Having won the prestigious Jackson Wild Media Award (a first for Pakistan) in the Global Voices category last month, award-winning filmmaker and 2022 TED Fellow, Jawad Sharif, reveals that his documentary film, Moklani – The Last Mohanas, is deeply close to his heart.
With a panel of 200 international judges and over 500 films submitted this year, the Jackson Wild Media Awards is one of the most well-known platforms that showcases promising filmmaking talent in nature, science and conservation.
Highlighting the lives of the Mohana community, an indigenous people known for their floating boathouses who have lived on Manchar Lake, in Sindh, for over a century, the production revolves around the lives of Akbar Mallah and his sister Hakim Zaidi, 11th generation Mohanas.
Once the largest lake in the country, abundant with different species of fish and a thriving ecosystem in its own right, today Manchar Lake is unlivable, choked with toxic industrial waste, sewage and abject neglect.
At the heart of Sharif’s documentary are the siblings who are forced to make a painful, albeit crucial decision: to leave the lake for good and move to land, or to continue striving to survive amidst scarcity, while watching the continued ecological destruction of a lake that has been their home for generations.
Having spent four years interacting closely with both Mallah and Zaidi, Sharif states that he developed close bonds with the family, adding that he realized early on that the production would be “more than” a film for him due to the long-lasting emotional impact the story of the Mohanas had on him.
Directed and produced by Sharif with the support of the National Geographic Society, the filmmaker states that the theme of cultural loss is something that has been consistent in his work through productions such as K-2 & The Invisible Footmen (2015), Indus Blues (2018), Natari (2021) and more.
“There have been multiple moments which impacted me during my time shooting in Manchar,” Sharif discloses. “There was a time when I was sitting with [Mallah] and the sun was beginning to set. We suddenly became very quiet and I stopped recording. There was this certain energy in the air. It’s hard to describe the feeling…but it really touched my heart. Other times, I would watch [Mallah] hunt for fish late at night under a full moon while reciting poetry. It was very fascinating to bear witness to such almost sacred moments of the Mohana community.”
Slated for release in the spring of 2026, the filmmaker states that over the course of his 15-year journey in filmmaking, he has always felt the pain of the stories he’s covered. While each production does end up taking an emotional toll on Sharif, he wouldn’t have it any other way. Besides, it’s his empathy and his ability to absorb his surroundings which gives birth to such poignant films which capture the vulnerabilities of the human condition.
“It hurts knowing that we’re the last generation who will see these communities, their traditions and their culture up close. The new generations perhaps won’t have the opportunity to witness their lives…that’s why I have this urgent need in me to do whatever I can to preserve their stories.”