Pakistani documentary: representation of national history and identity (1976-2016)

This thesis presents a study of Pakistani documentary, with a focus on the ways in which it represents Pakistan’s national identity and history. The study examines three sources of documentary production – state media, commercial television channels, and independent filmmakers – as three distinct voices of Pakistani documentary. The study argues that the discourses of these institutions are governed by their respective ideological, political, and economic priorities. These factors result in two competing approaches to Pakistan’s national history and identity: right-wing and left-wing. The Islamic ideology of the state governs the discourse of state-sponsored documentaries. The commercial television documentaries take an anti-establishment position, however, they remain faithful to Islamic ideology of the state to a large extend. The independent filmmakers, on the other hand, offer a liberal perspective of history and a secular identity of Pakistan. Hence, they offer a critical view of the state’s Islamic ideology as a governing principle of historiography and identity formation. The notion of representation entails the issues of authenticity, credibility, and truth-value, associated with the various methods adopted by the filmmakers. Hence, attention is paid to the styles and modes of documentary, with a reflection on the documentarian’s individual approaches to realism. The documentaries have been placed within historical and political contexts considering Pakistan as a postcolonial state, which also functions as a critical framework of this study