Director Hafiz Karmali to present at San Francisco Conference, December 6, 2009

Hafiz Karmali, who directed From Ali to Karim during the Golden Jubilee celebrations will be a panelist on Theatre and Peace-building at the ReOrient 2009 Forum in San Francisco. The forum is a two-day gathering of theatre artists and field specialists engaging in discussions about Middle Eastern-American Theatre. It will be held on December 5 and 6, 2009. http://www.goldenthread.org/reforum.htm

Day 2 – Sunday, December 6, 10 am – 11 pm
10:00am – Panel Discussion – Theatre and Peace-building
Chair: Roberto Varea, USF Theatre & Social Justice Program
Participants: Catherine Filloux (Playwright, Theatre Without Borders), Motti Lerner (Playwright), Hafiz Karmali (Director)

Mr. Karmali’s directing credits include Buchner’s Woyzeck, Leonce & Lena; Garcia Lorca’s The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife (Festival Avignon-Off, France); Attar’s Conference of the Birds (Ismaili Centre, London); Carlo Gozzi’s Love of Three Oranges & Raven (Montreal); Ikhwan al-Safa’s Island of Animals (Ismaili Centre, London); Jamatkhanas: A Journey I & II (video documentaries on Islamic Architecture); Caravane de la Paix (UNESCO, Paris).

Mr. Karmali has a special interest in cross-cultural performances with a view to showcasing indigenous performing arts of the Islamic world. To this end, he has directed Azaan – a court entertainment in collaboration with performers from Ismaili communities in London and Tajikistan (Guest of Honour: His Highness the Aga Khan); Rumi x 7 – Tales from the Mathnavi sponsored by the EEC with an acting company in Uzbekistan; Water for Life, AKF London, in collaboration with a dance company from Gujarat (Guest of Honour: Princess Zahra Aga Khan); and with folk artists of Karimabad, Hunza, Legend of the Baltit Fort – a dance-theatre programme sponsored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), hosted by His Highness and Prince Amyn.

Mr. Karmali is intrigued by the interface between culture and social development as apparent in past assignments as a consultant for the UNDP (Samarkand) and AKTC (the Silk Route Project). Hafiz served as a Relief Officer for Focus Humanitarian Assistance (affiliated with the AKDN) as a member of the pioneering team that implemented Project Afghanistan in Kabul, Pul-i-Khumri & Badakhshan (October 1996 – June 1997 during the Taliban regime). Hafiz also served as a member of the organising team for His Highness the Aga Khan’s visits to Tajikistan (May 1995) & Afghanistan (Sept. 1998). A recipient of an AKF International Scholarship, Hafiz spent one year conducting research in Iran and is currently based in Paris where at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne) he is finalising his doctorate thesis on classical Ismaili philosophy. He is also working with the Institute of Ismaili Studies in translating M.A. Amir-Moezzi’s Spirituality in Shi’i Islam: Beliefs and Practices from French into English.

http://www.goldenthread.org/oldsite/content/past_prod_island.html
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=104743
http://www.goldenthread.org/reforum.htm
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