The Dhaka International Mobile Film Festival has hold a five-day CDST Filmmaking Workshop on Munda Community in Koyra, Khulna which started on Sunday November 6, 2021. This mobile filmmaking workshop solely focused on climate change and its aftermath in Munda’s life. Total 8 participants from the Munda Community joined the workshop.
Global warming is real and rapid climate change is the effect of it. Participants have tried their best to cover different problem areas and how those create a long-term effect in the Munda community. In those diversified topics they talked about the salinity in water, health and safety, culture and language, job crisis that leads to displacement. Through their stories, they displayed the mundane life of Munda women, their concern for not providing enough nutrition to their family. River erosion is taking away their ancestral land and religion as well.
The intensive mobile filmmaking workshop, the first of its kind in Koyra, provided the opportunity for participants from the Munda community to “understand and appreciate the process of telling their stories with a smart phone.” Besides that, through this workshop, they have gathered the basic knowledge of filmmaking, which will help them find their voice on a broader scale. At the closing event, each participant has showcased their films in front of the audience. And those films vividly displayed their everyday life- struggles for survival fighting against nature.
The Closing Ceremony of the ‘CDST Filmmaking Workshop with Munda Community, Koyra 2021’ was held on Thursday, November 11, 2021, at 3:30 pm. ULAB’ MSJ Department Head Dr Jude William Genilo sent a Thank You speech to the participants, and so did the project researcher Angelos Theocharis from Durham University. The program started with a brief introduction to the research project and was followed by screening participants’ projects. Local school teachers, social workers, journalists and renowned public figures also grace the event.
The “Community Digital Storytelling and Delta Futures in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam” project is funded by the UKRI GCRF Living Deltas Hub and the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience (IHRR) at Durham University. The workshop was conducted in collaboration with the Dhaka International Mobile Film Festival (DIMFF), the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) and the Initiative for Coastal Development (ICD). From DIMFF, advisor Dr Abdul Kabil Khan and executive advisor Syeda Sadia Mehjabin were the facilitators and DIMFF’s advisor Mohammad Shazzad Hossain was the coordinator of the workshop. From ICD, Asikuzzaman Asik acted as the coordinator from the local side.