Foreigner

When i was younger, my parents would come back from parent-teacher meetings sick of stories about how their son kept claiming to everyone who bothered listening that he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. in many respects, i really haven't changed that stance on myself.

partially it is because i am a glutton for attention. you can pin that on having working parents, or a quiet childhood in an obscure gas producing hamlet in balochistan, or the fact that i am a glutton full stop.

but part of the reason is also because i am supremely talented across a range of fields.

take blogging for example. unlike most people, i don't blog about my day, or my friends, or link some bull shit article and make a few comments about it. i blog about stuff that makes you think, that takes your breath away, that puts your life into perspective. mostly, i plagiarize it off stuff my wife tells me, but that really doesn't make me any different from millions of other men, so i'm not going to be too hard on myself.

when i started blogging, and even now, i really cared about the number of hits and comments on each post. its such a sense of validation. soon though, i realised that absolute bullshit bloggers get millions of people going ga-ga over their inane drivels which lack any sense of intelligence. it made me quite sad, since i never stooped to such levels.

but then again, over the year and some that i have been blogging, i have actually had moments far more valuable than any number of bullshit comments by teeny-boppers bemoaning the loss of our soverignity to the US and praising ahmed quraishi. a lot of people who i respect as writers, bloggers, and even as people, have been quite enamoured by what i write (people such as sherry, awais aftab, tazeen, imran yousuf etc). when ahsan compared this blog to Mother Love Bone, it was quite a thrill. when i found out that Mohammad Hanif knew about my blog, i was over the moon.

i have known that writing is something that comes naturally to me, and i have been told that i am quite the master at narrative. i know also that i have a knack for taking disparate ideas and linking them together in a way you would have never imagined. i know that i can be witty and incisive in equal measures...

...i also know that i can be modest, but then i'd just be lying.

anyways, recently my life took several important turns. one of these turns involved a rather drastic decision regarding my future career. i am beginning to do something i have always dreamt of doing, though i am not sure how good i will be at it. (ok that's a lie, i'll be fucking good at it.) its something that i will do in pakistan, which poses a far greater deal of uncertainty than anything else. and its something that i plan to be just as good at as anything else i have done, which may not equate to a lot of financial or material success.

but those of you who have been kind enough to follow the travails of this blog, and to appreciate my work, i would like to show you where this new direction has taken me.

here it is, my first film (video really) "foreigner".

Foreigner HD from ahmernaqvi on Vimeo.

the entire thing was made as a project for the film degree i am currently doing, and was made under several specifications.

1. it had to be shot on DV cam only
2. no special effects were allowed, not even fades
3. the audio and video had to be synchronous i.e. we could only use the sound that had been recorded with the video, couldn't record it later, or use other sound, or use anything as a soundtrack
4. it had to be a profile of a person, place or event

as you may be able to tell, i have cheated a couple of times, but not by much. also, let me know if you didn't get the end, and whether i need to change the last shot to make it more obvious. i doubt i will, but it would be instructive to hear nevertheless.