Bangla Surf Girls releases official trailer

Bangladeshi film-maker Elizabeth D Costa's feature documentary Bangla Surf Girls has recently released its first official trailer on Vimeo. It is an observational coming-of-age documentary about three teenage girls who get a rare sense of agency over their lives when they join a surfing club in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, according to its director Elizabeth.  

Over the course of the last three years, Elizabeth followed young surfers Ayesha, Suma, and Shobe as they attempt to hold on to the feeling of freedom as they fight all odds to follow their dreams. This film follows the girls through adolescence, illuminating the evolution of their most formative years.

The documentary aims to capture the raw emotions, families, and the complex pressures of poverty.  For three years, the director has immersed herself into the lives of the girls in the slums of Cox’s Bazar. 

The recently released trailer of the film features thrilling stylized footage of the girls surfing, and gives the audience the adrenaline rush of the sport, while explaining how hard the lives of these girls are in this developing country. 

Elizabeth told the Dhaka Tribune's Showtime: "As a female director/filmmaker born and raised in Bangladesh, I am striving to tell many stories from my country. I devoted myself to tell stories of people who are voiceless, and needs to be heard."

Elizabeth D Costa is one of the emerging young film-makers from Bangladesh. She was the first Bangladeshi, as well as a finalist among 10 women filmmakers worldwide picked by Brooklyn-based Chicken & Egg 2017 Accelerator Lab. 

 Chicken & Egg Pictures supports women in nonfiction filmmaking whose artful and innovative storytelling catalyzes social change.

She successfully pitched in the DealMakers forum at Toronto Hot Docs 2017. 

Elizabeth was also selected for the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam Academy in 2017. 

She began her career as a script supervisor with acclaimed Bangladeshi filmmakers Tareque and Catherine Masud.

She also said that she is committed to share her knowledge of filmmaking with fellow young filmmakers, and give back the way her mentor Tareque and Catherine Masud did. 

Currently, Bangla Surf Girls is in the competition circuit of various international film festivals, and will be released in Bangladesh next year.

The producer of this film is Canadian film producer Lalita Krishna who equally believes in women rights and together with the surfer girls and the director of the film Elizabeth, they are aiming to bring South Asian documentary film-making market on the global scale. The goal of this film is to bring attention and focus to the girls and become role models for future generations.

She also said: "The goal of this film is to bring attention and focus to these girls, and become role models for future generations. The dream of this film is to go to every corner and every district of Bangladesh, and put this thought in the mind of communities 'Yes, our girls have dreams and they can do it too.'"