I attended the last day of the 2019 Islamabad Literature Festival on Sunday, 29 September. I attended these sessions:
- Depicting Women in Literature and Drama with Haseena Moin, Noorul Huda Shah, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Shahnaz Sheikh and the Moderator was Maheen Usmani
- Pakistani Adab aur Taneesiat (Feminism) with Kishwar Naheed and the Moderator was Hameed Shahid
- Shanul Haq Haqqee Ki Yaad Mein with Anwar Maqsood, Fateh Muhammad Malik and Moderator was Najeeba Arif
- Pakistan: The Economy of an Elitist State with Ishrat Husain, Asad Umar, Waqar Masoon Khan, Melinda Good and, the Moderator was Sakib Sherani
- Pakistani Cinema: The Rise, the Fall...and the Rise Again? with Humayun Saeed, Usman Mukhtar, Khalid Saeed Butt, Naghma Begum, Areeba Alvi, Nadeem Baig and Moderator was Raju Jamil
- Satire in the Time of Tabdeeli with Fasi Zaka, Ali Aftab Saeed, and George Fulton and, Moderated by Nadeem Farooq Paracha
I only managed to attend the 3rd day of the Islamabad Lit Fest. I wish I had come back from Lahore earlier to catch the sessions with Mohammed Hanif, Pervez Hoodbhoy, etc.
I attended the Islamabad Literature Festival back in 2014 at the same venue (Margalla Hotel). I think they need to change the venue as it's too small for the crowds that throng the Festival. Even the ground where they had food and book stalls was too stuffed. Compared to the elegant Lahore Literature Festival, this event felt very shabby. I was very annoyed with all the pushing, shoving, rude audience that was talking loudly into their phones during panel discussions, and screaming children.
What's worse, the quality of the discussions was extremely poor. For a literary festival, you would imagine one would have a rare chance to see some very intellectual conversations. Instead I heard cheap jokes, interrupting moderators, and no sense of where the discussion might go. For the session on cinema, one would have thought we would have had a film historian or cultural critic who would ask some smart questions about acting methods or film genres and so on.
I was not impressed to see that the Moderator for Depicting Women in Literature and Drama was so young. I would have imagined a more senior personality would be in conversation with guests such as Haseena Moin or Shahnaz Sheikh. Or, someone who is cultural critic or an expert in history of television. She first corrected the introduction about herself that she wasn't merely a journalist but also a published author. She would continue to exchange a quiet but sarcastic tone with Shahnaz Sheikh. It was really bad taste and, disappointing. There were some prepared questions yes none of them aimed to create an in-depth conversation.
- Depicting Women in Literature and Drama with Haseena Moin, Noorul Huda Shah, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Shahnaz Sheikh and the Moderator was Maheen Usmani
- Pakistani Adab aur Taneesiat (Feminism) with Kishwar Naheed and the Moderator was Hameed Shahid
- Shanul Haq Haqqee Ki Yaad Mein with Anwar Maqsood, Fateh Muhammad Malik and Moderator was Najeeba Arif
- Pakistan: The Economy of an Elitist State with Ishrat Husain, Asad Umar, Waqar Masoon Khan, Melinda Good and, the Moderator was Sakib Sherani
- Pakistani Cinema: The Rise, the Fall...and the Rise Again? with Humayun Saeed, Usman Mukhtar, Khalid Saeed Butt, Naghma Begum, Areeba Alvi, Nadeem Baig and Moderator was Raju Jamil
- Satire in the Time of Tabdeeli with Fasi Zaka, Ali Aftab Saeed, and George Fulton and, Moderated by Nadeem Farooq Paracha
I only managed to attend the 3rd day of the Islamabad Lit Fest. I wish I had come back from Lahore earlier to catch the sessions with Mohammed Hanif, Pervez Hoodbhoy, etc.
I attended the Islamabad Literature Festival back in 2014 at the same venue (Margalla Hotel). I think they need to change the venue as it's too small for the crowds that throng the Festival. Even the ground where they had food and book stalls was too stuffed. Compared to the elegant Lahore Literature Festival, this event felt very shabby. I was very annoyed with all the pushing, shoving, rude audience that was talking loudly into their phones during panel discussions, and screaming children.
What's worse, the quality of the discussions was extremely poor. For a literary festival, you would imagine one would have a rare chance to see some very intellectual conversations. Instead I heard cheap jokes, interrupting moderators, and no sense of where the discussion might go. For the session on cinema, one would have thought we would have had a film historian or cultural critic who would ask some smart questions about acting methods or film genres and so on.
I was not impressed to see that the Moderator for Depicting Women in Literature and Drama was so young. I would have imagined a more senior personality would be in conversation with guests such as Haseena Moin or Shahnaz Sheikh. Or, someone who is cultural critic or an expert in history of television. She first corrected the introduction about herself that she wasn't merely a journalist but also a published author. She would continue to exchange a quiet but sarcastic tone with Shahnaz Sheikh. It was really bad taste and, disappointing. There were some prepared questions yes none of them aimed to create an in-depth conversation.
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