Online May 2 - 4
Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation
Indie Meme Special 10th Year
Retrospective Showcase
Lyari Notes
India, Pakistan | Documentary
2015 | 70 mins | Urdu
Limited tickets available on site.
World Premiere and nominated by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists – EDA Award at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam – Nov 2015
Winner of the Golden Boddhisattva Award (Patna) at the Bodhisattva International Film Festival – Feb 2017
Winner of excellence in best documentary feature (red category) at the ARY Film Festival (Karachi) – May 2017
In Pakistan a rock star teaches a group of girls to express themselves through music in Karachi’s most volatile district.
Hamza Jafri travels in an armed vehicle. He is a musician famous for his hard hitting political lyrics since the 1990s. Since then religious fundamentalism has been on the rise with shops selling music torched, concerts bombed and musicians threatened with death. Seeing the shrinking space for music and artists Hamza opens a music school.
Captured over 3 years Lyari Notes is the narrative of four young girls who attend Hamza’s music school and learn what it takes to express oneself despite the cycles of violence.
Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film.
Restoration Process
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Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation
The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing.
Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram.
Meet Specific Thing
About the Artist
Photo courtesy:
Film Heritage Foundation
Miriam Chandy Menacherry (Director and Producer from India) – Founder, Director at Filament Pictures a Mumbai based production house. She has pitched and produced award winning films that have been broadcast on international channels like the National Geographic channel, BBC world and Arte. Her last documentary The Rat Race weaves together the narratives of rat killers in Mumbai. It won the Mipdoc Co production Challenge at Cannes, premiered at IDFA and won the audience awards at Florence and Kerala. It is one of the rare documentaries to get theatrical releases in 3 Indian cities winning critical and popular acclaim.
Maheen Zia (Director and Producer from Pakistan) – Pakistani film director and editor. She has a degree in radio/tv production from Drake University USA and teaches at the Department of visual studies Karachi University. She is one of the founding members of Pakistan’s young international film festival – The Kara Film Festival and has served as a juror at international film festivals in Tehran, Tampere, Hyderabad and Kabul. She is the winner of the India EU Film initiative- Berlin Today Award- for her film `Match Factor’.
Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation
Trailer
Credits
Director:
Miriam Chandy Menacherry & Maheen Zia
Writer:
Producers:
Film Editor:
Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation
Restoration Credit:
Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul)