The 13th edition of Liberation DocFest Bangladesh will showcase 17 documentaries selected from 188 submissions at the Liberation War Museum in Agargaon, Dhaka, from October 29 to 31.
This year’s festival, themed “Presence in Absence”, will feature national and international competition sections alongside a “Best of the Fest” programme.
An eight-member preview committee selected the films from submissions by filmmakers across different countries. The committee comprised Jihan Karim, Biplob Sarkar, Mehedi Mostafa, Partha Sarathi, Sharmin Doza, Chaitali Samaddar, Kamrul Ahsan and Kazi Arefin Ahmed.
The selected documentaries are organised into eight thematic sections: “Bodies and Belonging”, “Gender Equality and Resistance”, “Resistance and Reform”, “Generational Memory”, “Displacement and Statelessness”, “1971: Living Archives”, “Ecology in Crisis” and “Ancestral Roots and Livelihoods”.
The national and international competition winners will each receive prize money of Tk 1 lakh. A separate nine-member youth jury will also select a film for recognition, with the winner receiving a crest and certificate.
The national jury comprises filmmaker Shabnam Ferdousi, visual artist and filmmaker Dilara Begum, and Sajjad Hossain, a faculty member at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.
The international jury includes cultural personality M Hamid, filmmaker Shamim Akhtar and human rights activist Asif Munier.
Alongside the screenings, the festival will host a seminar on documentary filmmaking in higher education. The discussion will explore the opportunities and practical challenges of incorporating documentary production into classroom projects, with particular attention to how the medium can connect younger generations with the history and memory of the Liberation War.
The seminar is scheduled for 4pm on October 30 in the museum’s seminar room.
Established in 2006, Liberation DocFest Bangladesh promotes documentary filmmaking focused on freedom, human rights and social struggles. The festival also aims to strengthen connections between Bangladeshi filmmakers and the international documentary film community while encouraging younger generations to engage with the medium.