It’s not every day that you meet a 21 year old college student whose film has been screened in various film festivals. But for Jawad Wahabzada, it’s just another line on the resume.
A senior from Kabul, Afghanistan, Wahabzada is double majoring in religion and communication with a concentration in film production. He never imagined becoming the documentarist that he is today…though Wahabzada always knew that he wanted to raise awareness about the child labor issues in Afghanistan, the question that remained was a big one: how? Eventually, the answer became clear: Wahabzada was going to create a documentary. Not wasting any time, he started taking film classes at Wake to prepare for his upcoming summer project. By the time summer rolled around in 2011, while most of us were working lame summer jobs, Wahabzada was en route to Afghanistan to film his first documentary.??
After two weeks of filming, both he and his co-director, John Bougher, returned the United States with about 30 hours worth of film. By January 2012, after almost six month of relentless editing, Children of Kabul was finished. But the experience leading up to the project’s completion wasn’t easy. One of the biggest challenges of filming, Wahabzada explained, was listening to all the heartbreaking stories of the kids. ??
“What’s amazing about them is that the harsh realities of war – the harsh economic realities – haven’t deprived these kids of their education. They all have dreams of becoming doctors, professors, and engineers,” he said.??
Since the completion of the documentary, mypartfoundation.com has helped Wahabzada to screen the film in both Winston-Salem and High Point, N.C., in order to help raise funds for the children featured in the documentary. It was a great success, and as a result all four children featured are out of the work force and attending school.
As if helping out these children isn’t enough of a reward for these filmmakers, Children of Kabul has been accepted into five film festivals within the states, as well as in the Czech Republic, Russia, Denmark, and Finland. Talk about impressive! At the most recent festival he attended, Buster International Film Festival for Youth in Copenhagen Denmark, Wahabzada was both excited and appreciative of all the interest that the European viewers had in his documentary.
“I always get goosebumps when they screen the film, and I’m sitting with the audience,” he said.??
With one documentary down, Wahabzada has many more to come. He is currently working on Be, and It Is with other Wake Forest seniors, in hopes of raising awareness about religious pluralism.?
While you wait for the release of his new film, check out the official website for Children of Kabul, and be sure to take a look at the documentary’s amazing trailer! Through his inspiring work, Wahabzada has fully embraced our motto here at Wake Forest University. He has created a film that not only speaks for Kabul children in need, but for human rights advocacy around the world. Pro Humanitate, indeed.
Photos courtesy of Jawad Wahabzada