Anyone ever shoot in rural Pakistan?

Omar N

Omar N

Active member
Hello community!

I will be shooting a feature length doc around the area of Sindh province, Pakistan this summer about educational opportunities for young girls who grow up there, and wanted to reach out to the community to see if anyone with experience shooting in the region could share any quick tips on safety. I have worked a lot in the Middle East and southern Africa, but never in Pakistan. Can anybody give a few comments or concerns about staying safe while shooting in rural Pakistan? Is it something anybody would recommend avoiding altogether? My team will have a location fixer who can hopefully keep us safe, but any additional comments with personal experience in mind would be tremendously appreciated.

Overall I believe that if we observe regular safety precautions we should be OK, but as this is new ground for me, I figured it couldn't hurt to check in.

A particular point of concern for me is that the director heading up this project is a woman that I will be working very closely with on the ground there, who I am not married to. I may be worrying to deeply about it, but I do wonder if this will make she and I less safe, since I know men and women are typically not seen together is communities that are extremely conservative. In extreme cases, I've heard of men and women being accused of adultery and put in prison, or even killed in such situations. While I know those are extremely rare and very far-fetched examples, I want to make sure all precautions are taken to ensure we have a pleasant and safe experience.

Thank you in advance!
 
I have no experience to base this on but when I showed my wife your post she suggested that having another woman there (preferably older) as a chaperone might satisfy local conservative customs.
 
I personally wouldn't do it unless there was a budget for at least 2 armed security (non-pakistani) at all times.

YMMV.

Best,
 
I've shot in Pakistan many times. I've shot in quite few remote locations too, like Azad Kashmir and Jammu regions, as well as in Lahore, Islamabad and a few others.

On some jobs I had armed guards, but not all. I've also taken out kidnap insurance on a couple shoots there.

Personally, I prefer a low key approach with no armed guards, but you need to do a thorough risk assessment and make a decision based on that. What worked for me, may not work for you.
 
Also have someone on your team you trust besides your fixer who speaks and understands the language.

Wear a sweat wicking undershirt, and then soft body armor under your normal shirt.

I also pack hard armor with trauma plates for really nasty areas.
 
Hi, Omar. I don't have an answer for you, but since this seems like a very important question, you may want to get as many answers as possible. I'm a long-time frequenter of dvxuser and it's the main filmmaking forum I frequent, but I would recommend that you register at d-word.com, request to be accepted into the "professional" forums (you just need to provide some of your background and submit a form), and ask your question there. Even though dvxuser is a fine forum and d-word uses a forum format that seems strange to me, they are focused on documentary filmmaking only and they have a lot of documentary filmmakers that frequent there and could provide additional answers. If you already registered and asked there, disregard my message. Good luck and be safe!
 
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