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dhaka: +88028850439
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e: shafiur(at)rahman(dot)com
skype: shafiur.rahman
Swapnabhumi and Bostrobalikara now on Amazon.co.uk ( March 2008)
Bostrobalikara: Garment Girls of Banglesh was shown on Bangla ATN channel on 1 May.
The 2007 Arab and South Asian Film Festival, New York screened Teardrops of Karnaphuli. The Guimet Museum, Paris, showed Teardrops of Karnaphuli and Bostrobalikara in the fall of 2007 as part of its Shonar Bangla exhibition
last updated: 26 March 2008
bangladeshi.realities2008
through film, text and soundSwapnabhumi The Promised Land
Produced in the year of the 60th of anniversary of partition, the documentary explores the plight of the Bihari or Urdu-speaking community of Bangladesh. The 90 minute film reveals the many different voices found in the "camps" where the Urdu-speakers live. Through harrowing interviews, the documentary takes the audience from the origins of the problem to the current tragic impasse. You can check out the web site by clicking HERE .
Bostrobalikara Garment Girls of Bangladesh
Garment Girls of Bangladesh2007 A common sight in the streets of Dhaka is the parade of young women and girls going to and from work in garment factories. These girls, who number about 2 million, work in the most successful manufacturing industry that Bangladesh has.Nevertheless the garment industry is faced with uncertainties and difficulties. Most pressing are issues concerning wages and safe working conditions, future investment and the international trade environment.
Karnaphulir Kanna
Teardrops of Karnaphuli2005 Through the words of the inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, both "hill people" and recently arrived bengalis, Teardrops of Karnaphuli tells the devastating story of dam construction in the area, the displacement of people and the resulting impoverishment and suffering of local inhabitants.
Current Work
I am currently working on film and censorship issues in the Bangladeshi film industry. There is a strange and fascinating and contradictory involvement of the state in these matters. It all started off with very lofty ideals but the outcome has been rather perverse. In the nexus between politics and culture there are some unexpected winners and losers. The work will be published as a book.
Anwar Hossain and I are also engaged in a project on the Bangladeshi diaspora - much more on that here at some stage.