts of film educationists such articles are published which have no basis. Keeping in mind the security situation of the country it is almost impossible to hire foreign faculty or foreign film practitioners. The institutes are doing the best that they can. The government must also do its share. The author should atleast be a part of the film milieu before writing about it. LUMS held a research conference in this regard. This is the link. http://lums.edu.pk/sdsb/news-details.php/asp-lums-holds-research-dissemination-conference-2316
I would like to request Express Tribune to kindly show more responsibility.
Regards
@Sana still it would not have hurt to talk to faculty members of Szabist.
Say what you want guys but there is sufficient amount of research in the article. Dr. Framji is part of Pakistan's Oscar committee and has a Doctorate in Fine Arts (DFA). The guy has taught at institutes like SZABIST, an institute best known for its Media Sciences program and if he is saying that there is no proper film school in the country at the moment then there must definitely be some logic behind this argument. Surely a man and educator of his reputation can not be just passing judgement and analysis for the sake of being featured in an article or publication.
Unique topic to write upon. It is very rare that a reader comes across features on topics such as Film Schools. Good Job!
@Shahrez Qureshi: The media is a "pressing issue" as it is being used to manufacture public opinion. The media is what dehumanizes Pakistanis and allows powerful nations to attack it willy nilly. Don't discount the power of the media.
We need to stop investing in propaganda. We need to reeducate the public about what good cinema is and why its necessary. We need to tell our tales by ourselves and not have white people and their racist shows (Homeland, Zero Dark Thirty etc) depict us and tell us who we are. Media is powerful and a good film industry can transform hearts and minds and stop the dehumanization of Pakistanis worldwide.
At least thorough research is mandatory before publishing an article. If proper attention given to this matter then well there are some Institutes that do offer a bachelors degree in film and television (as a subject of art), one of them is NCA. The department is trying their level best to bring out as many brilliant film makers which they can. But still there is a lot space for betterment and what it needs is, Teachers " who are not just teachers but professional film makers, writers, editors and so on. Regards An Aspiring Filmmaker
Why has SZABIST not been mentioned in the article. It is the best university for Media Sciences and is the only film school in the country. Film schools are there in teh country whether the writer likes it or not. What credentials do the people speaking in these articles have. I bet most of them don't even have film making backgrounds. Only people who come from film making backgrounds can say whether or not there are film schools in the country. IVS and NCA are the biggest and best examples of film schools in the country.
y@Shahrez Qureshi: But there are always "more pressing issues". Starting an autonomous film school needs a champion with deep pockets.
NCA and IVS are proper film schools. But we need to have a proper admission process. Good film schools like NFTS, USC, UCLA and NYU have portfolio submissions which help them identify the best of the best.
Hope universities drop the approach of having a standardized test in the future.
Nice to see that people are paying attention to what is happening at the grass root level.
Brilliant Article. But as noted by one of the comments there are more pressing issues than the fact that why there are no Film Schools in Pakistan.
Why is SZABIST not mentioned in the article? It's one of the first and the most leading institutes offering a media science degree which offers TV and film production as a major, and even a masters program in the same discipline. The lack of research in the article is enough to put a question mark on it's authentication altogether. And studying media is not an alternate for students who don't get into mainstream programs, it's a choice made by students to study something different rather than following the norm of studying engineering, medicine and business. No wonder there are no 'so called proper film schools' in Pakistan since there is no acceptance of considering 'media' as a field of study.
@Shahrez Qureshi: Your observations are skewered, to say the least. In your twisted imagination you somehow equated the release of a movie to widespread viewership. You did not take into account the death of any sort of influential movie making since the rise of the crazed so called mujahid, ziaul haq. The dearth of thought provoking movies caused a void ( a deliberate one) that was filled by hate mongering mullahs to influence people for decades. The revival that people talk about in the movie business is not in numbers, it is in the rebirth of the ability of the makers to push boundaries of movie making. When and if this business of movie making becomes a force to reckon with, with widespread viewership, then you and I can be free to analyze the effect this medium has on the people. Till then you can draw from the experience of united States and how the cinema influenced the outcome of the second world war.
Universities other than private business schools and technical institutions are, in fact, offering film degrees and/or short courses; NCA Lahore being the biggest example. The students enrolled in these programmes have sufficient creative talent, skills and the drive to take the "Pakistani Film" in a positive direction. However, as pointed out earlier, due to a lack of qualified individuals equally motivated enough to impart their knowledge and work with a small yet significant group of young and educated (albeit inexperienced) people to bring a positive and noteworthy change, all of the amateur student work goes to waste along with their ambition. Kindly take notice of the efforts and small improvements being made by the students (in Karachi, Lahore and elsewhere) themselves in this regard and make sure that the limited number of potential "film mentors" can't ignore their responsibility of transferring their expertise to potentially the first generation of filmmaking talent born and raised in Pakistan.
Sincerely, A Filmmaking Student NCA Lahore.
@Hasnain: Thank you Husnain for enlightening the author.
I studied film at Film and Television department at NCA. Does it not fall under the category of a film school? There is the a department of Theatre, Film and TV Studies at BNU, is that a film school? The author needs to be a little more informed. I know they are not the "Ideal" state of art film institutes but they seem like film schools to me.
While there are some universities in Pakistan that offer courses in Film/Visual studies, I don't think there is any that offers a specialised course in Visual Effects or Animation or even Digital Media. Most of the industry is looking towards VFX studios in China and India and Pakistan is simply ignoring that highly lucrative market and revenue stream. For people who are talking about doing something else here, having a market for this will create jobs and hopefully people who will contribute towards our country by paying taxes. One can dream right?
Source - I'm doing Masters degree in Digital Media/animation and I hear complaints about lack of work in Australia all the time due to shift towards VFX houses in Asia and Canada.
NCA is offering a 4 year bachelors in film and tv, i know and it hasn't produced anything that good but it takes time, we dont have people who can teach film. All the people who can are doing i dont know what, a very big name shoaib mansoor is working for God knows who, he don't teach and will take the art in his grave, these are the people responsible i think. we have good writers but none of them teach,, whyyy?? what's wrong with them?!!
who will open to get bombed...??
I believe that Mr. Daniyal Ali Khan, (member of the Sindh Censor Board) is mistaken for some reason, as many universities in Pakistan are offering Professional undergraduate degree in Film & Television; yet they're not business or management schools. and let me tell you that they're doing some amazing work regarding film's academics. You'll be welcomed on Undergraduate Degree Show of NCA- Department of Film & Television preceding month.
National College of Arts, Lahore
Beaconhouse National University
@All - Dudettes, are we not already aware of the problems that are haunting the society?
Can any single one of intelligentsia stand up and say that there is no poverty, no violation of child labour laws, no gender discrimination, no harassment of women, no indication that it is unavailability of social justice that is causing the people to turn into terroists, no lack of education, no terrorism, no corruption, in Pakistan? Nope? Thought so.
Awareness, by Arts (Funoon e Latifa), can only spread among people who have "lateef" senses and soft temperaments. Showing a Mullah, Waar, if, could have curbed terrorism Peshawar wouldn't have happened. Showing a doctor, Guzarish, and hoping that he'll help you legalize Euthanasia, if, could have helped the motive, it would have.
We all know what the problems are, those who can make a difference i.e. young, educated individuals, already know it but they are more interested in anchoring their feet firmly into the ground before fixing the world, and can you blame them?
In an ideal world, Art affects the society, sadly, where we are, explicit warnings by Ogra couldn't wake up the authorities to take action and help PSO to get rid of circular debts.
If a film school could have acted as social reformer, films could have acted as opium for masses instead of religion we would not have come this close to the edge.
more important question would be why dont all new universities have islamic studies and urdu language departments?? nust,giki,lums, comsats and many more. if oxford can have islamic studies department, y cant in 2nd biggest muslim country??
I think the more pressing issue is that the graduates of these so called "film schools" and Media Sciences aren't being picked up by any production houses and are not being taught the tricks of the trade by film directors. They usually end up working in studio shows and newsrooms producing news packages. WASTE OF TALENT
Pakistan Halaat-e-jung mein hai. How can we have film schools..?
Sad that there is no film school in the country despite the fact that there are countless art institutions and universities as good as IVS and NCA.
@Shahrez Qureshi: The 'pressing issues' are always going to be there as they have remained in the last 60 years. The medium of art needs to flourish as this is the best way of bringing about a change in the outlook and mind set of the masses. Let art flourish.
Finally someone picked up this matter
Very well written article.
Veryvwell written article.
Very well written article. Extremely thorough.
Shahrez Qureshi - This is where we as a nation go wrong time and again. Pressing issues aside, we need people who can use the field of arts to spread awareness of social issues in the masses who seem to have been intoxicated to a deep sleep and only respond to mediums such as movies and dramas. Don't expect them to sit for an hour listening to a lecture on where we went wrong and how we can fix it. But package the same message in a 2-hour movie as a story and voila - mission accomplished.
Because lets just be honest, there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed first.