Habiba Nosheen is no stranger to telling stories through film.
As an investigative reporter (for a time with CBC’s the fifth estate) and documentarian, the Emmy- and Peabody-award winning filmmaker has been to war zones, reported on systemic sexual assault and the exploitation of some of the wforld’s most vulnerable.
But for her newest work, Nosheen wanted to focus on something different. The result was The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony, which aired on CBC’s The Passionate Eye on Wednesday: a look at three young girls in Pakistan challenging gender norms by training in gymnastics.
While the film also examines systemic issues — the plight of stateless children, denied citizenship or official recognition — it also takes a more personal angle than Nosheen’s previous work.
CBC News spoke with Nosheen about crafting the documentary.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
This is a little bit of a different framing than your past work — something more uplifting. Can you talk to me about whether that was intentional or not?
This is the first piece of storytelling that I’ve ever made that my kids are allowed to watch [laughs]. So it is very much a departure from what I normally do, which is investigative journalism.
I just felt, stepping back and looking at my own body of work, that aspect of joy was lacking. I had not explored spaces and storytelling where you got to see brown women experience joy in a real way. And I wanted to create something that was rooted in that. I mean, I’m not capable of sugarcoating anything. So the film is full of nuance, and there’s definitely ups and downs in the lives of these girls that you’ll meet in the film. But it’s on the lighter side, for sure.
This is such a character-driven piece, particularly these three girls that we follow so closely. Can you speak to me a little bit about going into their world, building that connection? How were you able to get that intimacy, get that connection, get the closeness?
Ten years ago, I adopted my daughter from Pakistan. And the woman who you meet in the documentary, Tahera Hasan — who starts this amazing school that ends up being in this documentary — was my adoption lawyer.
When I found out about this community of stateless children who are struggling to get access to education and sports, I just went to Pakistan, met with them, and I knew I wanted to tell their story. I understand other people, other filmmakers, had approached her over the years who wanted to make this documentary. But I think the fact that Tahera had known me in my other life — as someone who cared about these issues, who cared about girls’ rights in Pakistan, independently of my work as a journalist — I think that allowed her to trust me. And that then gave me an in to the community as well.
I did not know about the stateless issues that the Bengali community in Pakistan has been facing. And I live 20 minutes from this community. So I felt like if I don’t know, there must be so many others who just don’t know anything about this, and this is a story worth telling.
This is such an interesting time for documentary. We’re seeing You Can See Everything as one of the biggest movies in the world. Alex Gibney’s Musk has generated a huge response, even if it hasn’t seen comparable box office success.
As somebody who has made documentaries for years, done journalism for years, what is the experience as a documentarian right now? Is making documentaries, getting them to audiences, more difficult, more easy than it has been in the past?
There are lots of things that technology has made easier when it comes to making the thing that you call a documentary. But in terms of if you want to think about funding and releasing, I absolutely think that there’s a huge range. If you want to do documentaries about a celebrity or true crime, there’s funding for that. But unfortunately, if you want to make films that are subtitled, that are from a different country, that continues to be a challenge in the arts. I would say across the board, no matter who you are, that’s the biggest hurdle we face as documentary filmmakers: telling a story that goes outside the areas that we think the documentary audience is going to want to see.
There are less and less buyers out there for documentaries than there were five, six years ago. So that’s made the landscape definitely a lot harder to navigate.
Activist Malala Yousafzai is attached, along with actress Mariska Hargitay. Can you speak to me a little bit about collaboration with some of these names and how that has helped shape the documentary and its journey to audiences?
We’re so grateful for the fact that they saw something in this documentary that they would want to lend their names to.
Most of the time, the way it works in documentaries is they came on when the production of it was all wrapped up, and they could see the film. And then when they saw the film before it premiered, they were able to see something that inspired them. And from what I understand, they wanted to lend their name to that. And I find that so touching. Because they’re both from very different walks of life. And for them to both want to uplift the stories of these girls in Pakistan has just been such a meaningful journey for us.
I’m curious whether the subjects of this documentary have since seen the documentary, I’m just curious what they think about seeing themselves and their story as it plays out on screen.
Sonia, who’s featured in the documentary, was able to come to Tribeca for the world premiere in New York. And right before we were about to go on for the Q&A, she told me that she had never been to a movie theatre before. So the very first film she ever saw was a film about her. I just went ‘Good luck trying to follow that!’ You know, with Spider-Man or whatever she sees next.
But, you know, it was so beautiful to be able to share that with her and Dara and the space in a theatre. They deserve the visibility and the space that this film gives them because they and their community have been invisible for a really long time. So I just feel privileged that they trusted us to tell their story.
