Sharmeem Obaid-Chenoy won a second Oscar for ‘Best Documentary Short Subject Film’ for ‘A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness‘ at the 88th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California yesterday.
The documentary is about honour killings, told through the experience of Saba Qaiser, a survivor of an attempted honour killing.
“She wanted her story told,” said Obaid-Chinoy. “The impact of her story is tremendous, because it is going to change lives, and it’s going to save lives, and there can be no greater reward than that.”
Saba Qaiser, 18, fell in love with a man against her family’s wishes. Soon after the couple eloped, her father and uncle shot her in the head believing they’d killed her. She survived and has become a voice for women in similar situations and the person Obaid-Chinoy needed to tell the story.
“When you live in a country like Canada, you begin to realize how right things can be”
The Pakistani-Canadian film maker and journalist credited life in Canada for her ability to tell these stories.
“When you live in a country like Canada, you begin to realize how right things can be,” Obaid-Chinoy told the CBC’s Zulekha Nathoo in the Oscar’s press room following her win. “Then when you travel back to Pakistan and to other countries which are in conflict, you can see what’s going wrong.”
In an interview with the CBC’s Diana Swain this afternoon Obaid-Chinoy said “it was such an incredible night… the issue I’m trying to hightlight now received a global audience”
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s first Academy Award in 2012 was for her documentary ‘Saving Face‘. It told the story of the women in Pakistan, victims of acid attacks, and their search for justice.
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