Weekend Film Focus As well as the ever popular 'Bollywood' style films, there is in Bangladesh a significant alternative film movement. This movement has its origins in a two year film appreciation course run by the Bangladesh Film Institute and Archive in the early 1980s. It was attended by many of Bangladesh's most well known and respected directors who went on to create master-pieces of contemporary cinema. The work of this new generation of film makers was initially directed at challenging the tendency of successive military governments of the late 1970s and 1980s to suppress the history of the 1971 liberation war in mainstream cinema. They approached film making in an entirely new way, funding and shooting the films independently, and showing them through independent channels.	Programme Jesus of '71, 1993, Nasiruddin Yusuf b/w 120 mins. subtitled Fri 23 July at 6.30pm Sun 25 July at 8.30pm + director's interview Chaka (The Wheel), 1993, Morshedul Islam colour 90 mins. subtitled Fri 23 July at 8.45pm + director's interview Sat 24 July at 6.30pm Muktir Gaan (Song of Freedom), 1995, Catherine and Tareque Masud colour 80 mins. subtitled Sat 24 July at 8.30pm + director's interview Sun 25 July at 6.30pm Sunday Seminar: Alternative Cinema in Bangladesh: Trends & Tendencies Sun 25 July at 3.00pm ICA The Mall, London SW1 Box office: 0171 930 3647 Tube: Charing Cross / Embankment / Leicester Square Cinema tickets: £5 (£4 concessions, £3 ICA members) Westminster Rescard discounts available Sunday Seminar: £6 (£5 concessions, £4 ICA members) Westminster Rescard discounts available
During the final weekend of the Bangladesh Festival, we focus on award winning films by highly accaimed directors. The directors themselves will be in London for the Festival and you can hear them talking about their films after the second screening of each evening. On Sunday afternoon all the directors will be at a seminar entitled Alternative Cinema in Bangladesh: Trends & Tendencies, where they will discuss the alternative film movement- the social, political and economic background in which it emerged; recent trends and developments; and its future. Jesus of '71, directed by Nasiruddin Yusuf, was an important contribution to the fledgling alternative film movement. Its 16mm format was cheaper to use than 35mm and could be shown in any auditorium. The film is set during the liberation war in 1971, and centres on the activities of a priest who shelters different groups of people in his church - a group of villagers, a traumatised orphan girl whom he teaches to play the flute, and a unit of freedom fighters - until tragedy strikes. After its international debut in 1994 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, one critic described the film as "a deeply felt attempt to heal the wounds left by the war. It does this by symbolising the new state and its people as the resurrected body of Christ."
Chaka (The Wheel) is based on a play by Selim-Al-Deen, one of Bangladesh's most eminent playwrights. The story revolves around a dead body that two cart-pullers have to return to its village. When no-one claims the body the cart-pullers are left in an awkward predicament! Directed by Morshedul Islam, the most gifted film-maker in the alternative film movement, the film acheived major international recognition winning awards in many international film festivals.
Muktir Gaan (Song of Freedom) is a documentary film which explores the impact of cultural identity on the liberation war, where music and song provided a source of inspiration to the freedom fighters and a spiritual bond for the whole emerging nation. A group of Bengali cultural activists travel through refugee camps and battle zones performing rousing songs which capture the essence of the Bengali nation. Directors Catherine and Tareque Masud used original footage by American film-maker Lear Levin, as well as other archival footage collected from the UK and India.