Project Kashmir
Project Kashmir is a feature documentary in which the directors—two American friends, one a Pakistani-American Muslim, the other an Indian-American Hindu—investigate the war in Kashmir and find their friendship tested over deeply rooted political, cultural and religious biases they never had to face in the US. Project Kashmir explores war between countries and war within oneself by delving into the fraught lives of young people caught in the social/political conflict of one of the most beautiful—and most deadly—places on earth: Kashmir.
Beautifully lensed by Academy Award® winning filmmaker Ross Kauffman, the film captures the stunning beauty of Kashmir, while expertly interweaving deeply moving personal stories of Kashmiris with those of the two American women, who strive to reconcile their ethnic and religious heritage with the violence that haunts their homeland.
Credits
Directors/Producers/Writers: Senain Kheshgi, Geeta V. Patel
Executive Producers: Diana Barrett, Geralyn Dreyfous
Cinematographer: Ross Kauffman
Editors: Shartmila Ariathurai, Billy McMillin
Composer: David Robbins
Running time: 88 min.
Website: projectkashmir.org
Trailer
About the Filmmakers
SENAIN KHESHGI is a Pakistani-American journalist and filmmaker who has produced, written and directed projects for numerous networks including CNN, ABC NEWS, PBS, Discovery and the BBC. Kheshgi co-produced her first feature documentary, The First Year, with Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), which was broadcast on PBS and went on to earn the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. She has also produced and assisted on projects with Shari Berman and Robert Pulcini (American Splendor) and Sophie Fiennes (Hoover Street Revival).
Kheshgi was a Sundance Institute Fellow, where she attended the Documentary Editing, Composer and Producing Labs (2006), and a Tribeca All Access Fellow (2005). She is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation/ Renew Media's Media Arts Fellowship and was recently awarded the Asia Society's Asia 21 Fellowship. Kheshgi recently served on the selection committee for the International Documentary Association's (IDA) DocuWeek Documentary Showcase. She was also selected as a Filmmaking Fellow for Jehane Noujaim's global Pangea Day project. Kheshgi serves on the board of advisors for Cine, a theater in her hometown of Athens, Georgia, and the board of directors on the International Documentary Association, and has served on the artistic board of LA art festival ArtWallah.
Kheshgi is also developing a documentary about the current state of affairs in Pakistan. Her keen interest in exploring religious and cultural conflict, human rights, and interfaith dialogue through film and media inspired her to make Project Kashmir.
GEETA V. PATEL is an Indian-American writer and director for both documentary and dramatic feature films.
Patel was a Sundance Institute Directing Fellow, where she participated in the Editing, Composer and Producing Labs (2006), and a Tribeca All Access Directing Fellow (2005). She is a recipient of the Asia Society's Asia 21 Leadership Fellowship. She has served on the nomination committees for the Rockefeller Foundation/Renew Media's Media Arts Fellowship, as well as the selection committee for the IDA's DocuWeek Documentary Showcase. She is a board member on The Center for Multifaith Education in New York and has served as a member of the artistic board for the LA-based art festival Artwallah.
Patel is currently directing One in a Billion, a comedic feature documentary that follows an Indian-American actor/comedian as he struggles with his desire to marry an Indian woman and his inability to actually date one. She is also working on a dramatic feature, The Spoon (Chamcha), a thriller about a son's investigation of his father's murder in a remote Indian village. Research for her first novel, The Laughing, led her to make the documentary Project Kashmir.