Shamim Sarif
Shooting her second film in South Africa, British novelist of Indian and South African descent Sarif is poised to become an indie director of note. Winner of the Betty Trask Award and the Pendleton May First Novel Award, Sarif and her partner Hanan Kattan own the Enlightenment Productions film studio. Her two LGBT-themed films, I Can’t Think Straight and The World Unseen, are set to debut in 2007. The novelist-turned-screenplay-writer says the genre difference is minimal. “The biggest leap is the crossover in your mind. You have to lose the fear of straying far from the book to capture the essence of it.” Sarif started writing just after earning her master’s. Never looking too far forward, Sarif says “human nature means you always reach one summit and then look for the next, so I just keep going.” –MW
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