I had the privilege of attending the Dhaka International Film Festival for the second time! The first time was in 2012 with my first feature film Mausams. It is a warm festival with great hospitality and some of the best films around the world.
The highlights were :
1) Meeting veteran film critic Gautaman Bhaskaran, Indian national award winning director Salim Ahamed whose film "Adaminte Makan Abu" was the Indian entry to Oscar that year and his producer T. P. Sudeesh, all of whom encouraged me in different ways to "aim bigger". I had several long conversations with all of them and they gave me much needed insights and offers to help if I ever plan to take movie making more seriously. It really was a tremendous learning experience!
2) Meeting all the beautiful folks from the previous round - festival director Ahmed Zamal, his wife, his niece Tahmina, Bengali filmmaker Debanik Kundu and Iranian filmmaker Zohre. Some of the volunteers from 2012 who had remained friends also visited just to meet my co-producer and I. Today they are working / married / with kids and took the effort to come down all the way to meet us, even though otherwise they are off the festival scene completely. How sweet is that!
3) The food! Always and always a favourite! The Bangladeshis have really figured this one out!
4) The weather! The temperature was just right for my taste. It was cool and sunny in the mornings and I really enjoyed the time sitting out in the sun together with the other film makers and the festival director and catching up on films, festivals and life.
5) This probably should have been higher on the list, but the screening of the film itself! It was wonderful to hear the responses after the screening! I was especially thrilled with the feedback because the screening itself was a bit of a bummer because of bad audio. But all's well that ends well.
6) Meeting several other film personalities such as FIPRESCI Jury Members, festival directors of other film festivals such as renowned Iranian film maker Reza Mirkarimi of Fajr festival and many, many others.
So yes, it was a beautiful few days and I had the most amazing time! I wonder whether I would be back in Dhaka again for another film festival, but for now, am so super grateful for having the opportunity to be there second time!
196 more to go.
The highlights were :
1) Meeting veteran film critic Gautaman Bhaskaran, Indian national award winning director Salim Ahamed whose film "Adaminte Makan Abu" was the Indian entry to Oscar that year and his producer T. P. Sudeesh, all of whom encouraged me in different ways to "aim bigger". I had several long conversations with all of them and they gave me much needed insights and offers to help if I ever plan to take movie making more seriously. It really was a tremendous learning experience!
2) Meeting all the beautiful folks from the previous round - festival director Ahmed Zamal, his wife, his niece Tahmina, Bengali filmmaker Debanik Kundu and Iranian filmmaker Zohre. Some of the volunteers from 2012 who had remained friends also visited just to meet my co-producer and I. Today they are working / married / with kids and took the effort to come down all the way to meet us, even though otherwise they are off the festival scene completely. How sweet is that!
3) The food! Always and always a favourite! The Bangladeshis have really figured this one out!
4) The weather! The temperature was just right for my taste. It was cool and sunny in the mornings and I really enjoyed the time sitting out in the sun together with the other film makers and the festival director and catching up on films, festivals and life.
5) This probably should have been higher on the list, but the screening of the film itself! It was wonderful to hear the responses after the screening! I was especially thrilled with the feedback because the screening itself was a bit of a bummer because of bad audio. But all's well that ends well.
6) Meeting several other film personalities such as FIPRESCI Jury Members, festival directors of other film festivals such as renowned Iranian film maker Reza Mirkarimi of Fajr festival and many, many others.
So yes, it was a beautiful few days and I had the most amazing time! I wonder whether I would be back in Dhaka again for another film festival, but for now, am so super grateful for having the opportunity to be there second time!
196 more to go.
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