Film

The True Cost

The True Cost is a documentary film exploring the impact of fashion on people and the planet. This is a story about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing? Filmed in countries all over the world, from the brightest runways to the darkest slums, and featuring interviews with the world’s leading influencers including Stella McCartney, Livia Firth and Vandana Shiva, The True Cost is an unprecedented project that invites us on an eye opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many people and places behind our clothes.

The film got some funding through KickStarter.

An Unfashionable Tragedy

John Pilger travels to Bangladesh to report on the horrors of the famine in the country, its causes and tragedies, circa 1975. With people passing away on the street on a daily basis from starvation and US foreign policy continually ignored, An Unfashionable Tragedy documents the plight that continues to this day, showing that food is a powerful weapon, more powerful than oil.

Threads

Thread is a documentary about an unconventional Bangladeshi woman liberates herself and hundreds of others from social and economic hardships by creating timeless works of art. World leaders such as Queen Elizabeth II and Kim Il-Sung were given her art, yet she is virtually unknown in her own country. Surayia Rahman, one of the first women artists of Bangladesh, looked to her own inspiration and ancient kantha quiltwork to support her bedridden husband and her children. But she never expected that destitute young mothers would come searching for her, nor that the elaborate art that they created together would find its way to royalty, museums and private collections around the world.

Paddy Field Still Green

Communities, societies and individuals all have the capacity to thrive no matter what the circumstances are. This is the message of our latest documentary “Paddy Field Still Green” showing the impact of cyclones on the local communities but also their ability to counter adverse affects and turn the situation around. This documentary tells the story of adaptation to the impact of the cyclones in Bangladesh. The film explores how local communities and NGOs have tackled the impact of these natural disasters and how the beauty of the region is emerging once again.

Gum for My Boat

An alluring documentary that touches on the redemptive power of surfing in Bangladesh. This short feature tells the story of how a group of more than 30 boys and girls, many of whom are poverty-stricken street kids, are making a difference in their community and how the surf club they started is the catalyst for this change. Due to a fearful, conservative culture, the ocean was once deemed off limits to these children, who now see surfing as a source of fun, escape, and even a way to make a living. The film follows professional surfer Kahana Kalama (A guest on Fuel TVs series On Safari) as he works with Hawaii-based nonprofit Surfing The Nations and learns that sometimes surfing involves more than catching waves.

Gum for My Boat won the people’s choice award at the 5 Point Film Festival in 2010.

Made in Bangladesh

A lot of our clothes bear the label ‘Made in Bangladesh’. But before the deadly collapse of a garment factory there last April, most of us never thought about the people who make them. After clothes bound for Canada were found in the rubble of Rana Plaza, Canadian companies reacted with surprise – how could such a tragedy happen? The Fifth Estate’s Mark Kelley went to Bangladesh and tracked down workers who say they are still forced to make clothes for Canada in dangerous conditions. And Kelley goes behind bars for an exclusive interview with the jailed owner of one of the biggest factories inside Rana Plaza, who details his long-standing, multimillion dollar connections to Canada.

CBC’s the fifth estate won International Emmy for ‘Made in Bangladesh’ documentary. A similar short documentary was broadcasted on Al Jazeera – Fault Lines with same name in 2013 which won a Peabody Award.

Bangladesh: A Climate Trap

In Dhaka, climate change refugees are moving from the countryside and into squalid slums due to environmental degradation. Like millions of others, Alam Mia has been forced to make the teeming capital of Dhaka his home. We follow his journey as he leaves his homestead in search of a livelihood in the city. Dhaka feels more like a foreign country than home. For the family, it is a struggle for survival. Alam Mia is trapped. His move to the city is not a beginning full of possibilities. Korial, Dhaka’s largest slum signifies the bitter culmination of his dreams.

Bangladesh: A Climate Trap was selected for official selection at Portland Maine Film Festival 2012 and at New Filmmakers, New York 2013.

Are We So Different

‘Amra Ki Etoi Bhinno… Are we so different‘ is a documentary film on Bangladeshi Hijra, Gay and Bisexual community. It was awarded the ‘The Best Documentary Short Film 2012′ at “Kashish 2012– 3rd Mumbai International Queer Film Festival”, India’s (and South Asia’s) biggest Queer Film Festival. Kashish 2012 was held from May 23 to May 27, 2012 in Mumbai, India, and featured 120 films from 30 countries

The film talks about a range of masculinities and its impact on people’s lives, and about how different people have unique experiences of coping and surviving in Bangladesh, often ruled by strict masculinist and patriarchist ideals. The stories of those who challenge these strictures and notions are told in this film in their own words.

A Boat For Bangladesh

In northern Bangladesh exists an ephemeral group of islands that are locally known as ‘chars.’ For an estimated 3 million people without room to settle on the mainland, the chars are home. Everything here is transitory and difficult in a land challenged by climate change. Agricultural land appears, then disappears. The average char islander moves 12 to as many as 40 times in a life. Ten years ago, an NGO named Friendship began to provide health, education and community infrastructure using boats. The NGO is led by a Bengali woman named Runa Khan. A Boat for Bangladesh was triggered by the arrival of a new boat in the Friendship fleet -Greenpeace’s iconic RAINBOW WARRIOR 2, which extends Friendship’s reach to the Bay of Bengal.

Call Me Salma

‘Call Me Salma‘ is a documentary film about love and loss. Salma enters the mysterious and rich world of transsexuality in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s crowded back alleys. Salma, a 16-year-old Hijra, abruptly left her village and family to enter the effervescent city life in search of a clear identity, a new family, and a sense of acceptance. Emotionally torn between her youth and her desire to be a woman, Salma decides to return to her village and face events that force her to question the preconceived notions of gender, family, and love.

The documentary was broadcast on ARTE (Europe), EBS (South Korea), and Direct 8 (France). Official Selection of Artivist Film Festival, Los Angeles, 2010; Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal, 2010; Warsaw Film Festival, 2010, Poland; EBS International Documentary Film Festival, 2010, South Korea; Bangladesh Documentary Film Festival, 2010; Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, 2011 and Vancouver Queer Film Festival, 2011. The doc is made by Bideshi Films.

To Catch a Dollar

To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America is a powerful documentary by Gayle Ferraro. Her film follows Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Yunus as he establishes his unique and revolutionary microfinance program in the US. Witness the birth of Grameen America and the compelling stories of the first micro-entrepreneurs, from their challenges to their successes. These inspiring women learn to rise from poverty by starting and growing their sustainable businesses with the education, peer support, and non-collateral microloans they receive from this innovative and successful system of not-for-profit banking.

Buy this doc.

Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims looks at the actual cost of cheap clothes based on the conditions of sweatshops in Bangladesh. On 24th April 2013, more than a thousand people were killed when an eight-story building collapsed in the heart of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. The collapse of Rana Plaza turned the world’s attention to the shocking conditions workers in the country’s clothing industry are forced to endure. In recent years, Australian companies have flooded into Bangladesh to take advantage of lax labor laws and the lowest wages in the world, paid to the predominantly young female workers in the factories.

Desert Riders

Human traffickers use children to race camels in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other countries. Camel racing is a popular sport in the Middle East. In past years, thousands of young boys have been trafficked from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mauritania, and other countries to work as jockeys in the UAE under excruciating conditions. Over the last ten years, some governments have tried to put an end to the use of child jockeys. Desert Riders will examine the situation before and since these government policies were enacted, as well as the arduous journey to retrieve and recuperate these children.

‘Desert Riders’ Examines Abuses in the Camel Race Industry.

The Bitter Taste of Tea

Millions of tea workers struggle every day to survive in the beautiful, lush tea gardens in Kenya, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. They are plucking tea for multinational companies such as Lipton and Finlay’s. The companies promise the consumers that they will act as responsible members of the global society, protecting the environment and ensuring good working and living conditions for the workers. Nothing could be more wrong. Western consumers have turned to Fairtrade because Fairtrade/Max Havelaar guarantees that the workers in the Fairtrade-certified tea estates get a little extra money every time they buy their tea. This film tells the true story of how Fairtrade is not at all fair.

The Bitter Taste of Tea is the 3rd documentary of Flip the Coin series. The other two docs in this series, ‘The Micro Debt’ and ‘A Tower of Promises,’ also discussed issues related to Bangladesh. The film is sold for distribution in 10 countries and has won ‘The Al Jazeera Film Festival’ and the FAO ‘OSIRIS’ award.

Indian Ocean – Sri Lanka to Bangladesh

This is a six-part nature and travel documentary hosted by Simon Reeve. In 5th episode, Simon reaches Sri Lanka, whose strategic location and tropical spices made it a target for invaders and colonizers for centuries. In the north, he visits the scenes of vicious battles between the Tamil minority and the Sri Lankan army, traumatic events from which the population is still recovering. On his way to Bangladesh, he hitches a ride on a trawler, highlighting one of the Indian Ocean’s fastest-growing industries – providing prawns for the West. But as he reveals, it comes at a price for the environment.

Tropic of Cancer – Bangladesh to Burma

A sociopolitical and travel documentary presented by Simon Reeve and made by BBC, the series has six episodes. The fifth episode takes Simon through Bangladesh and on a difficult covert journey into Burma, where Western journalists are banned. In Bangladesh, Simon sails down the mighty Padma River and visits fishermen who use trained otters to drive fish into their nets. Further, he sees the river banks crumbling before his eyes – increased river erosion is thought to be caused by global climate change – and in the capital, Dhaka, he meets some of the millions of child workers. From North East India, Simon treks through jungles and across rivers into Burma to meet the Chin people – an ethnic group who are brutalized and oppressed by the Burmese government.