Art precedes all boundaries.
My name is Saadan Khalid, I am a 24 year old guy living in Rawal Pindi. My story might be a little boring but it might be relatable and it is a story of my own struggle through life, as all of us. I was born in Peshawar Airbase, My four siblings and I were raised by our parents. I’m the youngest. Sometimes it’s easier being the youngest and sometimes it’s a curse, I shall not get into that right now.
As a kid I was always amused by small things like the pattern of light when it’s piercing through the leaves of the forest trees. I grew up around airplanes. I was always into Art, I drew sketches from human portraits to landscapes and inanimate objects, abstract. I used to paint, I played a tiny electrical keyboard, flute. I would learn without the use of any internet or tutorial books.
One day I was flipping through my new notebook that I got for school and I drew a little bird in the corner and I realized that I could animate the bird if I drew it on every page and flipped it. It really amused me. I started to make little flip books and as I grew up I realized that’s what movies and animation is.
There’s barely any opportunity here. Too much religion, too much negativity. Nobody wants to think here. I just want to go to the states and reset my life and start my art all over again.
I was obsessed with my own little stories that I would have in my head. I was always drawing, in the class room, in recess, at home, in a park. I would make little comics just to please myself. It was fun. Then came 8th grade, my parents became strict. They wouldn’t let me draw or paint and instead I had to learn math and physics and biology. I had to go to tuition centers for 6 hours even after coming back from school. Everything became hectic. I started to get anxiety. I stopped painting and sketching or playing music. I would have to go secretly watch movies at a friends house so that my parents could never find out. Slowly and gradually I started to lose my art.
Then came my F.Sc years and I had to study a lot leaving everything I loved behind. Huge notes of math and physics on the table where once I would make my little flip books. I lost it. I loved art and I decided to go to Lahore from Quetta to study in an Arts school. I got admission in National College of Arts in Film making in my first try. I had to confront my parents and I did, I left. I went to college with only a thousand rupees in my pocket because my parents were never supportive of it. I had to because film making was the only thing I ever wanted to do. I wanted to make films and animated films. I wanted to make art. I thought it was the only field where I would be at peace with myself and where I could excel beyond my limits. I stayed in random hostels, random peoples rooms, I stayed on footpaths until I laid my hands on a little side job that I would do after my college hours.
