World Poetry Proudly Presents Sharif Saedi from Afghanistan!

 We would like to welcome a talented young filmmaker Sharif Saedi from Afghanistan. He has a World Poetry Empowered  Young Filmmaker award . His short film Silence will be shown at the World Poetry Canada International Poetry Festival, April 4-30th at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. Other Empowered filmmakers from Afghanistan are Rahmat Haidari and Sajia Hussain with their film Broken Voices of Poetry which will also be shown. Our partners at Cinevolution reviewed all the docs and films that came in and selected  these two. Thank you to all those that submitted.

 A message from Sharif Saedi: “Let me thank the World Poetry International Board members and Staff for their dedication and endeavors in providing the opportunity for me and many other multicultural and multilingual poets and writers to be heard internationally in the pursuit of peace. I would like to specially thank Ariadne Sawyer the President of World Poetry International and Alaha Ahrar the director of the International World Poetry Youth Team for their unflagging assistance in nominating me as an Afghan young documentary film-maker. Thanks to the University of British Colombia for hosting this international event.

Sharif Ahmad Saedi was born in a middle-class family in 1988 in Herat, Afghanistan. He is an Afghan journalist and film maker and the youngest child of the family. Sharif Saedi spent his childhood and adolescence in Qolobcha, a village in the west of Herat province. Sharif’s childhood and teenage years passed under Mujahidin and the Taliban and during the Afghan civil war. His father Mohammad Nader Saedi, who has been the main supporter of his wife and five children, is now retired.

After graduating from the fifth grade from Salahuddin Saljooqi High School in Herat province, he with his family immigrated to Peshawar, Pakistan. Along with learning English and computer, he finished sixth and seventh grade at a high school affiliated with the Afghan refugees. After two years of living in Peshawar and with the emergence of the transitional government in Afghanistan, he repatriated to Herat province. He finally graduated from Enqelab High School in Herat province in 2006. 

Since the beginning of his teenage years, Sharif has been interested in art and literature. After passing the public universities’ entrance test (Kankor), he got admitted into Herat University Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. He graduated from Herat University in 2011. Parallel to his university years, he worked for some local media including Youth Voice Radio, Zohal Radio, and Asia Television. This made him interested in photography and documentary film making. He has made few documentaries and short films that have been warmly welcomed by the local film critics. “City Rhythm, Silence and Silk” are some of his works that brought him some remarkable awards. He won the best director award, the best documentary award, and the best sound award from “City and the Citizen and Zohal” Film Festivals in 2011 and 2012.

Sharif Saedi, as a young and semi-professional documentary maker, is a fanatic of film making and has ambitious long-term career goals. Along with being a journalist at Mardom Radio (People’s Radio), he wishes to portray his people’s hardship and difficulties through his documentaries. He believes he has a long way ahead of him in his career as a photographer and film maker, and he is strongly committed to advancing in his professional career.