This Friday, T2F is delighted to host two special guests, Ruhi Hamid and Misha Maltsev aka DJ HERETIC
Date: 18th July 2008 | Time: 7:00 pm
We’ll kick off the evening with a screening of Ruhi Hamid’s critically acclaimed film, The Rockstar and the Mullahs, followed by a Q/A with the Director. After a break to clear the decks, we will move straight into an eclectic mix of funk, latin, jazz, drum’n'bass, techno, soul, and balkan, featuring London DJ, Misha Maltsev, aka DJ HERETIC.
The Rockstar and the Mullahs
Running Time: 55 minutes
The lead singer of Pakistan’s biggest rock group travels to Peshawar, where the local government has banned all music, and asks, “Why can’t spirituality be expressed through pop songs?”

Salman Ahmad is the charismatic lead guitarist for the popular Pakistani rock group, Junoon. Inspired by the ancient Sufi tradition, the band’s music and lyrics reflect the moderate, liberal side of Islam. But a coalition of fundamentalist Islamic parties has made recent gains in Pakistani elections, and Junoon’s high profile places them in conflict with the hardliners. Salman Ahmed journeys to the tolerant, ancient city of Lahore and the fundamentalist stronghold of Peshawar to reveal the internal religious and political conflicts of nuclear-armed Pakistan. The mullahs want to ban their music but Junoon’s fans, among them, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, have made Salman a rock idol. From this trip emerges a rich portrait of modern day Pakistan, a pivotal nation in the war against terror.
Ruhi Hamid
Ruhi Hamid has pushed boundaries for Muslim women and specialises as a solo director/camerawoman. After her award-winning series “Lahore Law”, Ruhi has made films for the BBC, Channel 4, Arte and Al Jazeera International including “Women and Islam” and “The Rockstar and the Mullahs”. After working as a graphic designer in Holland, Zimbabwe and in London at the BBC for many years, Ruhi turned her skills to programme making. She worked on the innovative strand of films Video Diaries/Video Nation, dedicated to working alone with DV cameras giving access to ordinary members of the public to have their voices and stories heard on mainstream television. By listening and allowing contributors to open up and trust her, Ruhi has gained access to peoples and cultures and has captured critical moments on camera. This has been the case whether Ruhi worked with a young autistic boy in England, the Kalapalo Indians in the Brazillian Amazon, the shamans in the Siberian forests or the criminal courts in Pakistan.
Ruhi’s film about the Hmong tribe (ex CIA veterans) in Laos was nominated for the Rory Peck Awards in 2004, and “At The Epicentre”, a documentary about the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, won her the same award in 2005. Her two recent high profile films are “Inside A Shariah Court” filmed in Nigeria and “The King’s New Laws” about law reform in Morocco. For her next project, Ruhi has gained unprecedented access to the British High Commission’s Forced Marriages Unit in Islamabad.
Misha Maltsev / DJ HERETIC
Misha Maltsev comes from Pokrovsk in the Republic of Sakha, Siberia. Before moving to London in 2000, he helped organize the Tabyk music festival, produced alternative and world music programmes for Sakha State Radio and independent media stations, published a music fanzine, and produced local artists such as Stepanida Borisova and Chyskyyrai. An alumni of SOAS, Misha works on radio and TV documentaries as a freelancer for the BBC; his film journeys have included an extreme Siberian winter expedition with a husky sled team and a trek in the jungles of Laos to film the Hmong rebels.
DJ HERETIC is one of London’s most eclectic DJs. He has performed with militant rapper Shamil from Fun-Da-Mental Soundsystem and has played DJ gigs ranging from festivals such as Glastonbury, Big Chill and the Isle of Wight Festival to small clubs like Radio Gagarin in Notting Hill Arts Club where he is a resident DJ. His adventurous and eccentric DJ sets include anything from minimal techno to field-recordings of the Balkan Gypsies, Afro-Beat, Latin or punk.
Misha combines DJ activities with his research fellowship in ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. His current research project is about the revival of shamanism in Siberian indigenous republics.
Date: Friday 18th July, 2008
Time: 7:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Rs. 250
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
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Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.