“Song of Lahore” wins the Audience Choice Award at the London Indian Film Festival 2016

“Song of Lahore”, a documentary by Oscar winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Andy Schocken on the acclaimed Sachal Studios and their journey across the world, has won the Audience Choice Award at the prestigious London Indian Film Festival 2016, Europe’s largest South Asian Film Festival.

“Song of Lahore” is a documentary which focuses on the music community of Lahore, which until the late 1970s, was world-renowned for its music and talent. In 2004, Izzat Majeed founded Sachal Studios to create a space for traditional music in a nation that had rejected its musical roots. After convincing a number of master musicians to pick up their instruments again, they quietly released some classical and folk albums, but an experimental album fusing jazz and South Asian instruments brought Sachal Studios worldwide acclaim. “Song of Lahore” turns the spotlight on Sachal Studios and charters the ensemble’s journey to reclaim and reinvigorate an art that has lost its space in Pakistan’s narrowing cultural sphere. ‘Song of Lahore’ has previously headlined various international film festivals across the globe as the official selection, such as Heartland Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, IDFA Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Hamptons Film Festival and Melbourne Film Festival to name a few.

Indeed, Europe’s largest South Asian film festival returned this 2016 for its seventh edition, from 14^th to 24^th of July, in ten cinemas across London and this year also screened synchronously in two cinemas in Birmingham. The festival featured a carefully curated selection of the very best new Indian and South Asian independent cinema, which includes feature films, documentaries and short films by both acclaimed and new filmmakers. This year many of the films featured were by women directors. The films screened were in a wide range of South Asian languages to reflect the linguistic diversity of the UK’s Indian and South Asian communities and all films are subtitled in English.

“We are delighted that ‘Song of Lahore’ is resonating with audiences around the world. It is an ode to Pakistan’s rich musical heritage and we would like to dedicate this award to the Sachal orchestra,” said filmmakers Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Andy Schocken.