3rd Dhaka Doc Lab kicks off Monday

The third edition of Dhaka Doc Lab, a documentary co-production project market for South Asian filmmakers in Bangladesh, is set to begin from August 26. The six-day-long documentary film market will feature 17 young filmmakers, and their documentary projects from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, according to a recent press release.

The final selected participants, and their projects are: A Mandolin in Exile - Rafiqul Anowar (Bangladesh), Back to Home - Upali Gamlath (Sri Lanka), Discount Workers - Ammar Aziz (Pakistan), Fishfinger Seductions - Sarvnik Kaur (India), The Secret Ancestral Village - Torsha Banerjee (India), Basu's Ecosystem - Ekramul Kabir (Bangladesh), Punch Me Hard - Biswajit Das (India), Beyond All The Colours - Saiful Wadud Helal (Bangladesh/Canada), Murshida - Moupia Mukherjee (India), Songs of Sunflower - Abid Sarker Shohag (Bangladesh), Outsider - Kanishka Sonthalia (India), Wishes of Thimphu - Arun Bhattarai (Bhutan), Dolls Don’t Die - Ranajit Ray (India), Waiting For Winter - Farid Ahmad (Bangladesh), NOC - Qazi Krishnakali Islam (Bangladesh), Settled to Displace - Ripan Kumar Das (Bangladesh), and Two Daughters and the memory of their Father - Shopno Samudra (Bangladesh).

Back to Home - Upali Gamlath (Sri Lanka), Discount Workers - Ammar Aziz (Pakistan), Punch Me Hard - Biswajit Das (India), Wishes of Thimphu - Arun Bhattarai (Bhutan), and NOC - Qazi Krishnakali Islam (Bangladesh) are awarded with scholarship support to attend Dhaka DocLab.

This scholarship includes round trip air travel, waiver of fees, and accommodation during their stay in Bangladesh as part of the lab.

Among these filmmakers only Ammar Aziz from Pakistan will not be able to attend the event due to visa related issues, according to the organizers.

The six decision makers of this co-production market will be Gune Hyoung, EBS, South Korea; Eva Perez, festivals and special screenings director of Taskovski Films, Spain; Hanqi Jiang, development coordinator and director of C’est La Vie, Phoenix TV, China; Ragnhild ek, IEFTA, France; Hans Robert Eisenhauer, managing director of Ventana-Film GmbH, Germany, and Pei Tianyi, producer, China. 

The eight tutors who will take different seminars, and masterclasses during these six days are: Audrius Stonys, filmmaker, Lithuania; Ryota Kotani, executive producer, NHK, Japan; Karolina Lidin, consultant, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Denmark; Nilotpal Majumdar, chairman, Docedge Kolkata, India; Jean Paul F Pauwels, managing director, CONGOO bvba, Belgium; Emil Joseph, Editor, UK; Emma Davie, filmmaker, Edinburgh College of Art, UK; and Boris Mitic, filmmaker, Dribbling Pictures Ltd, Serbia. 

The inauguration ceremony of the film market will be held at the capital’s Liberation War Museum in Agargaon on August 26. Details of the event can be found on Doc Lab’s official website, and Facebook fan page.

Twenty renowned documentary makers, producers, television broadcasters, film distributors, and representatives of film financing companies will also attend the six-day event. 

The event aims to open up new possibilities for the country's film production through joint productions with foreign countries. 

The budget of the six-day-long international workshop is set at Tk35 lakh. Government and non-governmental organizations, including the Cosmos Foundation, the Bengal Foundation, the Access to Information Project (a2i), along with the Government of Bangladesh are cooperating with this initiative.