A topical short film, shot in fast-moving documentary news style, which grips its audience from the outset, while managing to span three continents, uncovering the human story that lies behind what seems to be a routine news event; the death by roadside shooting of a British documentary filmmaker in Pakistan.
Aneel Ahmad's film makes good use of modern 24-hour broadcast media as a rolling background to his narrative. A truck driver and his young son are making routine deliveries in Lahore, when they stumble upon a tragedy. A documentary filmmaker of reputation, Shahid Elahi, has been shot dead while filming at a rural roadside close to the city.
A simple yet dramatic, tragic, outcome, but the film's narrative uses media output imaginatively to tell the story in news terms, giving impact and urgency, while at the same time uncovering the human tragedies that collide at this same point in place and time.
Checkpost is a thought-provoking short film, a commentary on our news values and style while underlining how relatively cheap human life seems to be, challenging us to decide which is the more important?
James MacGregor
Aneel Ahmad's film makes good use of modern 24-hour broadcast media as a rolling background to his narrative. A truck driver and his young son are making routine deliveries in Lahore, when they stumble upon a tragedy. A documentary filmmaker of reputation, Shahid Elahi, has been shot dead while filming at a rural roadside close to the city.
A simple yet dramatic, tragic, outcome, but the film's narrative uses media output imaginatively to tell the story in news terms, giving impact and urgency, while at the same time uncovering the human tragedies that collide at this same point in place and time.
Checkpost is a thought-provoking short film, a commentary on our news values and style while underlining how relatively cheap human life seems to be, challenging us to decide which is the more important?
James MacGregor
