Screening: Anand Kamalakar's "Salam: The First **** Nobel Laureate"

Friday, March 29, 2019, 7 p.m. Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium
140 Newhouse 3
"Salam: The First **** Nobel Laureate" movie poster

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Anand Kamalakar.

“Salam” is a feature length documentary about the Nobel prize winning Pakistani physicist, Abdus Salam. The film reveals the extraordinary life of the charismatic Abdus Salam, in all its color, vitality and tragedy. It is the story of a man who traversed two worlds with ease: one of science and religion, modernity and tradition, war and peace and obscurity and celebrity.

When he won the Nobel prize in 1979, he became the very first Pakistani to achieve this distinction, and only the fourth from the subcontinent. Born in 1926 in a remote village in Punjab, British India, Salam was a child prodigy. He came from humble beginnings, growing up in a small brick house with a large family of eleven. While Salam’s legacy looms large in the world of physics, he is largely forgotten in Pakistan because of his faith. Children do not read about him and he is still vilified and maligned by right wing clerics for being a “Qadiani"—a derogatory term for someone belonging to the Ahmadiyya community.

By telling this complex story of a man who due to extremism could not strengthen his people as he so deeply desired, the film draws attention to the state of affairs in the world today, where knowledge is sacrificed at the altar of ignorance and intolerance, depriving the coming generation of all that is precious.

About director Anand Kalamakar:

Anand Kamalakar is a Brooklyn-based film director, producer and editor. "The Gowanus Canal" (Winner, Best Film, Brooklyn Film Festival), "Chief Engineer Conrad," "Citizen Sharma," "Building Bridges," "300 Miles to Freedom" and "Garwin" are some of the films he has directed or produced. "Heart of Stone," a film he produced and edited, won over ten awards including Best Film at Slamdance Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival and Cinequest Film Festival. It also won an award for Best Editing at the Santa Fe Film Festival. Anand has worked as an editor for "Primetime" (ABC), "Dateline" (NBC) and "20/20" (ABC) and was the editor of the 2004 Emmy-nominated ABC special on the Iraq war titled "Brothers in Arms." Kalamakar was also a creative consultant on the academy award-winning documentary "Born Into Brothels." His last project "Holy (un)Holy River" premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and has won several awards around the world.

Information about the speaker

Anand Kamalakar
Kailoola Productions

For more information, contact:
Mary Ann Durantini