UNAFF 2005 : Films : Waiting for Sunrise

WAITING FOR SUNRISE
Aneel Ahmad (Pakistan/UK) 6'

Description:
Waiting for Sunrise explores extreme poverty in Lahore, Pakistan. Children without parents live in slums, cold and unloved, begging in order to stay alive as they endure verbal and physical abuse to earn enough money to live each day. These issues are rarely dealt with on such a personal and emotional level. Lahore and its collection of people becomes a character for this short documentary.

Biography:
Aneel Ahmad is an award-winning film director from Manchester. His previous work includes Asian Invasion and A Man‚s World, which generated interest from the Cannes Film Festival. A Man‚s World is about the personal struggles and demons faced by a female boxer from Salford, UK. The film brought rave reviews from many of the film industry‚s leading critics, because the fifteen-minute work was shot on an ultra-low budget, the lead part was portrayed by no less than seven different actors, and the film can actually be watched backwards to see the story being told from a different angle. Because his parents are from Lahore, Pakistan his latest work Waiting for Sunrise is of a very personal nature. When Aneel once was on a visit to Lahore with his family, an 8-year-old shoeshine boy asked if he could clean his shoes at the airport. It proved to be an affecting experience for the director, prompting him to make the film.

Contact Information:
Sugar House Media
587, Stockport Road
Manchester M13 0RX
England
E-mail:info@sugarhousemedia.co.uk
URL: www.aneelahmad.co.uk