San Francisco : The Mountain Shadow Film Society presented its 8th annual Short Film Competition at Las Lomas High School, Walnut Creek, San Francisco, California, United States. Fifteen jurors selected the eight finalists, which include animated, live-action and documentary short films from around the world.
The Painterist, a short film from Pakistan was shortlisted as a Finalist for the event. ‘All Finalists are considered equal “Winners”; John Bennison, the Executive Director of the Mountain Shadow Film Society’ read the statement.
Khalid Hasan Khan coined an imaginative title “The Painterist”; he expounded, “Its origin is misconstrued as “Paint”; many overlook the sensation of “Pain”. This story is about the miserable life of a fine artist, whose name is Shahid. Being a poor and unknown painter, he sells his artwork for fistful money, to a dilettante lady, Tanya. Down the road, he realized, he was bargaining his soul! Intellectual piracy is the motif of this avant-garde movie. Shahid is a victim of such limelight-starved opportunists who may steal colors from his canvas, but not his artistic spirit.
“The Painterist” acknowledges and appreciates the creative devotion of these self-made artists, who are being swindled by art charlatans and credit hijackers in this bandit territory of art and craft. Zahid Rai, a talented writer from Lahore, wrote this touching story. The film cast includes Adnan Bashir Khan, Kainat Munir and Aleezay Javed. Azim Ahmed and Syed Ovais Ali co-produced the film.