BSS, Dhaka :
A short film festival on earthquake was celebrated for the first time in the capital for making mass people aware about earthquake preparedness through the language of film.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organized the festival under its CNCRP project at Public Library Auditorium on the city on Saturday as part of their efforts to raise people’s awareness on natural disasters, especially on earthquake in major cities in Bangladesh.
A 1.28 minutes length short film named “Emergency Exit” made by a group of students of Media and Communication Department of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) won the first prize.
A 2.43 minutes length film named “Jerk of Dark” made by Tonmoy Mir, a member of Dhaka University Film Society received the first runner up prize while Zubayer Hassan Siddiqui, a graduate of North South University got second runner up prize for his film named “Survive”.
The film festival was held with 10 best films following a short film competition, launched across the city two months ago by JICA calling young film makers to raise their voices to aware the risk and preparedness.
Before handing over the awards, the Chief Representative of JICA here Mikio Hateada said the painful wakeup call of the Rana Plaza which taking more than 1,100 innocent lives with no earthquake whatsoever reminds of imminent danger of buildings in Bangladesh.
He said JICA, started its support for a capacity development project in Bangladesh, so called “CNCRP”, for developing disaster resistant techniques of construction and retrofitting right after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in March 2011 to share Japan’s techniques and experiences.
JICA Chief said the project has been extending technical cooperation to the Public Works Department (PWD) in, among others, developing an inventory of 2,000 public buildings, introducing various seismic assessment methods, developing retrofitting capacity for more than 100 engineers in both public and private sectors, and preparing technical guidelines and manuals for retrofitting and construction in conformity to the Bangladesh National Building Code.
He said Japan’s assistance to Bangladesh particularly on disaster risk reduction comprises of 65 projects amounting to 650 million USD in the last forty years. “We are committed to go forward with our technical and financial assistance until the country reaches its goal,” he added.
“I’m very happy to know that more than 20 films were produced by young, promising Bangladeshi creators. I imagine it was quite difficult for them to create a film of earthquake risk since many of them must not have experienced any earthquake themselves. But, this film competition is a quite important step for the country to get the ordinary citizens to prepare for earthquakes and to reduce the risk of disaster,” he said.
JICA expert team leader Fumio Kaneko, JICA communication specialist Eriko Kobayeshi and representative from the Film competition jury board Film Director Dilder Hossin also spoke on the occasion.
Other Jury board members film director Nargis Akhter, Zahid Hossain and Mohammed Hossain Jemi also present.
Directors of all 10 best short films received crests and certificates.
