Monazza Fatima Naqvi is a Visual Artist-Filmmaker and Educationist. She is a performing artist and traveler by heart. She talks to Karvan about her company and mission, Sareer Films in this interview
1. For how long have you been associated with theatre?
Theatre became a part of my life while I was doing my bachelors in Fine arts. It was the year 2006 at the Karachi Arts Council. I even skipped classes for rehearsals. Not that I am approving of it! But yeah…it was crazy…it was liberating and it still is. I haven’t been academically involved in performing arts but was lucky enough to have worked with the best including Sania Saeed and Shaddi (Shahid Shaffat), Khalid Ahmed sahab and Nida Butt. Once in a year or so, if I get to perform somewhere .. I do it with all my heart!
2. What role has travel played in your life?
Either it’s a weekend road trip to the countryside, a lavish one on an island or camping near a lake. It might sound a little clichéd but traveling lets you know more about yourself as you see yourself in a reflection of all the places you have visited and al; the people you have met. The only condition is to keep your heart and mind open to what you are yet to experience in life.
3. Where do you see yourself 5 years down the road?
That’s a tough one! I am not sure about the next 5 years. But what I am sure about is that tomorrow I see myself as a better person than who I was today – resilient and empathetic, open to the knowledge and the good vibes that the universe offers. Also, I need to try to love myself. This is a homework I have given to myself multiple times but haven’t executed it yet.
4. What is your vision as a sole proprietor of Sareer Films?
Sareer was originally the name of a monthly Literary Urdu Magazine, that my nana, Dr. Fahim Azmi, used to publish. There was always a regret in my heart that I should have learned a word or two from him so I could write and think like him and continue his legacy. But I guess it was meant to be continued in a new medium.
Sareer films is an entrepreneurial, service-based venture, that might take its time to become visible. I see it as a creative house, not an ad agency and not only a production house. We can be doing a puppet show one day, a documentary the other, or simply writing a short story on one fine sunny afternoon. Persistence and the love to create will always be the key.
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5. What kind of knowledge do you disseminate as an art educator?
I teach Photography to Fine art & Communication design students at the University of Karachi. I also teach Basic Design course to architecture students at a private university. No matter what the course or the medium is I try to dig out the best from the students. Art Education is not something that can be preached or practiced by ‘dandaa’ (through strictness) neither it is limited to a degree or a certificate. It’s a process that is not linear. It is more of a moving spiral that can move inwards and outwards.
6. Any creative or a strange dream you want to accomplish?
If I had a chance to live my life three times, I would have dedicated one to visual arts, one to performing arts and one solely to travel.
7. Your message for the youth of Pakistan?
Your DNA has crossed oceans, experienced adventures, learned skills, heard music, discovered and invented. Your present conscious might have forgotten it all but it is still there. Dig it out! You might find a universe inside of you.
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