Dhaka International Mobile Film Festival (DIMFF) is the first ever mobile film festival in Bangladesh. Every year, a bunch of enthusiastic students make it possible through their enormous efforts. It is organized by the members of CinemaScope, which is a film apprentice program under the department of Media Studies and Journalism of University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB).
The festival began its journey back in 2015 as CinemaScope Mobile Film Competition. Only CinemaScope members could participate in the festival. After becoming open for all the students of ULAB in 2016, it went international in 2017. Students from universities from different countries started participating at that time. A significant platform was created in the year 2018 when the name of the festival changed into Dhaka International Mobile Film Festival (DIMFF). We added a new category named “screening” which was open for anyone across the globe.
My journey with the festival started in 2017 as a photographer. When the preparations of DIMFF 2018 kicked off, I was not even in the team but a little involved. Few months later I was appointed as the Event Coordinator of the festival. We started making plans on how to give the festival a better shape. Everyone was working hard to get more films through branding. We organized radio shows, got a slot on a television channel, provided stories for online and print news media. On the other hand, I was facing some family problems that’s why I couldn’t give my 100% in the journey of DIMFF 2018.
On the festival day I was declared the Festival Director of DIMFF 2019. The announcement made me a bit confused. As for the previous festivals, all the directors were very senior, they all were at the last stage of their university life but I was only in my 3rd semester. It was a moment of joy but also stress. But I was thinking if I can make it then in future people will be more confident with the works. I took the opportunity to give it a new shape. That year we have introduced one minute category for the students of grade 1-12. The new generation adolescents have all the access to the devices to shoot a mobile film. Thus, we planned to inspire them and give them a platform. We had a vision to make the process easy to access for them. We wanted to establish that to tell their stories they don’t need high configured gadgets, they can even do it with their smart phones. Film is a way of communication and we want to make the process easier for the new makers. We decided that we need to make things big gradually. So, we decided to increase festival days and events. We wanted to engage people in Bangladesh to make films with mobile, especially the students from school and college.
To guide the new makers we have arranged few events to get closer to them, to inspire them and to build a strong relation with them. First, we started by arranging a gathering with the young members of Kishor Alo – a supplement of the daily Prothom Alo for juveniles. We discussed our plan with them and watched their previous works; also suggested them to submit their works done by phone in our one minute category. We arranged sessions with different university film club presidents and placed our plans for their suggestions. So we took an initiative to select an ambassador in each university every year who will update students about DIMFF. We have also made few plans like increasing the number of our venue. Thus we came up with another decision that we will screen the selected films in their auditoriums on the festival dates. We have also arranged a workshop on mobile film making. So that people can get use to the device and know about the benefits of filming with mobile. We also made the workshop free of cost for the participants so that they can get new information about mobile film. The 2 day long workshop on mobile film making was facilitated by Dr. Kabil Khal Jamil, mobile journalist and Tanha Zafreen, film maker. The workshops were held on ULAB permanent campus and it was open for all by registration.
We maintain a Facebook page to communicate with the viewers and we receive our submissions with the help of filmfreeway.com, one of the leading hubs of festivals. We have all the rules for participants over there, we also have our tickets there. But things were not in one place. So, before DIMFF 2019 we took another initiative to put all things in one place and that is why we launched dimff.net, our official website. Now all the necessary information become one click away. Due to some family problems, it was really hard for me to maintain my family, study and festival simultaneously. There were some ups and downs. But my whole team was by my side, they are the reason behind the success of the festival. The day on which our first official poster was launched, I had a major accident and doctor advised me bed rest for a month, otherwise things could get worse because of infection. But I got out in a week because I had plans, I could not waste time. It was really hard to push a team as I had no previous experience. First few months I was a bit confused but afterwards things were getting easy for me. I gave presentations I different multinational companies for sponsorship. I was confident day by day. When the festival days were coming closer the team was getting more active. They along with the volunteers of approximately 40 people, decorated the whole place in a day and truly it was an incredible job. They did everything as I instructed them. When I hear from someone that things were very organized in 2019, all my sufferings went away. What I have achieved because of DIMFF cannot be described in words. The whole experience changed me a lot from the inside. I am very pleased to get this opportunity, hopefully it will be bigger and better in future.
Let’s get back into previous sessions for a bit, in 2015 the CinemaScope Mobile Film Competition winner was Mirza Inty (Bangladesh) for Thus Capital, in 2016 the CinemaScope Mobile Film Competition winner was Priyanka Chowdhury (Bangladesh) for Iti Ekattor. In 2017 the CinemaScope Mobile Film Competition winner was Arif Arman Badol (Bangladesh) for Sipnobicche Ikko Din, in 2018 the CinemaScope Mobile Film Competition winner was Senthamizhan Arunachalam Manjula (India) for Vilambal. In 2019 the CinemaScope Best Film 2019 (Competition Category) winner was Saleh Kashefi (Iran) for A Pair of Horns on a Female Homo Sapiens. The new category which was introduced in 2019, the ULAB Young Filmmaker had Lukas Dernelius (Sweden) for Handsfree as winner.
Every year a team works for the festival who basically are undergrad students. It’s hard to do all the works for the festival along with the study. But the credit goes to them who worked day and night for this. Every year there is a Festival Director, who makes things accomplished at the end of the day. In 2015 Festival Director was Nazmul Hasan Shukorno, In 2016 & 2017 Festival Director was Mohim Ahmed Naim, In 2018 Festival Director was Mir Wadud Islam, In 2019 Festival Director was Asif Uddin(me). We all have tried our best to do the best for our festival. For all of us, DIMFF has been our child. We did not leave any bits and pieces unturned for the success of the festival. Hopefully 2020 will bring many new initiatives. Schools will be participating in mobile film making, international students will be announced as ambassadors/volunteers, a panel of film makers will talk about pros and cons of mobile film making, workshops will be held in different places, screening will take place in different venues and many more. As it is the first Mobile Film Festival of Bangladesh, we aspire to bring a change in our thinking. In coming years you will see many big films and also Oscar nominated films will be made with mobile phone. The world is getting smart, we need to get smart too. I put my heart in the festival I lead, hope the future is more beautiful with much better teams.
* Photo Credit: Dhaka International Mobile Film Festival
