Paper short abstract:

7000 Miles is a film project about everyday life in two cities 7000 miles apart, as lived and experienced by 20 people from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. The film aims to de-mystify and de-exoticise the “other” by opening a window into everyday life in both cities.

Paper long abstract:

7000 Miles is a film about everyday life in two cities that are geographically 7000 miles apart, as lived and experienced by ten people from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds and walks of life. The film discovers parallels of urban existence between those inhabiting vastly different geographies. The participants live in Karachi and New York City - two large metropolitan cities in two countries with very different levels of development, culture and socioeconomics: Pakistan and USA.

"There (is) a power concealed in everyday life's apparent banality, a depth beneath its triviality, something extraordinary in its very ordinariness"(1). The film strips every day life down to its most simple moments: struggling with washing the dishes, avoiding eye contact in crowded public spaces, frowning at an unruly student in class. It is hoped that the exploration of the seemingly mundane activities of daily life in both cities will help break down the perceived differences between the two cultures and ways of living. The inclusion of the inner "demons" that each subject mulls over during the course of a day is aimed at developing a deeper understanding of the subjects, by enabling the audience to discover the subjects through their innermost fears, ambitions, motivations and ruminations.

(1) Lefebvre, Henri, and Sacha Rabinovitch. Everyday Life in the Modern World Second Revised Edition. London: Continuum International Pub. Group, 2000. Print.