Welcome to A QISSAA with Ishika, Quintessential and Inspiring Stories of South Asian Artists!
My guest today is Iram Parveen Bilal, a filmmaker, activist, and owner of the Parveen Shah Productions company. Raised in Nigeria and Pakistan, Iram has had a vast variety of artistic experiences and credits. She studied Environmental Science and Engineering at CalTech before making the shift into filmmaking. Iram has 3 feature films and many short films, TV pilots, commercials, and screenplays to her name, her most recent film I’ll Meet You There earning rave reviews. Her feature film Josh was the first film from Pakistan to be selected by Netflix and the US Library of Congress permanent collection. She was 1 of 15 directors invited to Cinefondation's L'Atelier at Cannes 2019 for her feature project in development, WAKHRI (ONE OF A KIND). Shifting to TV, her Pilot, DETAINED, just made the top twenty un-produced, female written pilots’ list for WeForShe. Iram is a CAPE, Film Independent & Thomas J. Watson fellow and multiple-time Women in Film awardee. Iram is an active mentor for women in film and tech. She is a member of the Film Fatales and the Alliance of Women directors, advocating for gender parity behind the camera. Bilal has been featured on NPR, BBC, the New York Times, Forbes, Filmmaker Magazine, and more. Bilal initiated the Pakistani Oscar committee and is the founder of Pakistan's first professional screenwriting lab (QALAMBAAZ). Her leadership and associations include Alliance of Women Directors' Industry Support cohort, BlackMagic Collective's Future Women of TV cohort, co-chair of the Asian American Writer’s Committee at the WGA, and active board member for the Caltech Y.
