Laisul Hoque

What prompted you to take up film direction? 

I was always into creating visual content. During my early teenage years, my interest resided in photography. I got myself a camera, but I was too shy to use it in the streets. One day, I challenged myself to use the camera to document the streets of Dhaka every single day and use Instagram as a platform to document my progress by uploading a picture daily. Declaring to the Internet that I will be posting pictures every single day kind of acted as an intrinsic motivation, something I needed to live up to my promise and take pictures whenever I can.

Tell us something about your work.

I have a YouTube channel named after myself, and I have five short films at the moment. I would describe my direction as a sort of hybrid between documentaries and abstract work.  Do visit my channel, and consider subscribing if you like them!

Which artist inspired you the most?

At one point, making movies felt too tedious and I realized that I required tremendous man-power and support. That was until I discovered Casey Neistat on YouTube during 2015. His video "Life in 27 seconds" inspired me to start doing what I want to do, and learn what I wanted to learn no matter the odds. 

How would you describe yourself as a director?

(Laughs) I've never really seen myself as a 'director' per se. I still have a lot to learn. I'm an aesthetic wannabe content creator and a professional pancake lover.

What can we expect from you in the future? 

The future is one of the few aspects of my life that I tend to not think about. Who knows what happens in the future? You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only do so when you look back. All I can say is, I want to continue working on films and photography as long as I can.

Interviewed by Sadi Mohammad Shahnewaz