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Measuring up our art films and documentaries

In conversation with Manzar-e- Haseen Murad
8 January 2006, 18:00 PM
LIFESTYLE
By Fayza Haq
8 January 2006, 18:00 PM
A scene from My Migrant Soul, a film by Yasmeen Kabir
Assessing our art films on an international level, Manzar-e- Haseen Murad, who was present both at the recent Int'l Short Film Festival and the National Film Conference, held at the Public Library and the Goethe Institute respectively, said, "Our independent films, whether documentary or feature films (short), I think we have achieved a fairly high standard. Most of our good films are getting regular featuring in int'l film festivals. Some of them have won awards too." He said, when sending our films overseas, one must keep in mind the international high standards of films. The subject should be important for the place of origin of the film, he said, "Its mode of expression and technical quality should be at least acceptable, world over," he added.

Asked to compare local art films with those in the rest of the subcontinent, Manzar-e-Haseen said, "I don't wish to compare our film productions with those in India, as India is a large country. It has a powerful film industry and where there is such a big production of films there are a large number of skilled personalities. Above all they have good facilities of int'l standards. In respect to Pakistan, as far as I know, without discussing the mainstream cinema, and only keeping in mind the alternative int'l cinema, we are much ahead of our Pakistani counterparts.

"Our colleagues are pretty impressive filmmakers like, Sabiha Sumar, Farzad Nabi and Shireen Pasha, who are doing interesting work. Sumar has completed a feature film, which has been awarded in the Cannes Film Festival. This has been screened in Bangladesh last month. Nabi is a young, enthusiastic and talented documentary filmmaker. Pasha has worked for PTV for several years and is a seasoned filmmaker. She has been working from her own production company, doing mind-whirling work, many of them dealing with social and political issues. I salute their challenging work."

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Asked to compare our work from those of the Far East, such as from Japan and China. Manzer-e-Haseen said, "Again, if one wants to consider our film productions with those from Japan or China, it would not be fair. China is a huge country, although their films production does not go all that much in history, yet they have a phenomenal economic growth. Meanwhile, Japan has internationally acknowledged film makers like Kurasawa, Mizoguchi and Ozu, and hence we cannot compare ourselves with them.

Talking about Sri Lankan film, he said, "In comparison to Sri Lanka, we are at par with them. There are some good Sri Lankan directors like, Lester James Peres and his wife, who created a sensation during the 50s and 60s." Later on, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Manzar-e-Haseen said that one didn't witness good Lankan films, but now a couple of good directors are emerging. He said that these new directors have won international film festival awards. "In Bangladesh, what is interesting, is that we now have digital formats and are now making some good documentary films which is a laudable sign."

Asked to name some of the talented new filmmakers, he said, that those in the documentary scenario are making quite a buzz. This, he said, included Shaheen Dil Reaz, who is based in Berlin, but makes most of his films in Bangladesh. He also praised Yasmeen Kabir, who has done challenging works, and Shabnam Ferdousi, who has made three good films.

Hanzar-e-Haseen Murad, studied Economics at DU, and then proceeded to the Czech Republic to study film-making. He specialises in biographical documentaries, such as that on artist Hamiduzzaman Khan.