The profile of Afghanistan cinema and culture is growing in Australia thanks to an annual film festival founded by filmmaker and TAFE SA graduate Fahim Hashimy.
The 9th Ghan International Film Festival Australia (GIFFA) will be held in Adelaide and Sydney this month, showcasing high-quality works by emerging Afghanistan filmmakers.
Fahim says 47 short film and 7 feature-length or documentary-style films were submitted for this year’s festival, with four short films and two documentaries making the final program.
Fahim says he established the festival in 2016 with the aim of bringing people together to enjoy the cinema experience and to provide a platform for Afghans’ stories.
“We wanted to show Afghan cinema to Australia and the world because their voices haven’t been heard,” he says.
“We normally only see Afghan people through the media and the news is often about war and conflict but in Afghanistan we have things other than war such as amazing culture, food, family and love.”
Fahim discovered an interest in filmmaking after moving from his home country of Afghanistan to Iran and Pakistan “to escape the situation at the time including civil war”.
By the time he came to Australia at the end of 2008 ha already had several films on his resume.
At TAFE SA, he studied a Certificate III in English and a Certificate II in Information Technology before pursuing his interest in filmmaking with the Diploma of Screen and Media (Film and Television Production).
Through TAFE SA, he was introduced to contacts at Channel 44 where he produced a weekly TV show, Farda TV, for many years.
Fahim also made the 2014 documentary Afghan Cameleer In Australia 1860-1920 to acknowledge and celebrate the role Afghan people have had in Australia’s history.
The success of the documentary took Fahim to several independent film festivals, which inspired the idea for an Afghan Film Festival.
“As a student I didn’t plan to run a film festival. My main goal was to tell stories, this is my passion, however with the film festival I help other filmmakers and tell several stories,” he says.
“When I visited other film festivals I started to consider the idea of something similar to show to Australian people the unique Afghanistan films and cinema.”
As he prepares for the 9th GIFFA, Fahim says he takes pride in presenting films that “challenge stereotypically negative views of Afghans on mainstream media”.
In 2022, Fahim was a finalist in the media category of the Governor’s Multicultural Awards for “promoting multiculturalism, harmony and inclusion” and in 2017 he won the Arts and Culture category of the same awards.
The Ghan International Film Festival Australia will be held at the Mercury Cinema in Adelaide on Saturday and Sunday, 23 and 24 November. Proceeds support programs for women and children in Afghanistan.
For more information and tickets, visit the GIFFA website.