BRAC University students won the best film award in a film making course, titled CST 304- a General Education course which ran in Fall 21 as an Open Society University Network (OSUN) network course between five campuses including , Bard college Annandale, Bard College Berlin, American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan and European Humanities University in Lithuania, and Columbia University. One of Brac U’s four submissions ‘A Story That Eye Witnessed’, a short film by Nancy Rualzapar Bawm, Tanzil Talat Anonto, Muntaqa NRB Hakim, Bayazid Hossain, and Antara Farnaz Khan won a total of six awards, including Best Editing, Best Script, Best Cinematography, Social Impact, Best Narration and People’s Choice. The film tells the story of two Indigenous artists in Bangladesh who create art that builds awareness of the plight of marginalized communities in the country.
CST 304 (Demystifying Documentaries: Truth, Ethics and Storytelling in non-fiction Filmmaking) is a General Education (GenEd) course which ran as an OSUNnetwork course titled “Visual Storytelling”, led by Columbia University. The end assignment in this course was to make a short film. Students from five campuses produced the films after participating in this 12 week intense documentary production course, which was designed to introduce them to documentary film technique. BRAC University students produced and directed four short films for this course. Apart from the award-winning short film ‘A Story That Eye Witnessed’, the other three short films are- ‘The Factory Floor’, ‘Dogs of Dhaka’, ‘Closed for Today’.
‘The Factory Floor’ is a short film about two organizations, BLAST Bangladesh and Garment Workers Solidarity, who work with garment workers to help them obtain their rights. Made by Nazia Zafrin, Sheikh Ikraah Taiyaba, Saddman Sakib Alvi and Affifa Jahan, this film was Nominated for several categories including, social impact and editing.
‘Dogs of Dhaka’, a short film made by Elham Nusrat, Yeamin Ahmed, Tuba Fatima Binte Zahid and Puja Sarkar is about two organizations, Obhoyaronno and Hands for Paws. They work to improve the plight of stray dogs in Bangladesh. This film was also nominated for cinematography and editing.
‘Closed for Today’, a short film by Masuba Aaron, Upama Adhikary, Farhin Ahmed, Tasfia Kamal and Payal Kumari Sah is about two university students from Bangladesh whose lives changed during COVID-19 as they adjusted to a world driven apart by the growing digital divide and loss of economic opportunities.
Dina Hossain, award-winning filmmaker and lecturer at BRAC University in Bangladesh was the BRAC University instructor, collaborating with Adam Stepan at Columbia University and Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva at AUCA. Ms. Dina Hossain served as master of ceremonies for the gala event, presenting excerpts from each of the 19 films.
The films can be seen at https://osun.film/