The International Academy of Film and Media, the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas and Bangladesh Film Archive jointly organised an event to celebrate the 10th European Arthouse Cinema Day in Dhaka on Sunday.
The daylong event consisted of film screening, master class and panel discussions at the Bangladesh Film Archive in Agargaon of the capital.
The ministry of information and broadcasting Secretary, Mahbuba Farjana, inaugurated the event as chief guest, while Bangladesh Film Archive director general M Javed Iqbal, Goethe-Institut Bangladesh Frank Werner, German embassy鈥檚 cultural attach茅e Silke Schmeer, France embassy鈥檚 cultural attach茅e Baptiste Lebret聽 spoke as distinguished guests at the event chaired by the executive director of the IAFM, Bibesh Roy.
They said that the arthouse films are dedicated to non-commercial endeavours and aim to create community.聽
A round table conference titled Film Policy: Exhibition and Distribution was held following the inauguration ceremony and the keynote presentation was delivered by IAFM director Mihir Moshiur.
He said that the arthouse cinema is popular in Europe mostly as a community place and as a venue for screening unconventional stories with artistic expression.
The International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas is a non-profit association bringing together over 2400 arthouse cinemas with more than 4400 screens in 45 countries worldwide, said Mihir Moshiur, adding that through the IAFM Bangladeshi independent and short films would be screened worldwide.
Bangladesh International Short and Independent Film Festival director Syed Imran Hossain Kirmani said that most of the short and independent films were arthouse film, not commercial, but now the government charges censor certificate fees for non-commercial films.
Actor-producer and teacher of the Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University film and media studies department Manoj Kumar Pramanik said that arthouse films and the film industry both need patronage from the government and other organisations, adding that without a proper film policy, the industry cannot produce a national film language.聽
Another round table, titled Art House Cinema Exhibition in the Digital Era, featured a keynote presentation by producer and director Mohammad Nuruzzaman, who discussed the lack of cinema halls, alternative venues, piracy and other crises of the digital era.
The BFA Film Officer Md Fakhrul Alam Sohag said that now only eleven cinema halls are alive in Dhaka while 75 cinema halls are screening films across the country.
Advisor of the Bangladesh Film Exhibitors Association Sudipta Kumar Das said that 1235 cinema halls were registered but those halls started closing from 2002 due to wrong exhibition policy.
Professor Maeve Cooke, chair of the School of Philosophy at University College Dublin in Ireland, conducted a Master class on Arthouse Cinemas: Exhibition and Distribution at the event.
The event concluded with three films screening at the venue.