Azfar Rizvi
Karachi 43° 50' 58.97" N, 79° 15' 5.07" W April 2012 Person
Azfar Rizvi is a Toronto-based documentary filmmaker, journalist, social critic and interfaith activist of Pakistani origin. The only journalist to reach Lus Puttian in the wake of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, he shaped a series of efforts including documentaries ‘Hope Floats’<ref name="hf"></ref> and 'Earthquake Diaries’,<ref name="ed"></ref> radio shows, television appearances, and rehabilitation campaigns for a three-day children’s Eid carnival.
The first English narrative on firefighters in Pakistan, his film ‘Station 58,’ increased public awareness to the extent that Karachi’s mayor at the time, Syed Mustafa Kamal, initiated a life insurance plan exclusively for the city’s heroes and their families. Widely recognized for ‘The Inevitable Flight,’ he garnered enough public interest to eventually convince the government against relocating the world’s largest bird sanctuary in Pakistan. He is also the first producer to ever secure permission, and broadcast a live show from Wagah, the only border connecting India and Pakistan by road.