Schedule of the Event:

January 30, 2025

Wakhri

CSAS will be kicking off this year's Pakistan Conference with the screening of Wakhri, along with a Q&A with its filmmaker, at the Michigan Theater.

Filmmaker Iram Parveen Bilal takes inspiration from the story of Qandeel Baloch in crafting this compelling drama. Baloch was Pakistan’s first social media celebrity, who often used her platform to speak out against the patriarchy, until her brother murdered her in an act of “honor” killing. Her life planted the seeds from which spring this film’s widowed schoolteacher Noor and her queer best friend Guchhi. To live out their dreams and aspirations, the pair leads double lives. In bright makeup and flashy wigs, Noor and Guchhi adopt brash, fearless social media personas, representing a freedom so enticing that people can’t look away. Too often the cinemascape has portrayed Muslim women and queer people from the Global South as victimized objects of pity. Wakhri has a different tale to tell, one that celebrates the resilience with which its protagonists demand equality within a flawed society.

The screening is free and open to the public.

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February 12, 2025

Laapataa Ladies

In this year's official entry to the Oscars for India, two brides' lives take unexpected turns when they accidentally swap places on a crowded train in this funny and satirical drama from director Kiran Rao.

This screening is free and open to the public.

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March 19, 2025

All We Imagine As Light

All We Imagine as Light is a 2024 drama film written and directed by Payal Kapadia. The cast includes Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon.

The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix. It was the first film from India to compete in the main competition since 1994.

The list of this film's accolades and nominations continues to grow, with two Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director.

The light, the lives, and the textures of contemporary, working-class Mumbai are explored and celebrated by writer/director Payal Kapadia. Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital — head nurse Prabha and recent hire Anu — plus their coworker, cook Parvaty, Kapadia’s film alights on moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment to create a soulful study of the transformative power of friendship and sisterhood, in all its complexities and richness.

This screening is free and open to the public

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Date: January 30 - March 19, 2025

Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm

Location: Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

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