Though established in 1978, Bangladesh Film Archive (BFA) did not have its own grounds and lay in relative obscurity, until recently. With the implementation of a Tk. 86 crore project for a new multi-storied building and world-class facilities at Agargaon in Dhaka, this department under the Ministry of Information has had a major makeover.

Md. Rokanuzzaman, had a one-on-one with Shachindra Nath Halder, the Director General of Bangladesh Film Archive, who shed some insight on the mammoth government initiative:

A few words about BFA

SNH:  Bangladesh Film Archive is a department under the Ministry of Information. Established in 1978, BFA became the member of International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) in 1980.

The film vault, where reels are stored at a freezing -8 degrees celsius. Photo: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed

Tell us about the new BFA premises.

SNH: BFA did not have its own premises until last year. The present government decided on a project of TK. 86 crore to establish a brand new centre for BFA. The new office is a modern multi-storied building enriched with standard resources required for an ideal film archive.

What infrastructure does the new BFA have in place?

SNH: The new office is equipped with film scanning systems, film vaults, a projection hall with 300 seat capacity, an auditorium, a seminar room with 120 seats, a library, a film museum, a film checking and cleaning unit, an editing panel and a multi-purpose hall with the capacity to accommodate 500 people.

What role is being played by BFA to nurture our cine-cultural resources?

SNH: BFA has been preserving our cine cultural heritage since inception. It collects and preserves films and film-related books from home and abroad. Students, teachers, researchers, film makers and anybody interested can have a journey through our rich film heritage.

Shachindra Nath Halder

How rich is our film archive in comparison with other countries?

SNH: In the archive there are nearly thirty two hundred films out of which 900 are foreign, and more than fifty one hundred books.  BFA is a member of FIAF whose Executive Committee praised our new office arrangements terming them as world-class.  Today BFA can be proud of its film archive resources and hold themselves in high comparison with other FIAF bodies.

How can people benefit from BFA?

SNH: Students and researchers generally come here for research work.  Film makers can use our technologies for making new films and preserve their work here for future reference. Our theatre hall is open to viewers every Thursday, where we screen films for free from morning till evening.

What are the challenges you face as a Director General of BFA?

SNH: The major challenges of BFA are manpower and budgetary allocation. We are currently a small team of forty members.  However, we are in the process of recruiting 30 more, and have proposed 38 positions that are already under the consideration of the Ministry of Finance. The total budgetary allocation is TK 5 crore which is insufficient for smooth operations. We are trying to increase the annual allocation and we hope the Government will keep that issue in consideration.

What are your achievements as a DG?

SNH: I have been working for eight months only so I cannot claim that I have done a lot. I have formulated a project for a collection of footages of the Liberation War from home and abroad. I also took the initiative to set up a film museum.

What are the shortfalls?

SNH: I could not procure new machineries/technology that were needed. Also I wanted to get some of my staff members trained in accordance with international standards which is yet to happen. I hope the Government will pay attention to these concerns.

The author is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.