Celebrating forty years of film society movement in Bangladesh

Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray

The film society movement in Bangladesh has come a long way. It completes its forty years on 25th October 2003. The first film society in the country, the erstwhile Pakistan Film Society (now Bangladesh Film Society), was founded on 25th October in 1963.

Among the founders were eminent Rabindra music exponent Waheedul Haque, bureaucrat Anwarul Haque Khan and journalist and politician Bahauddin Chowdhury. Bangladesh Film Society started organising film screenings regularly since then. During the sixties, the leading intellectual and cultural figures gathered under the roof of Bangladesh Film Society. Some of them were involved directly as the office-bearers, lot others were involved as advisers or general members. It was a place where people interested in good cinema as well as good culture could come together to have nice evenings.

The first films showed by the Film Societry were Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray, The Cranes Are Flying by Mikhail Kalatozov and The Ballad of a Soldier by Grigory Chukhrai. In 1975, the Film Society organised a workshop on film appreciation. The leading film teacher of the subcontinent, Prof. Satish Bahadur conducted the workshop. Many of the later personalities who led the better film movement and were involved in filmmaking were the products of the Film Society. Masihuddin Shaker, Anwar Hossain, Badal Rahman, Tanvir Mokammel, Manzare Hasin Murad, Tareque Masud, to name a few.

The history of the film society movement dates back to France in 1922, when the first film society in the world was formed. It was named "Les Amis du Septieme Art" (The Friends of the Seventh Art). Cinema is considered by the French as the seventh art or the ninth muse. One of the earliest woman filmmakers, Germaine Dulac and another very impressive filmmaker, Louis Delluc, were among the founders. We remember them with reverence and gratitude. It is because of them that we are involved with such a fine intellectual and cultural movement. Next in the development of the film society movement is England. The London Film Society was founded in 1925 by such famous personalities like George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Ivor Montague, and others. The first film society in Asia was founded in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1945, and the first in India was Calcutta Film Society, founded in 1947 by Satyajit Ray, Chidananda Dasgupta, Harisadhan Bandyopadhyay, Banshi Chandragupta and their friends.

The history of Bangladesh Film Society is a glorious one. Among the programmes of the Film Society were screening of films; study circles, seminars, and publications focusing on the artistic, thematic and technical merits of the cinema. Muhammad Khasru, the veteran film society activist, was at the helm of the Film Society ever since its inception. He dedicated his whole life to this Film Society. His contribution to the film society movement in Bangladesh is immense. Among all the activities, perhaps which would be remembered most with reverence and envy in posterity are its publications: "The Dhrupadi", its film journal and "The Chalachchitrapatra", its regular film bulletin. "The Dhrupadi" was unique in the subcontinent as a film journal. We, the later generation film society activists, owe a lot to Bangladesh Film Society, to "The Dhrupadi", and especially to Mr. Khasru. I personally owe a lot to Mr. Khasru, who guided me by showing me the way to enrich myself theoretically and intellectually by reading books on different aspects of films and film art. It is at the same time that I started recognising a film by its maker, not by its stars, which helped me organising excellent sessions from Zahir Raihan Film Society later on.

Bangladesh Film Society was very active from the 1960s till the end of the 1980s. However, its programmes in the 1990s ceased to be as tight as it used to be. We hope, the Film Society will resume its activities to inspire us, the later generation film activists, in an age when many film society activists are deviating themselves to commercialism and self-interest instead of devoting themselves to the betterment of good cinema. Our heartiest congratulations to Bangladesh Film Society on its 40th birthday. Long live BFS!

Sabbir Chowdhury, a film activist, teaches in the department of English at Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka.