Celebrating Life's Filmmaking Workshop Concludes

The three-day programme titled The Daily Star-Standard Chartered Bank Celebrating Life Filmmaking Workshop 2018, concluded recently at The Daily Star Centre. The workshop was administered under the supervision of Rafi Hossain, the festival director of the programme, along with renowned directors, Shameem Akhtar, Anam Biswas and Mejbaur Rahman Sumon. Out of the 30 candidates who signed up for this year's event, 18 were selected to proceed with the workshop.

Having made a long and successful journey since its inception, this is the 12th year of Celebrating Life. Many attendees of this initiative went on to represent Bangladesh at various international film festivals, including the Berlinale and others. According to Rafi Hossain, “After the workshop, our next aim to select the most deserving participants according to their performances, and build a team to work on a short film.” He further added, “They will work on various aspects of the film. Some will work on lighting, some on costumes, direction and so on.” Once complete, the film will be telecast on Channel i, and Celebrating Life also plans to send the film to a variety of festivals.

From left: Anam Biswas, Shameem Akhtar and and Mejbaur Rahman Sumon

Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, known for his work in the advertisement arena was involved with this workshop since 2010. He has supervised many of the workshops throughout the year. “In this super competitive field of ad making, it is essential to understand the art of filmmaking in order to uphold the essence to the audience. Whoever can master this craft, and understand the language of film can opt for success.” According to Shameem Akhtar, who has been involved with Celebrating Life for many years, if a club is established that will screen films that are not readily shown to the public, it will give more insight to the ones interested in filmmaking and help bring the community come closer. Debi director Anam Biswas was very optimistic about the participants. He added that the participants were very passionate about the workshop. He said that it was rather interesting that the participants of various age groups were involved in different fields including acting, directing, photography and the like.

Tayran, one of the attendees at the workshop explained, “I have heard of this workshop for so long but I doubted how much I could learn in 3 days. Now I know what sets this event apart. It taught me so much about films and me.” Another participant named Shagar Saha mentioned that this event has given him a better understanding about watching a film and speculating the various aspects of it. With a successful end to the programme, Celebrating Life Filmmaking Workshop 2019 is scheduled to take place during the end of this year.