“Other Memory” comes from the Bene Gesserit mythology of women’s histories and memories. We are deeply interested in creating platforms for women’s voices and exploring life at the peripheries and transgressive spaces in Pakistan and the world.
Anam Abbas is a Pakistani/Canadian filmmaker and owner of Other Memory Media.
She is the Producer and DOP of the feature documentary “Showgirls of Pakistan”, which premiered in competition at IDFA 2020 and was released globally by VICE.
Anam’s first feature documentary as a Director, “This Stained Dawn”, follows the feminist activists who organise the “Aurat March” in Pakistan. It premiered in International Competition at the 2021 Sheffield Doc Fest and has won awards in Canada, USA and India.
Her directorial work also includes short documentaries Lucky Irani Circus (2015), Girls with Goals- Kids on the Silk Road (2023, ARTE Kids), fiction short Saya, co-directed with Fawzia Mirza (2019), and webseries “Ladies Only” (2016-2018). She has also directed music videos for her band Garam Anday and Pakistani artist Arieb Azhar.
Most recently she produced the Telefilm Talents to Watch and Canada Council of the Arts supported “In Flames”, Directed by Zarrar Kahn, which had its World Premiere at Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival 2023, won the Golden Yusr for Best Picture at the Red Sea FF, the International Newcomer Award at Mannheim-Heidelberg FF, John Dunning Best Debut Feature Award at the Canadian Screen Awards and was Pakistan’s Entry for Best International Picture for the 2024 Academy Awards.
Anam is also one of the founding members of the Documentary Association of Pakistan (DAP), through which she co-programs the Chalta Phirta Film Festival in Pakistan and has founded and mentored two documentary labs in Pakistan- Doc Balochistan and Doc Gilgit. She has served as a jury member for Berlinale Talents Doc Station and Sheffield Meet Market. She is the recipient of the 2023 CMPA Emerging Producer’s Award.
