What kind of documentary festival!
Picture: Collected
Monday was the last day of the 5-day International Documentary Festival titled '12th Liberation Doc Fest Bangladesh' organized by Liberation War Museum. According to the announced schedule, the selected documentary film exhibition was supposed to start at 11 am.
This reporter reached the museum premises at 11:15 am to see the exhibition in the auditorium of the Liberation War Museum in Agargaon of the capital. He found no one there except a few security personnel. However, a few hanging banners with relevant information on the walls of the museum building seemed to inform the evil of the festival.
After not getting any update regarding the festival from the security personnel, he went to the museum secretariat and spoke to a person in charge named Farhat, who is responsible for coordinating the festival. Farhat said that the documentary exhibition will start at 11 am according to the pre-determined schedule of the festival.
Walking into the auditorium, the empty auditorium was filled with only one worker testing a documentary to be shown on the projector. After sitting and waiting for a while, a documentary filmmaker from Kolkata named Mrinmoy Banerjee appeared there. He said that his documentary was selected to be screened at the festival and he was invited to attend the festival by email and phone.
A little after 11:00 am, the museum worker started showing the documentary entitled 'Those Who Brought the Flag of Revolution in Their Hands' without announcement and presence of any visitors.
After the screening of this 40-minute long documentary, Mrimmoy, who came to watch the documentary produced by himself with a well-wisher in an empty auditorium, expressed his disappointment and told Barta24.com, "If any visitor has not seen this, why should it be shown here under the name of International Documentary Film Festival?" May have importance! Was it necessary to be invited to such a festival?
The young producer said, "I received an e-mail from the organizers requesting to participate in the festival, it mentioned issuing 2 passes for my team, but when I actually attended and asked the concerned, no one could tell me anything about it." I made this documentary at my own expense out of responsibility towards history and tradition. Participation in such an event is pointless if those who are interested cannot see it.
He said, "Perhaps the organizers have failed to convey information about this festival to those interested." Despite adverse weather conditions, true fans flock to this type of event regardless of obstacles - we have seen that from past experience.''
Chest specialist Dr. Uttam Kumer Barua who came to watch the documentary of producer Mrinmoy Banerjee complained that the museum auditorium was not suitable for the exhibition and said, "After sitting in the auditorium for half an hour, I understand that the museum staff did not even clean it before the exhibition." It smelled bad, the way a theater is prepared by using air fresheners, it's not done here.'
This Chest Specialist also commented that anyone can get sick in such an auditorium.
Twenty-five volunteers can be seen chatting inside the museum after coming out of the auditorium. When asked why none of them went to the auditorium - they refused to speak. When asked about the matter from Farhat, who is coordinating the festival, he avoided the responsibility of not having visitors due to the crowd. However, he did not give any answer to the question why museum workers and volunteers related to the festival did not stay at the exhibition.
Speaking to an employee of the museum who did not want to be named, it is known that there was hardly any attendance at the opening and closing of the '12th Liberation Doc Fest Bangladesh' except for some guests and visitors. State Minister for Information Mohammad Ali Arafat inaugurated the festival on April 18 at the museum auditorium.
Indian filmmaker Nilotpal Majumder and India's national and international award-winning filmmaker Haubam Pawan Kumar were present at the inaugural function. Asaduzzaman Noor, Trustee of Liberation War Museum and Mofidul Haque, Trustee and Festival Director of Liberation War Museum also spoke on the occasion. Sara Zaker, trustee and member secretary of Liberation War Museum, gave the opening speech at the event.
In 2006, the Liberation War Museum started the Documentary Film Festival. Famous filmmakers of the world participated in this festival with their documentaries and enhanced the status of this festival. The organization has been awarding the best documentary filmmakers following the judicial process through a nationally and internationally recognized jury board. But this time, the Liberation War Museum could not maintain the rich tradition in organizing this festival - this is the complaint of the documentary filmmakers.
