MPAC to Honor Sharmeen at Media Awards Gala on May 13

Los Angeles, CA: The Muslim Public Affairs Council has announced it will be honoring this year’s Academy Award-winner for best documentary short, “Saving Face,” at the 21st Annual MPAC Media Awards Gala on Sunday, May 13, in Los Angeles.

Directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Pakistan’s first Oscar recipient, “Saving Face” follows the lives of Pakistani acid-burn victims as they journey to reconstruct their faces and lives. MPAC is honored that director Daniel Junge and Dr. Mohammad Jawad, the British Pakistani plastic surgeon featured in the film, will be accepting this year’s Media Award for the moving documentary.“ ‘Saving Face’ embodies the true spirit of the MPAC Media Awards as we honor courageous individuals and projects who use their voices loudly and effectively to move our communities and society in a better direction,” said Deana Nassar, MPAC Hollywood Liaison. “This film challenges the status quo in Pakistan and dares us to re-examine misogynistic laws and cultural values.”

The documentary highlights the Acid Survivors Foundation-Pakistan and plastic surgeon Dr. Jawad, who left the prominence of his London practice to return to his home country and help these victims. This year, MPAC also will honor:

• TLC for airing the ground-breaking reality show "All-American Muslim” in the face of an intense negative smear campaign, which targeted the show’s advertisers
    "Kinyarwanda,” the Sundance Film Festival-winning film based on the true story of Rwandan Muslims, Christians, Hutus and Tutsis who took refuge at the Grand Mosque of Kigali and the madrassa of Nyanza during the horrific genocide in the 1990s.

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