Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Oscar winner, says Canada informs her work

Pakistani-Canadian filmmakerSharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who won the Academy Award for documentary short,credits her time in Canada for helpinginform her powerful storytelling.

"When you live in a country like Canada, you begin to realize how right things can be," Obaid-Chinoy told CBC inside the Oscars press room after her win."Then when you travel back to Pakistan and to other countries which are in conflict, you can see what's going wrong."

Her winning documentary short, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, is abouthonour killings, told through the eyes of SabaQaiser.

"She wanted her story told," said Obaid-Chinoy. "Theimpact of her story is tremendous, because it is going to change lives, and it's going to save lives, and there can be no greater reward than that."

Qaiser, 18, fell in love with a man againsther family's wishes. Shortly after they eloped,her father and uncle shot her in the head and left her for dead. Her survival led her to become a rarevoice for women in similar situationsand the one needed forObaid-Chinoyto tell the story.

"I think it's important to see what whathuman beings are capable of," said the filmmaker.

Obaid-Chinoy, who now lives inPakistan but hasspent a lot of time going between Toronto and her home country, said her work hasprompted difficult conversations that often risked her life but that there is "payback" in doing so.

The filmmaker and journalistalso won an Academy Award for her 2012 documentary Saving Face, about women in Pakistan searching for justice after sufferingacid attacks.

That win made her the first Pakistani to capture an Oscar.

"The power of being nominated for an Academy Award really does mean for a country like Pakistan that you can change laws."