James Longley

Bio

James Longley is best known for the Academy-nominated documentary films Iraq in Fragments and Sari’s Mother.

Reflection

Several years ago I was scouting locations for a documentary film about a school in Pakistan, working together with local filmmaker Zayer Hassan. While looking at a possible school in the old city of Rawalpindi we discovered a branch of the Faiz-ul- Islam orphanage by chance. It was summer break and nobody was around. A government school was in a courtyard off a main road. An archway behind the school led to a mosque, and behind the mosque was an orphanage, where some 50 kids were living. The orphanage had existed since the founding of Pakistan and exists as both a religious and secular educational institution. Some of the boys only studied the Qur’an; others also studied in the regular orphanage school at their families’ discretion.

The boys in the orphanage come from cities and villages all over Pakistan, all from poor families. Some of them agreed to participate in the documentary and record audio interviews in which they talk about their experiences, ideas and dreams. Our idea was to explore Pakistani society through the eyes of the kids at the orphanage, many of whom travel back to their home villages during the summer.

Hakim Iqbal was the first boy who we recorded at the orphanage. Hakim comes from a village called Karak and his native language is Pashto, which is what he speaks during our interview. Zayer Hassan and I were struck by his friendly but sad disposition and his earnest way of expressing himself.

Sadly, our filming was cut short because of unrelated scandals between the Pakistani and US governments that resulted in many US passport holders being forced to leave the country, and so the film we had planned never came to be. Thanks to Sacred the material we filmed in Pakistan has been given a new context in which to be seen.