'Independence 2.0'

Linda

The Hoolock Gibbons of Bangladesh have been brought to the brink of extinction by the relentless destruction of their forested habitats throughout the country, even in the most highly protected forest reserves. This species used to number in the tens of thousands, but are now down to the last 200 or so.

The Bangladesh cultural scene is dynamic, creative and on the up. With fashion designer Bibi Russell, art patron Nadia Samdani, the Britto Arts Trust and photographers Shahidul Alam and Munem Wasif.

Premiered at the 2017 Locarno International Film Festival.

In this video I share my experience as the first Resident of the Harun Farocki Institut in Berlin during the winter of 2016-2017. Produced for the Goethe Institute.

Filmed along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border and within Rohingya refugee camps, Shafiur Rahman’s documentary on the 2017 Tula Toli massacre exposes chilling interviews and evidence of Myanmar military’s premeditated atrocities. The film documents mass killings, sexual violence, and the systematic destruction of the village of Tula Toli, highlighting a humanitarian crisis that forced over half a million people—many of them children—to flee in an exodus of historic scale.

A time capsule about change and loss during the death of Adobe Flash.

What images do we associate with abortion and why? Where do these images and the emotional scripts in our head come from? How do they influence women who (want to) have an abortion, how do they shape the general discussion? Franzis Kabisch’s personal desktop documentary investigates these questions with great precision, clarity and humour (yes, humour, too!).

A film about the first benefit rock concert when major musicians performed to raise relief funds for the poor of Bangladesh. The Concert for Bangladesh was a pair of benefit concerts organised by former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. The shows were held at 2:30 and 8:00 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, to raise international awareness of, and fund relief for refugees from East Pakistan, following the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide.

The mind process behind the film, Transformers the Premake, explained by Kevin B Lee himself.

Using film footage shot by the Genevese film director, Fernand Reymond, in Bangladesh in 1972, this documentary film describes the cyclone prevention programme drawn up by the governmental authorities and the League of Red Cross Societies. It particularly depicts the cyclone warning system set up to protect the population. (League Film Library Catalogue Supplement No. 2, p. 39)

Daulatdia is an entire village in Bangladesh dedicated to prostitution. Every day, 1,600 trafficked, enslaved and abandoned women and girls sell themselves for £2 a time. In the midst of the trade live 300 children, many born in the village. Some will be groomed to be the future of the business like their mothers and grandmothers. With education programmes and support provided by Save The Children, a few may find their way out.

Three working-class teenage girls in a port city in Bangladesh escape daily hardships and stifling family lives by riding waves on their surfboards and grabbing hold of the fleeting and thrilling sense of freedom that brings.

A dark and visceral journey. A language that tears apart the morbid nature of the dead-old primal human eyes. No warning was given. No mercy was shown.

In Bangkok, Thailand, women punch a clock and wait for clients in a brightly lit glass box; in the red-light district of Faridpur, Bangladesh, a madam haggles over the price of a teenage girl; and in the border town of Reynosa, Mexico, crack-addicted women pray to a deity named Lady Death.

Emerging artists seek to stay afloat in their industry whilst the Covid pandemic induces career threatening lockdowns.

The search for René Descartes’ daughter Francine leads an internet user into the depths of an AI’s mental space. This intelligence generates limitless images from words given by humans, until it starts working by itself. An alternative, fleshless new world, containing all the world's memory, emerges.

A desktop documentary about the online afterlife of the late French filmmaker, Chris Marker.

As Cyclone Remal approached, we arrived in Debpur village of Dhankhali Upazila, Bangladesh. What struck us immediately was the stark contrast between the official warnings of impending devastation and the villagers' apparent lack of preparedness. Over the following days, amidst the unfolding chaos, we documented the lives of individuals as they grappled with the imminent threat of destruction. The film captures the overbearing anxiety that grips entire communities in the face of an approaching cyclone. Through intimate encounters, and candid interviews, we witness firsthand the resilience and fear of those directly in Remal's path. Their voices echo the overwhelming power of nature and the human spirit in adversity.

In this intimate documentary, director Juliette delicately examines the complex relationships that evolve, fracture, and reshape among the children of a blended family after a breakup. By pushing the boundaries of the desktop documentary format, she crafts a poignant and heartfelt portrait of a grief rarely acknowledged, offering a unique and compelling exploration of loss and connection.