Jocelyn Veronica Biswas :
“So open your eyes and see, the way our horizons meet… and all of the stars will guide us home,” just like Ed Sheeran’s song takes our emotions to places we could only wish to travel to, movies are the visual form of music that transports us.
This takes us to the visualizer of the moves, aesthetics, and atmosphere of a film. A great film is already half made in the mind of the director. A clear thought out vision through polished prosecution produces a piece of art capable of ensnaring and directing our imagination.
Now this is where enters Faridul Ahasan Shourav, a young Bangladeshi filmmaker, shedding light to the future of Bangladesh’s independent films. To familiarize with him a little more, he is a Master’s student in the Institute of Education and Research at Dhaka University, the president of DU’s IER Cine Club, and at the heart of his intro – he is a director.
In 2016, Shourav’s film Standpoint received an award from North South University’s Cine & Drama Club for being the best short film at their Inter University Short Film Festival, IUSFF 2016. On the same year, this short film won the title of being the best experimental film by competing against 256 short film submission from 78 countries in the ‘12 Months Film Festival’ hosted in Cluj Napoca, Romania.
As the dream lit up, Bangladesh independent filmmakers found a new prospective member in their team. Shourav directed and made several short films which were screened in several Film Festivals. Black Magician, his first short film, is a horror film showing the practice of black magic to gain evil power. Chess is another short film dealing with racism and class discrimination to ‘bring a sense of anti-racism.’ Dead’s Circus showed the issue on road accidents. Camouflage was a short film picking up on the reality of marital rape of women by their partners.
When asked about why he chose to be a director rather than an actor, he had said, “If a director is the master of his work, then actors are the obedient fellow travelers. That is, the actors follow the directions of the person who is the director.”
Shourav believes actors can surely improvise and bring a newness to the scene, however to create the whole piece of art as a single film, it requires the vision of a director. He also said, “…Again, only a director can express his/her own thoughts and talent through the medium of audio and visual story. Thus, the work of a director seems to be a challenging medium for the expression of independent art, which is why I chose this path.” According to Shourav, a film is worthwhile when its effects linger longer after the film has ended, whether it is comedy or tragedy.
Soon enough than he started creating short films, his works started gaining national and international acclamation. Shourav acted as a jury at Reel Youth Film Festival, 2017-2018, held in Vancouver, Canada. He was one of the 93 who were selected from three thousands applicants. Also, an upcoming screening of his latest film, The Revelation, is going to be in Shenzhen, China at its 9th International China Short Film Festival in Drama Fiction category.
After all this, the question may arise, where he finds such inspiration. To this, he said movies of ours’ or foreign movies are a source of inspiration.
His genres are mostly experimental with a purpose to address current social issues. Shourav draws inspiration from the life surrounding him. He is an observant soul who believes films are more than just a moving picture. They portray exploration and analysis of the reality.
Whoo, such a long list! Again, at the end of the day, these lists become inspirations for new talents to take one step of bravery at a time. He says, “In the future, as much as I want to create short films, I also wish to work on feature fiction and documentary films.”
Shourav also mentions that his purpose is not to make the films attractive, but to keep working on different genres purely for the love of directing.
“So open your eyes and see, the way our horizons meet… and all of the stars will guide us home,” just like Ed Sheeran’s song takes our emotions to places we could only wish to travel to, movies are the visual form of music that transports us.
This takes us to the visualizer of the moves, aesthetics, and atmosphere of a film. A great film is already half made in the mind of the director. A clear thought out vision through polished prosecution produces a piece of art capable of ensnaring and directing our imagination.
Now this is where enters Faridul Ahasan Shourav, a young Bangladeshi filmmaker, shedding light to the future of Bangladesh’s independent films. To familiarize with him a little more, he is a Master’s student in the Institute of Education and Research at Dhaka University, the president of DU’s IER Cine Club, and at the heart of his intro – he is a director.
In 2016, Shourav’s film Standpoint received an award from North South University’s Cine & Drama Club for being the best short film at their Inter University Short Film Festival, IUSFF 2016. On the same year, this short film won the title of being the best experimental film by competing against 256 short film submission from 78 countries in the ‘12 Months Film Festival’ hosted in Cluj Napoca, Romania.
As the dream lit up, Bangladesh independent filmmakers found a new prospective member in their team. Shourav directed and made several short films which were screened in several Film Festivals. Black Magician, his first short film, is a horror film showing the practice of black magic to gain evil power. Chess is another short film dealing with racism and class discrimination to ‘bring a sense of anti-racism.’ Dead’s Circus showed the issue on road accidents. Camouflage was a short film picking up on the reality of marital rape of women by their partners.
When asked about why he chose to be a director rather than an actor, he had said, “If a director is the master of his work, then actors are the obedient fellow travelers. That is, the actors follow the directions of the person who is the director.”
Shourav believes actors can surely improvise and bring a newness to the scene, however to create the whole piece of art as a single film, it requires the vision of a director. He also said, “…Again, only a director can express his/her own thoughts and talent through the medium of audio and visual story. Thus, the work of a director seems to be a challenging medium for the expression of independent art, which is why I chose this path.” According to Shourav, a film is worthwhile when its effects linger longer after the film has ended, whether it is comedy or tragedy.
Soon enough than he started creating short films, his works started gaining national and international acclamation. Shourav acted as a jury at Reel Youth Film Festival, 2017-2018, held in Vancouver, Canada. He was one of the 93 who were selected from three thousands applicants. Also, an upcoming screening of his latest film, The Revelation, is going to be in Shenzhen, China at its 9th International China Short Film Festival in Drama Fiction category.
After all this, the question may arise, where he finds such inspiration. To this, he said movies of ours’ or foreign movies are a source of inspiration.
His genres are mostly experimental with a purpose to address current social issues. Shourav draws inspiration from the life surrounding him. He is an observant soul who believes films are more than just a moving picture. They portray exploration and analysis of the reality.
Whoo, such a long list! Again, at the end of the day, these lists become inspirations for new talents to take one step of bravery at a time. He says, “In the future, as much as I want to create short films, I also wish to work on feature fiction and documentary films.”
Shourav also mentions that his purpose is not to make the films attractive, but to keep working on different genres purely for the love of directing.
(Jocelyn Veronica Biswas, BSc in Economics student at United International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh)
