The 13th Liberation DocFest Bangladesh will screen 17 documentaries selected from 188 submissions at the Liberation War Museum in Agargaon, Dhaka, from October 29 to 31.
The festival’s national and international competition sections will run alongside “Best of the Fest”. This year’s theme is “Presence in Absence”.
An eight-member preview committee selected the films from entries submitted by filmmakers in different countries. The committee comprised Jihan Karim, Biplob Sarkar, Mehedi Mostafa, Partha Sarathi, Sharmin Doza, Chaitali Samaddar, Kamrul Ahsan and Kazi Arefin Ahmed.
The selected films are grouped into eight thematic sections: “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”.
The national and international competitions will each award a prize of Tk 1 lakh. A separate nine-member youth jury will select a film for recognition, with the winner receiving a crest and certificate.
The national jury comprises filmmaker Shabnam Ferdousi, visual artist and filmmaker Dilara Begum, and Sajjad Hossain, a faculty member at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.
The international jury includes cultural personality M Hamid, filmmaker Shamim Akhtar, and human rights activist Asif Munier.
A seminar on documentary filmmaking in higher education will accompany the screenings. The discussion will examine the scope and practical challenges of assigning documentary production as a classroom project, while considering how the form can connect younger generations with the history and memory of the Liberation War.
The seminar is scheduled for 4 pm on October 30 in the museum’s seminar room.
Established in 2006, Liberation DocFest Bangladesh promotes documentary filmmaking centred on freedom, human rights and social struggles. The festival also seeks to connect Bangladeshi filmmakers with international documentary cinema and encourage younger generations to engage with the form.
