Recently we went to the Bangladesh National Film Archives and sifted  through the dust-encrusted stacks of old cinema posters in their  collection. What we found was a gold mine, albeit a disorganized and  neglected one – hundreds of posters dating from the industry’s earliest  stirrings in the 1950’s to the present day. Some are painted…

Every art form has its own tradition of festivals, and cinema is no exception.  Film festivals are a celebration of cinema, a means of bringing together makers and takers, viewers and reviewers for a buffet sampling of films from far-flung lands and diverse cultures.  Side by side with the sheer joy of immersion in cinema,…

Like people, cities have phases of life: childhood, youth, old age.  London, for example, is an old man of a city: eccentric and cranky, with a streak of dry wit, smelling of stale gin and cigars.  New York is at peak middle age, its hard-edged exterior masking a sophisticated and complex mix of identities.  Dhaka,…

On a chilly winter morning at four a.m. we installed ourselves on the pond steps of  an old house at Amin Bazar on the outskirts of Dhaka. The cold seeped through our sweaters and shawls and into the marrow of our bones, so that we shivered together in the darkness. With stiffened fingers, the camera…