Curtain rises on Women’s Lens Int’l Short Film Festival

The first edition of the Women’s Lens International Short Film Festival (WLISFF), organized by the Dhaka University Film Society, was inaugurated Tuesday marking International Women’s Day.

With the slogan, ‘Her Voice, Her Vision’ the goal of this festival is to provide a cross-cultural platform to a diverse array of talented female filmmakers from Bangladesh and abroad.

As part of the festival, a webinar was hosted, titled ‘Women in Film: Why Gender Matters?’ at 7:30 pm, which was streamed live on Facebook.

The assistant professor from the Department of Television, Film, and Photography of Dhaka University, Gopa Biswas Caesar, director of Applebox Films ltd Raka Noshin Nower, independent filmmaker Mrittika Kamal and former General Secretary of Dhaka University Film Society, and National grant-winning filmmaker Shopno Samudra were present as guests at the webinar. 

Speaking at the webinar, Mrittika Kamal said, “In modern movies, the disparity between male and female representation is so great that it’s genuinely unsettling.”

The Assistant Professor from the Department of Television, Film, and Photography of Dhaka University, Gopa Biswas Caesar talked about how the quota system is holding back women in the industry.

In a bid to champion diversity and inclusivity, the platform is dedicated to portraying the different dimensions and styles of filmmaking among women directors from all around the world and celebrating the growing arena of independent women filmmakers.

The ‘Call for Entry’ of the first edition of WLISFF started Tuesday. The deadline for submission is April 15, 2022. The festival would end on May 8.

Any participant can submit a maximum of two films for an entry fee of $10. For Bangladeshi filmmakers, the entry fee has been set at Tk 500.