Just after the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women's Championship winners reached Dhaka after their highly celebrated victory in Nepal, netizens are now celebrating another big win for Bangladeshi women. Internationally acclaimed Bangladeshi film critic Sadia Khalid Reeti has been announced as the second Bangladeshi to join the jury of the Golden Globes Awards, organised by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association since 1944 and recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Before Reeti, Los Angeles-based Bangladeshi journalist Munawar Husain earned the honour of voting at the Golden Globes in 1993. Thirty years later Reeti became the first non-US-based Bangladeshi to vote for this prestigious award. In a recent conversation with The Business Post’s Siam Raihan, Reeti talked about her journey and struggle as a female film critic and her aspirations to take Bangladesh on the international stage.
How did you react hearing the news?
It’s hard to describe in words, to be honest. I woke up to an email directly from the HFPA president and it confirmed that I have been officially selected as a voter for the Golden Globes. It is such a huge honour. They were always very selective about their voter list. Only around 100 people were voters all these years. In a diversity push, they have added 103 new voters to the existing 97 voters. This new diverse voting body of 200 represents 62 different countries. I first came to know about the voter recruitment process of HFPA when I was studying at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). A US-based Thai classmate was a member back then. He told me that one needs to be a US resident to apply to be a voter for the Golden Globes. Later on, HFPA opened applications for international critics. They contacted me through Fipresci (International Federation of Film Critics) and told me to apply to become a voter. I applied and was a bit nervous if I’d be selected or not. Then finally the confirmation email came on Thursday (September 22).
I was wanting this for so long and it is a big win for Bangladesh too. Indian National Film Award-winning critic Meenakshi Shedde also became a voter in the new list. I think there should be a ‘film critic’ category in the Bangladesh National Film Awards as most of the local critics are doing their work without any recognition.
Tell us a bit about your journey from Dhaka to Golden Globes via Cannes.
I started my career in journalism and then went on to study screenwriting at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). I also worked for the Daily Bruin and the LA Times during my study there and gathered huge amount of knowledge on film criticism and journalism. I got first-hand experience in interviewing Hollywood A-listers and also got the opportunity to attend events like the Emmy Awards and Writers Guild of America Awards. As UCLA’s screenwriting department is considered to be the best screenwriting department around the globe, we always had special access to the Writers Guild of America Awards. We got to meet and interview anyone we wanted.
I also worked in several LA-based production companies and talent agencies like Underground Films (producer of Robert Pattinson starrer ‘Remember Me’) and AMBI Distribution (company behind titles like Keanu Reeves starrer ‘To The Bone’ and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’). My job at AMBI helped me to make acquaintances with a lot of Hollywood celebrities. Meeting Keanu was a very special memory for me back then.
Then I returned to Dhaka and joined as the Showtime Editor of the daily Dhaka Tribune. I also became a jury of the Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) and still working closely with the festival. DIFF gave me the opportunity to lift my career as a film critic globally.
I joined the prestigious Berlinale Talents in 2020 as a film critic along with seven other participants from around the world. Berlinale Talents is the annual summit and networking platform of the Berlin International Film Festival, which is one of the "big three" film festivals (Cannes, Berlin and Venice).
I also had the honour to become the first Bangladeshi woman to attend the 2019 Cannes Film Festival as a jury member for the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci). I also served on the jury boards of several other international festivals in Italy, India, Nepal, Russia, England and many more. I recently could not attend some festivals in person due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Any tips for aspiring Bangladeshi female film critics and filmmakers?
We all know how difficult the workplace situation can be for Bangladeshi women, particularly, when it involves filmmaking or film journalism. You have to hear a lot of things a man wouldn’t usually hear. I even heard remarks from fellow Bangladeshi filmmakers saying “who sends you to these international events?” Our society will keep undermining women as much as they can but we have to keep our heads straight and keep working on what we want to achieve through film. And this is not just in Bangladesh, I also heard comments at an Indian event that “a woman with a pretty face can go places.” Men always try to prove that a woman’s success is due to her physical appearance or because her father/husband’s money got her there. In most cases, the scene remains unsuitable for women. Like when I have to go to festivals outside Dhaka, there are barely any facilities for a female jury. These are some extra hurdles that women have to go through in their film careers. Your own family and friends won’t approve of your career in film. We can’t even go to local theatres to enjoy a film without being concerned for our safety and security. Even I could not watch a few recently released Bangladeshi films as a critic because I could not schedule someone to go with me. Yet, we must go on.
I think the best recommendation for young girls who are just starting out in their film journey is to not pay any attention to the demeaning comments from people around them and stay completely focused on their goals. They can’t really stop us, can they?
What are your current engagements?
The thing I’m most proud of right now is that we are developing a screenplay lab and film market segment for DIFF 2022. We are receiving hundreds of excellent screenplays from across the country and our team is hopeful that this will turn into a major film platform in South Asia. As a screenwriter, I am currently working on the writing team of talented Bangladeshi filmmaker Tasmiah Afrin Mou’s ‘The Crows.’ The film is in its development stage and already has been invited to Locarno Open Doors segment. Currently, writing Leesa Gazi’s upcoming film too. I also co-wrote the screenplay of Nurul Alam Atique’s recently released five-episode-long folk horror anthological series called ‘Ashare Golpo.’ As the web series deviated a lot from the original book I am also planning to turn the stories into a book with audiovisual cues and different art formats. I’m also involved in several screenwriting projects. I am currently directing a musical too.
Moreover, I am acting in veteran filmmaker Shameem Akhter’s government-granted biopic on Begum Rokeya. I am also involved in producing roles for several projects directed by young Bangladeshi filmmakers.
What are your future goals?
As a film critic, I always want to create a cultural context for Bangladeshi films in the international arena. For example- a European film critic will watch a Bangladeshi film and make his/her criticism based on his/her perspective of the world. They will never understand the socio-cultural context of Bangladesh. I have noticed in almost all the film festivals I have attended that a foreign critic will give his/her opinion without having any knowledge of our region. So, we must have a strong Bangladeshi representation on the global stage of film criticism. The global film criticism field is still very Eurocentric. My goal is to decolonise film criticism.
What makes me sad is that I rarely see Bangladeshi film critics with that ambition. A lot of young Bangladeshi writers are writing their reviews only in Bangla and parroting the same positive comments for most local films. My target as a film critic is to get our criticism on the international table.
Also, as a screenwriter, I want my screenplays to compete at major film festivals across the globe.
In near future, I want to turn the DIFF’s film market into a regional hub for South Asian film professionals which will be a platform for collaboration and to strengthen our presence on global platforms. We are also planning to develop regional cooperation among South Asian filmmakers.
