saiful wadud helal
Films
BANGLADESHER RIDOY/ BANGLADESH'S RIDOY
Directors: Saiful Wadud Helal
Screenwriter: Saiful Wadud Helal
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 35 min. Year of production: 2013
In 1971, by opposing the ideologies of a religion based nation. Bangladesh was born on the basis of language and culture. After 42 years of independence, in 2013, there is an uprising in Bangladesh, later known as 'Shahbagh uprising'. A pro-Bangladeshi movement that was seeking justice and punishment for those who committed crimes against humanity during Bangladesh's Liberation War. Opposing this movement, a religion based political group appears demanding that the country must operate under the Islamic law.Among the thousands who came to Shahbagh square, there was a 10 year old boy named Ridoy who also joins Shahbagh, escaping from his parents who wanted to send him to Madrasa (religious boarding school). Little Ridoy seems like the biggest irony of present Bangladesh.
Aparajeyo Bangla
Directors: Saiful Wadud Helal
Screenwriter: Saiful Wadud Helal
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 60 min. Year of production: 2011
Aparajeyo Bangla- the supreme structure symbolizing Bangladesh’s struggle for independence, its mammoth victory against oppression, pride of its people in the country’s history, culture, and legacy- takes on a luminously new dimension as the film “Aparajeyo Bangla” neatly weaves history, documentary evidence, and penetrating interviews with key movers and shakers of the sculpture. Interviews with the creator of the sculptor, the tremendously spirited youth, and the highly committed cultural groups, walk us through the perilous journey to create, protect, and preserve the amazing creation in the face of threats from religious fanatics to destroy it, and leniency of the power circle giving them the indulgence to do so. The film ends on a high note as Aparajeyo Bangla no longer remains a static structure. Transcending the divide between stillness and movement, it becomes the binding, motivating, driving force evoking protest, and inspiring conviction and commitment to uphold the unbridled, indomitable spirits of the people of Bangladesh.
ANIKA'S HOME
Directors: Saiful Wadud Helal
Screenwriter: Saiful Wadud Helal
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 8 min. Year of production: 2010
From half way across the word from Canada’s capital; Ottawa to Bangladesh’s capital; Dhaka, Anika hossain, a political since student at Carlton U Ottawa. She is a TV host also, she is visiting Bangladesh now. After 15 years her parents sent her to their native country to choose a husband for herself. The interesting part is that her parents seriously want that, one day after finishing studies, she will join the Canadian politics. She has something interesting to tell about political marriage and cultural marriage.
CINEMANIA
Directors: Saiful Wadud Helal
Screenwriter: Saiful Wadud Helal
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 22 min. Year of production: 2009
The cinema business in Bangladesh is no longer a viable one. Hundreds of cinema theatre throughout the country that have been bulldozed to make way for residential buildings and shopping malls. Despite a rich legacy, Bangladesh film industry has suffered a serious setback in the wake of tasteless, vulgar, and violent content, causing audience to resort to home entertainment, satellite, and international films. Set in old Dhaka, where the nation’s first silent film was premiered, this film showcases the reality facing the Bangladesh film industry today.
COLOR OF FAITH/ Bishwsher Rong
Directors: Saiful Wadud Helal
Screenwriter: Saiful Wadud Helal
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 52 min. Year of production: 2005
This can be called an assembly of people where religion is blended with culture. It goes beyond the bounds of all existing myths, and can be termed as a true meeting of many faiths. Each year at the end of spring hundreds of thousands of people gather for seven days in a remote village in Bangladesh known as Badarpur. They sing and dance in remembrance of their beloved saint “Lengta”. Hundreds of similar religious congregations are held in Bangladesh throughout the year. The people of this country struggle every day with nature for survival. They acknowledge, appreciate and revere all the forces of nature. Religious faith provides them with added strength and courage. The sapling of religious faith brought over by Sufis and saints from the dry, scorched earth of Middle East has blossomed in the moist, olden soil of Bangladesh. Nevertheless, the fruit it bore is considered forbidden by fundamentalists- as forbidden as Gandham (the forbidden fruit of paradise). Today any and every place- from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Madrid to London- is vulnerable to the threats of the prevailing “culture of bombing”. Even the deceased saint and his followers cannot escape this terror.
