Salam Shalom - The Untold Story of a Jewish Family in Pakistan wins the Alan Fortunoff Humanitarian Film Award. Presented annually at the Long Island International Film Expo (LIIFE) the accolade is awarded to recognize films that promote humanitarian values and create social impact through storytelling.
The award is named after Alan Fortunoff, a prominent Long Island philanthropist associated with the Fortunoff family and known for his charitable and civic contributions. Alongside his wife Helene, he supported numerous educational and humanitarian initiatives, including the endowment of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University.
Hina Ali, director of Salam Shalom, speaking at the award ceremony after accepting the Alan Fortunoff Humanitarian Award.
“When Pakistani filmmaker Hina Ali began researching traces of Jewish life in her home country, she didn’t expect to find much...Then she came across the story of Hazel Selzer Kahan”
“Director and producer Hina Ali, focused on the untold story of the Jews in Pakistan, following Hazel Selzer Kahan and her family’s history. Pakistan became a place of refuge for Kahan and her family while fleeing from Nazi Germany in the mid 1900s.”
“When Pakistani filmmaker Hina Ali started digging into her country’s forgotten Jewish history, she didn’t expect to end up on the North Fork, or to make a lifelong friend.
Enter Hazel Selzer Kahan, an 86-year-old writer living in Mattituck, who just happens to have been born Jewish in Lahore.”