Liberation DocFest Bangladesh opens in Dhaka on October 29, with 17 films chosen from 188 entries
The international documentary film festival Liberation DocFest Bangladesh is set to begin in Dhaka. The three-day 13th edition of the festival opens on October 29 at the Liberation War Museum in Agargaon and will end on October 31.
A total of 17 selected documentary films will be screened at this year's festival in the competition sections (national and international) and the 'Best of the Fest' section. The theme of this year's edition is 'Presence in Absence'.
In a press release, the organisers said the festival has been arranged to promote filmmaking on liberation and human rights, to connect local filmmakers with international documentary cinema, and to encourage the new generation to make films in this genre.
To involve young people, 35 students from various universities have been selected as volunteers for the festival.
A total of 188 films were submitted to this year's festival from different countries around the world. An eight-member preview committee chose 17 of them for screening.
The members of the preview committee were Zihan Karim, Biplob Sarkar, Mehdi Mostafa, Partha Sarathi, Sharmin Doja, Chaitali Samaddar, Kamrul Ahsan and Kazi Arefin Ahmed.
The selected films have been arranged in various thematic sections. These include 'Bodies and Belonging', 'Gender Equality and Resistance', 'Resistance and Reform', 'Generational Memory', 'Displacement and Statelessness', '1971: Living Archives', 'Ecology in Crisis' and 'Ancestral Roots and Livelihoods'.
In the competition section, one film in each of the two categories — national and international — will receive an award. Each award carries prize money of Tk 100,000.
In addition, a nine-member youth jury committee has been formed to select the best film from the perspective of young viewers. The winning film will receive a crest and a certificate.
The jury for the national competition section consists of filmmaker Shabnam Ferdousi, visual artist and filmmaker Dilara Begum, and Sajjad Hossain, a teacher at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.
The jury committee for the international competition section includes cultural personality M. Hamid, filmmaker Shamim Akhtar and human rights activist Asif Munier.
Alongside the film screenings, the festival will feature a special seminar aimed at connecting the new generation with the history and memory of the Liberation War. It will discuss the possibilities and realities of making documentaries as classroom assignments in higher education. The seminar will be held at 4pm on October 30, the festival's second day, in the seminar room of the Liberation War Museum.
Liberation DocFest Bangladesh began its journey in 2006 with the aim of bringing to the screen the struggles of people around the world for liberation and the protection of human rights. Continuing that two-decade journey, local and foreign filmmakers, jurors and documentary lovers will gather at the Liberation War Museum from October 29 to 31 for this 13th edition.
