DHAKA: SNV Netherlands Development Organisation along with ENLIVEN organized a film making competition titled “Young Film Makers in Development Sector”.

The finale of the five-month program took place at Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) auditorium in city on January 9 (Saturday).

The program started off as a small filmmaking competition where selected universities were allowed to participate.

Huge response from other universities forced the organizers to open the competition up for everyone where pitches were made for a short film focusing on a development issue SNV works with.

Top 24 teams were selected for a three-day workshop in October last year, where they submitted concept-notes on their short film ideas based on the topic assigned by SNV.

The top nine teams with the best concept-notes were selected to make the short film, the screening of them took place at the IUB auditorium.

SNV chose three of its prominent areas of work in Bangladesh; Faecal Sludge Management (FSM), Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), and Inclusive Business Models (IB).

The top nine teams made short documentaries to create an impact on the target audiences through communicating the information to raise awareness and create impact on actively improving the problem.

Zarin Zeba Khan, Communications Adviser of SNV Bangladesh said, “Filmmaking and the Development sector are two very different fields and in order to connect them, an understanding of human life is necessary.”

“This journey connected the youth to the roots of development problems and taught them to empathize to human emotions,” she added.

SNV Country Director Rajeev Munankami said, “Every participant here is a winner and the quality of work they produced based on such a small budget is truly a feat. We hope to find more of such talented individuals in our industry in the coming days.”

The five month program came to an end with the team ‘Creative Eyes’ from Green University Bangladesh winning the first prize for their short film “My Garment, My Family”.

Judges of the final round were Asif Abedin, Shahed Ali, Adnan Kabir, Zarin Zeba Khan and Mujibur Rahman Khan.

Congratulating the winners, veteran filmmaking teacher Mujibur Rahman Khan said, “All the winners should continue their education to learn the language of film making”.

Adnan Kabir, young filmmaker & founder of ENLIVEN, thanks SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, audience and participants.

He also welcomed them to the other follow up screening at Green University Bangladesh on January 16 and at EMK Centre from 24-28 January.

BDST: 1507 HRS, JAN 12, 2016
SR/RR/SMS