Sharmeen Obaid’s Talks About Her Ms. Marvel Journey and Other Key Projects
Ms. Marvel has generated a lot of excitement among the fans of the Marvel Universe, especially the desi community. Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel is a first-generation immigrant in New Jersey with an imagination particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel. The series is her journey of coming to terms with her superpower.
I got to talk to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who made her narrative directorial debut with the Disney+ series about her experience, the impact Ms. Marvel is expected to create, and much more.
Did you have a personal association with the Marvel Universe before getting to work with and who is your personal favorite superhero(s)?
“Obviously, the Marvel Universe is something that all of us who have grown up watching blockbuster films are attracted to. I have always believed in superheroes; my entire career has been built on telling stories of ordinary men and women who have superhero qualities as they create change in their communities.
“For me growing up I was always a big fan of Spider Man. But more recently Black Panther, because of the way it has changed the way we see superheroes.”
How do you see the journey of the character of Kamal Khan from a comic book character to the screen?
“The thing about Ms. Marvel as a comic was that when it came out, Kamala Khan was a brown girl from Jersey City who was Muslim and so it was a departure from so much of what Marvel has created of its superheroes over the years. I think that the coming of life of the character from the comic book to the screen has been an interesting transition.”
How was the experience working on a project with such a larger-than-life scale?
“I have always been a storyteller and have always played with mediums having worked in documentary films, animation, and virtual reality. To then go into narrative filmmaking was a transition but a wonderful transition to make, because I had a vision for what I wanted for my episodes, the look, and the feel, and Marvel gave me the tools to make that a reality. It’s not every day that you get to work and create a whole world where your vision becomes a reality and a studio backs you and allows you to do what you want to do.
“There was this moment when I was in the second week of my filming where I was standing on set and looking around and seeing hundreds of people made me realize right there and then that I was going to be a part of something extremely special. As my first narrative directorial debut, I was getting to be a part of something which was going to change the way people see superheroes. I was going to be a part of the birthing of this major superhero.”
What impact do you think the film will have both on the local and global audience?
“Something big is happening and not only for Pakistan but for so many of us from the collective brown community who have grown up wanting to see someone who looks like us, talks like us, wears our clothes, eats what we do, and makes it all look cool. Proudly representing our culture, highlights its special traits and I think Ms. Marvel does that in such a wonderful manner. The story is so exciting, her power, her family dynamics, her high school relationships — anybody who has not fit into high school, who has found themselves to be different will fall in love with Kamala Khan.
“Disney + is not available in Pakistan so the cinema screenings are exciting as it will be an opportunity for the local audiences to celebrate and share in the story of Kamal Khan.”
What was the transition like from working on documentaries to a fiction series of this scale?
“As long as I am telling stories that matter, as long as I am telling stories that change the way people see issues, the mediums can vary. I will continue to tell stories in the narrative medium because now that I have made that leap into fiction filmmaking I will but I will also continue to look at documentary stories. Whether you work with documentary characters or actors, the thing that at the end of the day unites is your ability to get them to tell a better story. If you are a filmmaker and storyteller, it doesn’t matter what medium you are using to communicate it.
“I have worked in over 50 countries around the world and have worked with a very diverse group of people and I didn’t realize until I was on the set of Ms. Marvel how much of what I have done before lent itself to what I was about to do. In a documentary film making you are working with a character, timelines, and unpredictability of where you are going to go to tell that story while on set you are working with timelines because you have a limited amount of time where you have to shoot the scene and if there is anything that happens to sort of throw that of the trail, something that happened with me when I was filming because of rain delays, and lightning delays, suddenly I was thinking like a documentary filmmaker of thinking about solutions to ensure that we are able to complete the work in the given circumstances. So, my quick thinking developed over the years of working came in quite handy.”
What role can filmmakers play in changing perceptions about countries, and how important is the role of representation?
“Filmmakers can’t do perception shifts of countries. You do perception shifts of issues. And on that front, yes of course. We made so many films where we had young people get inspired and follow in the footsteps of those people they see on screen. Representation matters because it opens your mind to the possibilities of what someone can achieve, and I think that that is extremely important to do.
“Film has a way of showing you what is possible. Some of the key films that we made that played a key role in changing perception of the issues and represented the people include; a film about police women in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa which when shown in educational institutions inspired a lot of young women to join the police force. as a profession. We created a lot of films where women stood up against violence in their communities in various provinces and used them to inspire peacemakers.
“We have created a film about girls who are boxers that inspired other girls to join the sport. We just finished a film in the Hazara community about girls who are footballers and have come together to form a team. When we showed it to some coaches overseas, they are now inspired to come to and coach them.”
Given that now storytelling has become so diverse and people have so many options through which to communicate, how do you see yourself contributing to the field in Pakistan?
“Somebody opened the door for me 20 years ago and now it’s my turn to open doors for other women in the field. To achieve this we have launched ‘Patakha Pictures’ which is a sister arm of SOC Films. The aim of the organization is to provide mentorship and funding to young women filmmakers so they can be given the tools they need to succeed. In the first year, we have already funded 10 filmmakers launching a project with the British Council and the Scottish Documentary Institute called Pakistan Stories. We have just also initiated the US$10,000 grant for a female student with a project called the Taiwan Pitch under which the student will be sent to Taiwan and the grant is for her film. We are also about to launch our third major grant process, and all of this has happened in the last 8 months of the organization’s existence.”
You have recently published a book, “Pakistan’s Climate Change Heroes”- share what the idea is all about?
“We launched a bilingual book, in English and Urdu, and are distributing it for free across Pakistan’s schools and colleges. There are also four connected documentary films that are about local climate change heroes we are screening around the country and hope to take the characters highlighted in this book to talk about the issues at the grassroots level so that we can get as many young people inspired as possible to watch and think of ways that they can create change in their communities.”
This is the unedited version of the interview published in ‘Propergaanda’.
