A FAR-OFF CRY DOCUMENTARY FILM
A FAR-OFF CRY DOCUMENTARY FILM
A Far-Off Cry is a story of parallels, of opposites–two planets forced off course by the filmmakers. The parallel Pakistan worlds of the untouchables (street children addicted to solvents) and the intellectuals. According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime publication “Solvent Abuse Among Street Children in Pakistan,” there are more than 140 million street children in the world, most of whom are victims of solvent abuse. Their needs, their feelings, their hopes for survival are nonexistent. The goal of this documentary is to give Karachi’s street children a platform, to give them a face, a voice, a way to reach out for help. But more than that, it puts them in the same room as Pakistan’s doctors, psychiatrists and government officials in an attempt to address this crisis–if not actually together in the same room, at least together on screen through the magic of film making.
Film shines light on solvent-huffing
When part-time Durango resident and veteran screenwriter Claudia C. Adams survived a near-fatal poisoning in 2002, she had no idea it would lead to an award-winning documentary shot 8,000 miles away in Karachi, Pakistan.
I was documenting my own death to help other people, but I survived, Adams said of the ordeal that began with a saturation of chemicals in a blanket she dropped off for dry cleaning in Los Angeles, where she spends about half the year.
But then I found the same chemicals are the ones 120 million street children are addicted to all over the world, she said, citing figures from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.
The U.N. report singled out Pakistan in particular, and that led Adams to find Aziz Ahmed, an accomplished Pakistani filmmaker. The result of their collaborative efforts resulted in the documentary film A Far-Off Cry, which has been an official selection at 14 film festivals worldwide, garnering five awards, since its release. Preview my other documentary films.
