Social Media: The Debate on Freedom and Responsibility

Defining social media Social media is a web-based platform where people share information, thoughts and activities. Social media has overtaken pornography as the number one activity on the web. According to Wikipedia, social media includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into interactive dialogue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media). The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centred design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0). Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services and web applications. The news site, Indymedia was formed after the anti-WTO movement started in Seattle in 1999. Later the news site opened 120 branch sites from Boston to Bombay (Beckerman, 2003). The reporter-activists of Indymedia do not believe in objectivity. They believe that no journalism is without bias and the mainstream claims neutrality to mask these biases. If the Seattle incident gave birth to Indymedia, 9/11 popularised the blog. The Iraq War increased the number of bloggers. This proves that bloggers want to express their opinions of major global incidents, and in many cases they provide instant information regarding the incidents. Thus, they play the role of citizen journalists and respond on behalf of humanity and to the greater causes of majority people. According to the blog search engine Technorati, there were 133 million blogs from 2002 to 2008. Every hour, 0.9 million blogs are posted in cyberspace (www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-blogosphere/). Though not all, but a significant number of blogs are run by strong activists. Several bloggers around the globe have been arrested for writing against repressive governments. And recently, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been added in the row. Though these sites were introduced to offer casual friendship, they were used as key components in the contemporary Arab Spring. The social networking site, Facebook was introduced in 2004. Just six years after its inception, the number of Facebook users crossed 500 million (now 800 million). It has become the third biggest 'country' in the world (Fletcher, 2010). The case of Arab Spring The inventors of Facebook or Twitter, perhaps, never thought that their 'non-political' networking sites would be used to bring political change in several countries. The forum of casual friendship turned into a platform of protesters. It is peoples' creativity by which they picked up these sites as the platform of sharing opinion, designing programme, and updating and broadcasting the movement for ousting the repressive regimes in North Africa and the Middle East. This movement of establishing democratic rights is now known as Arab Spring. The Arab Spring may be contaminated by the involvement of foreign imperialist forces meanwhile, but the eagerness of the Middle Eastern people for democracy is very much significant in contemporary global political history. The movement started when a young vegetable merchant Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of a municipal building in protest of unemployment and corruption of the Tunisian government. Bouazizi's self-immolation was one of several stories told and retold on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in ways that inspired dissidents to organise protests, criticise their governments, and spread ideas about democracy (Howard, 2011). After analysing more than 3 million tweets and gigabytes of YouTube content and thousands of blog posts, an University of Washington study finds that social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring. Focused mainly on Tunisia and Egypt and led by Philip Howard (Howard, 2011), the study shows that the social media was used heavily by a key demographic group in the revolution -- young, urban, relatively well-educated individuals, many of whom were women. Bloggers also used the internet to publish information critical of the governments in Egypt and Tunisia. The activists used social media to connect with others outside their countries. They picked up followers in other countries, where similar democratic protests would later erupt. The report says: We find that there were over 2,200 tweets from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen about Ben Ali's resignation on the day he stepped aside. Over the course of a week before Mubarak's resignation, the total rate of tweets from Egypt -- and around the world -- about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a day. Interestingly, the relative contribution of people not living in the region diminished significantly over this period. On the day Mubarak left office, February 11, there were more than 225,000 Tweets outside the country that spread the news of his departure. In the two weeks after Mubarak's resignation, there were an average of 3,400 tweets a day about the political crisis in Egypt by people living in neighboring countries. (Howard, 2011). The report also says evidence suggests that online conversations played an integral part in the revolutions that toppled governments in Egypt and Tunisia. We find that conversations about liberty, democracy, and revolution on blogs and on Twitter often immediately preceded mass protests. In Tunisia, for example, 20% of blogs were evaluating Ben Ali's leadership on the day he resigned from office (January 14), up from just 5% the month before. Subsequently, the primary topic for Tunisian blogs was “revolution” until a public rally of at least 100,000 people took place and eventually forced the old regime's remaining leaders to relinquish power (Howard, 2011). However, social media was not used in the same manner and intensity in every country. A Guardian report says, if Twitter had negligible influence on events in Tunisia, the same could not be said for Egypt. A far more mature and extensive social media environment played a crucial role in organising the uprising against Mubarak, whose government responded by ordering mobile service providers to send text messages rallying his supporters (Beaumont, 2011). In Egypt, details of demonstrations were circulated by both Facebook and Twitter and the activists' 12-page guide to confronting the regime was distributed by email. In Tunisia, there was an attempt to block Facebook and other social media sites; bloggers and others who used social media to spread critical news about the government were arrested. In Egypt also, the government attempted to shut down internet and cell phone network. But the movement went on. The Guardian report says, the Mubarak regime -- like Ben Ali's before it -- pulled the plug on the country's internet services and 3G network. What social media was replaced by then -- oddly enough -- was the analogue equivalent of Twitter: handheld signs held aloft at demonstrations saying where and when people should gather the next day (Beaumont, 2011). Bangladesh experience Bangladesh is a country with low Internet penetration although a big online community is gradually developing. Bangladesh does not have any autocratic regime like the countries in the Middle East. However, the democratic government sometimes acts in a non-democratic manner; also, the country suffers from several socio-economic problems. In many cases, the online community here responds proactively to the socio-economic and political issues. The online community that comprises 'Facebookians' and bloggers regularly serve news and analyses contemporary issues. In that way, they perform citizen journalism. The bloggers and Facebookians regularly criticise the government for their failures. Though they stay in a virtual world, they try to channel the issue in discursive form from virtual world to real world and vice versa. Their attempt to uphold modern and progressive thoughts and their move for democratising the society for equal rights can be mentioned here. Very recently, the issue of cyber crime has come forward and the discussion of introducing cyber law has made online users skeptical about an attempt to control the community. However, one example of citizen journalism in the Bangla blog community was reporting on the BDR tragedy just after it began. Blogger 'Onrino' from Somewherein...blog reported only in one sentence from the area nearby the incident at 10:08 am, on February 25, 2009 -- “Since the morning, exchange of fire is heard inside BDR”. The title of the post was “Soldier mutiny in the BDR, massive fire inside”. This was perhaps, the first report in any kind of media on the incident. The one-sentence post created enormous curiosity among other bloggers. They started asking the reporter to elaborate on the information or update the news. As time passed, other bloggers came with news, views and analyses on the issue and the incident became one of the most discussed issues in the blog community. Like BDR mutiny, the online community of Bangladesh has responded to every significant event in the country. These include border killings by BSF, the war crimes tribunal, Roopganj housing project by Bangladesh Army, destruction of Baul sculpture in front of the airport, the killing of a journalist couple, the Persona case and so on. These responses, in most of the cases, stand for humanity, democracy and the rights of people and against the repression of the powerful. Implementing cyber law? Whether it is Arab Spring in the Middle East and Africa, the Occupy Movement in the West or the social media activity in Bangladesh -- people in power see it as a potential threat to their throne. In recent times, throughout the world, an attempt has been taken to curb this virtual public sphere. The United States tried to implement acts like SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) and ACTA (Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement) which is considered by the online users as measures to censor the web. Three little words wound up citizens, internet users and a handful of senators into action, waging a war against the United States Congress and a number of discontented barons of the entertainment industry. Wikipedia blacked out in protest for a day. India is saying they want to control the social media the way it is done in China. In Bangladesh, the concern of obscenity has been raised against bloggers and thus the issue of introducing cyber law has been put forward by a minister. Recently, a public university teacher living abroad faced legal charges for his Facebook status. A blogger was arrested for organising a protest rally in support of the movement against the rise of tuition fees in a public university. However, there is a talking point of it -- cyber crime. The online users are not responsible enough. Abuse by libel, harassment by photo morphing or video clip uploading are frequently seen in cyberspace. Businesspeople are concerned about piracy online -- the popular practice of uploading or downloading free materials. It is very true that many social media users do not act with responsibility. In many cases they use fake identities to humiliate others. Yet stopping them by implementing new laws is not a good idea;in fact, it is impossible. The virtual world does not exist in a particular geographical area. Shutting down the internet itself could be the only way to do that. But it would be an absurd step to take when using internet has become a component of modern living. Introducing new laws could boomerang to the government. Moreover, any step taken against activity on the web has been done by existing laws. To reduce online abuse, the government and parties concerned can campaign and beg the users to respect others' rights. Conclusion The significant side of the social media in cyberspace is the interaction among its users. For the first time in the history of mankind, the flow of information is two-way and the traditional relationship between sender and receiver has been altered. At the ideological level, interactivity has been one of the key 'value added' characteristics of new media. Where 'old' media offered passive consumption, new media offer interactivity (Lister et al, 2009: 21). The new media based on the cyberspace is free -- no gatekeeper is going to edit one's opinion. The interactivity offers a discussion to be carried in a discursive manner, thus a kind of public sphere has been created, though virtually. This alternative media is relatively cheaper, can transcend borders and break conventional relations between the sender and the receiver. The blog and the social media have opened platforms to discuss on issues and organise programmes. The only problem is the elite nature of the users of the internet. The internet users are urban, relatively well-educated and from the middle class. The more it crosses the boundaries of class, the more it could be used for the betterment of humanity. References Beckerman, G. (2003). Emerging Alternatives: Edging Away from Anarchy, CJR. September/October 2003. Fletcher, D. (2010). Facebook: Friends without Border, Time. Vol. 175, no. 21. Lister, M. et al (2009). New Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge. Beaumont , P. (2011). The truth about Twitter, Facebook and the uprisings in the Arab world. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/twitter-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya, Accessed on 18 November, 2011. Howard, P. N. (2011). Opening Closed Regimes: What Was the Role of Social Media During the Arab Spring?. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12947477/reports/pITPI_datamemo_2011.pdf. Accessed on 18 November, 2011. http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/. Accessed on 15 October, 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mediaAccessed on 23 April, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0. Accessed on 23 April, 2012. The Article was published in 'Forum', The Daily Star in May 2012 (Vol 6, Issue 5).

The Role of Media in Creating Consumer Culture in Bangladesh

The neo-liberal and free market economic system and deregulated media situation have ensured introduction of numerous commercial media outlets in Bangladesh. These entire media world are dedicated to create and to enhance consumer culture in the country. They are engaged in selling audience to the advertisers. This article will critically analyse how the media sell the audience to the advertisers. The theoretical aspect the political economy of communication would be instructive here in the critical engagement and case studies would be the method to investigate the role of media in creating consumer culture in Bangladesh. The areas of investigation in the article would be some cases selected from the newspapers, private television channels and FM commercial radios.

Media Sells Audience
In course of time, the idea of audience had shifted from mass to market. As the media have become bigger business, the term ‘market’ has gained in currency (McQuail, 2005). Media usually sells the market or this set of consumers to the advertisers. Denis McQuail defined audience as an ‘aggregate of actual or potential consumers of media services and products, with a known social-economic profile’ (McQuail, 2005: 399). In recent times audience is treated by media not as a group of public, rather a set of consumers.

Dallas Smythe argues that the audiences give their free time to watch media, with this labour then packaged and sold by the media to advertisers as a new kind of ‘commodity’ (Smythe, 1977 cited in McQuil, 2005: 401). Smythe suggested the commodification process brought together a triad that linked media, the audiences, and advertisers in a set of binding reciprocal relationships. Mass media programming is used to construct audiences; advertisers pay media companies for access to these audiences; audiences are thereby delivered to advertisers (Smythe, 1977 cited in Mosco, 1996: 148).

Like Dallas Smythe, Sut Jhally (1990) also says media is created to sell audience to the advertisers and to create consumer culture in the society. According to him, almost the entire media system (television and print) has been developed as a delivery system for marketers. Its prime function is to produce audiences for sale to advertisers. Both the advertisements it carries, as well as the editorial matter that acts as a support for it, celebrate the consumer society. According to Jhally, today, in the United States alone, over $175 billion a year is spent to sell us things (Jhally, 1990).

Taking theoretical notions provided by McQuail, Smythe and Jhally in consideration, it can be summarized that media primarily treat audience as consumer to be sold to the advertisers. In the times of ‘late capitalism’, media of Bangladesh also sell audience to the advertisers in disguise of delivering news and opinion. The following section of the article will discuss on the proposition by analyzing few cases.

Bangladeshi Media Creates Consumer Culture
Salim Reza Newton (Newton, 2003) has mentioned five functions of mainstream media of Bangladesh. The functions, as he describes those as ‘programmes’, are as follow:

1. To protect the interests of capital, profit and business of the mother company;
2. To protect the interests of the private sector or business sector of the country, in general;
3. To create a socio-cultural environment in the favour of local and foreign corporate capital, or to create a US-style consumer community;
4. To play a role in keeping a business friendly political ‘stability’, which means to try to establish effectively a West-style two-party ‘democratic’ system and to take an independent position by not being connected to any political party;
5. To create a ‘civil society’ comprising social, cultural and private sector elites, in absence of a strong bourgeois class, as a parallel force to the political parties, and to keep the leadership of that civil society at the hand of media itself as the representative of the business class (Newton, 2003: 31-32).

Newton clearly identifies at least two roles of media in Bangladesh which are relevant to our discussion – one, it is engaged in creating a consumer culture in the country and two, it tries to depoliticize people. This depoliticizing is very important to create consumer culture itself and to develop a persistent capitalist system as Robert W. McChesney says, a capitalist society works most efficiently when the bulk of the population is demoralized and effectively depoliticized (McChesney, 2001: 17). The manifestations of consumer culture and depoliticization are evident through advertising. Advertising is not mere a survival factor of media, it also create a purchase habit. Sut Jhally argues, the right question would ask about the cultural role of advertising, not its marketing role (Jhally, 1990). He extends his idea:

Culture is the place and space where a society tells stories about itself, where values are articulated and expressed, where notions of good and evil, of morality and immorality, are defined. In our culture it is the stories of advertising that dominate the spaces that mediate this function (Jhally, 1990).

I shall elaborate the idea of the media’s role in creating consumer culture in Bangladesh now by discussing few cases.

What is happening in the prime time news of commercial television channels in Bangladesh is unprecedented in the world. In the name of corporate branding, every slot of the news hours is sold to the advertisers. News is something that is served before, after or middle of the advertisement.

On 12 May, 2011 at the news of ATN Bangla at 7 pm, it started with ‘United Commercial Bank (UCB) headlines’. Just after immediate ‘UCB Headlines’ there was a slot for telecom company ‘Rabi’ for 5 seconds. Then the lead news started. The news at 7 had also had also ‘General Pharmaceutical Break’. It had ‘Popular Pharmaceutical International News’ and ‘Partex Sports News’. While broadcasting the news, at the bottom of the screen, there was news scroll also which was sponsored by ‘National Bank’. These examples prove that the news hour of ATN Bangla is wrapped and surrounded by commercials.

On 3 September, 2009, at the prime time news at 10:30 of National Television (NTV), the time span of 47 minutes news was occupied by advertisement of 20 minutes. Almost half of the time (43% of the news hour) was sold to the advertisers. But other than commercial breaks, the news hour was also wrapped by advertisements. The title of news titles was ‘Purbachal American City Title’ and the title of Business news was ‘Pioneer Insurance Business News’.

On the same day, in Channel I, there was ‘Eastern Bank Break’. It had also ‘Citycell News Title’, ‘Green Delta Insurance Business News’, ‘National Bank Financial News’, ‘Anondo Alo Cultural News’. And in the ‘Green Delta Insurance Business News’, that day, one news was about the monthly meeting of ‘Premier Bank’ and another was regarding a raffle draw at ‘Agora’ chain shop. These two items did not have minimum news value and basically the promotional news managed by public relations departments of the companies.

The dailies like Prothom Alo and The Daily Star are in the leading role to offer the culture of purchasing and they have a craft of doing it in a subtle way. As a part of that they manage few events that create a positive impression towards them. They organize language contest and mathematics festival which are named as ‘HSBC Language Contest’ and ‘Dutch-Bangla Bank Mathematics Festival’. They regularly give enough space in the newspaper for these long termed competitions every year. On the other hand, the entire business pages of these newspapers are used for promotional news of different corporate companies. If we look at table 1, we will see most of the advertorials are published in page 15, which is basically the business page of Prothom Alo. All other newspapers are just trying to follow the methods of developing symbiotic relationship with the advertisers that is initiated by Prothom Alo.

Product placement is regularly seen in the commercial FM channels in Bangladesh. The Radio Jockeys (RJ) frequently announce the recent offers of the telecom companies before or after playing songs. They never forget to include the names of the sponsors in their programme texts. In the time of Ramadan, there was Iftar Reporting in Radio Amar in 2009. On 23 October, 2009 the reporter was visiting a public place and was reporting live just before the Iftar. The reporter was describing the Iftar menu of the fasting people and he was mentioning the name of the mango juice ‘Fruto’ with emphasis. He also said he had taken Fruto as his drinks and even was asking the RJ at station whether he would keep Fruto for the RJ or not. Not to mention that, the sponsor of the live report was Fruto.

Conclusion
The neo-liberal and free market economic system and deregulated media situation have ensured introducing a good number of commercial media outlets in Bangladesh. These entire media world are dedicated to create and to enhance consumer culture in the country. They sell audience to the advertisers but in an indecent way. People’s right to watch uninterrupted or minimally interrupted programme is barely reserved. A comprehensive media policy by limiting the presence of advertisement, advertorials and product placement can improve the situation. But still commercial media will continue selling audience and it will be used for creating consumer culture.

Reference
McQuil, D. (2005). McQuil’s Mass Communication Theory (5th edn). London: Sage.
Jhally, S. (1990). Advertisement at the Edge of Apocalypse. Retrieved on 20 October, 2009 from http://www.sutjhally.com/articles/advertisingattheed/.
Mosco, V. (1996). The Political Economy of Communication. London: Sage.
Newton, S. R. (2003). The Political Economy of Print Media in Bangladesh (in Bangla). Jogajog (Communication). vol 5.
McChesney, R. W. (2001). The Political Economy of Global Communication. In McChesney, R. W. et al (ed.). Capitalism and the Information Age: The Political Economy of the Global Communication Revolution, p. 1-27. Calcutta: Cornerstone Publications.
Edgar, P and Rahim, S A (1983). Communication Policy in Developed Countries. London: Keagan Paul.
Herman, E. S. and Chomsky, N. (2002). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon.

This is a short version of the original article. For the full article see Media Asia, Volume 38 Number 4 (2011).

Telecommunication sector under threat

The latest news in the telecom sector is "International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) license holders will be allowed/issued International Internet Gateway (IIG) license by default." The ITC license holders have already had meetings with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication (MoPT) and Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on the matter.

The reason they have shown in issuance of IIG license in their favour is that, as Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited (BTCL) and Mango Teleservices Limited (Mango) are holding both IIG and ITC licenses, if they are not given IIG license then they don't have any valid business case with ITC license only. One may be surprised to know that MoPT and BTRC may be considering such a request.

Issuance of the IIG license to ITC license holders would clearly cause procedural and legal difficulties for which the government/BTRC could come under questioning. If ITC license holders are of the opinion that BTCL and Mango are a threat to their business and they don't have any valid business case with ITC license only, then we may conclude that these five ITC license holders have submitted incorrect/wrong business documents/

feasibility reports without assessing their business risk factors; or they don't have any clear idea regarding ITC business; or BTRC/MoPT have failed to assess bidders properly and awarded these license wrongly. Before bidding, these ITC license holders knew that BTCL as an incumbent would be allowed one ITC license by MoPT/BTRC and Mango, as a prospective bidder for ITC license and as per the ILTDS Policy-2010, would also be awarded ITC license.

If the decision is taken to give IIG licence to ITC license holders, the telecom sector will face a lot of difficulties.

Since the independence of Bangladesh, the governments and the regulator have never entertained any such unjustified request of any license holder or acted with the policy "one type of license is free if you are awarded another type of license." Thus, it would be unwise for MoPT/BTRC to consider dependency of one license on the other license (i.e. ITC license impact on IIG license or vice versa). Issuance of IIG license to these ITC license holders would just create a very bad precedence.

The application for BWA/WiMax license by Mango Teleservices Limited is under processing by MOPT/BTRC. Mango is holding IIG & ITC license too. Thus, if the ITC license holders are awarded IIG license, then existing BWA/WiMax License holders, i.e. BanglaLion and Augure (Qubee), may also claim IIG and ITC license by default from the MoPT/BTRC. In addition, Mango Teleservices Limited and the two other ITC license holders would also claim for NTTN License by default from MOPT/BTRC, as Summit Communication Ltd. and Fiber@Home are currently holding NTTN and ITC license.

If the existing five ITC license holders are awarded IIG license by the MOPT/BTRC, then the other prospective bidders for IIG License may go to court for third-party remedial measures. It would just stop the whole procedure for the issuance of these licenses.

Issuance of IIG license to the existing ITC license holders would also create a monopoly business environment, because of which the subscribers would suffer at the end of the day. It is now clear that these five ITC license holders have already made a consortium and are asking for undue favour from the MoPT/BTRC. They would also work as a consortium regarding tariff. But we have seen that the subscribers never get benefit from such business consortiums.

Issuance of unjustified IIG license and/or any other license (IGW, ICX, WiMax, etc) would just promote illegal business activities by those operators as there would be no valid legal business case. We may refer PSTN business case in this regard.

Issuance of IIG, IGW, ICX, ITC, NTTN, WiMax license to the existing license holders would be a clear violation of the spirit of the original ILTDS Policy (ref ILTDS Policy 2007), which encourages democratic participation in telecom sector and discourages monopoly. This would create an unhealthy business environment, because of which the whole telecommunication sector would suffer.

These five ITC license holders, in addition to the IIG license, have also applied for IGW, ICX licenses. Now, if they are awarded IGW and ICX license, then the existing IGW License holders (BanglaTrac Telecommunication, NovoTel & Mir Telecommunication) and ICX License holders (Getco Telecommunication & M&H Telecommunication) could also ask for IIG licenses. Which, in turn, would promote more monopoly business environment and no new entrepreneur would be allowed to enter this sector.

MoPT/BTRC should not, under any circumstances, promote any entity for doing monopoly business, or do anything that is not in line with their policy.


First Published: The Daily Star, 14 Jan, 2012

Cinema as the Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Benjamin, Aura and Digital Reproduction
In his ground breaking article entitled 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' Walter Benjamin (Benjamin, 1936) depicted how mechanical reproduction has changed the nature of production and consumption of art work. The most important thing is that the work of art has lost its aura. Aura is indicative of art's traditional association with primitive, feudal, or bourgeois structures of power. For the case of painting, there is always an original one, hanging in a museum or in the house of an elite person. One's claim of seeing Monalisa is not complete until he or she goes to the Louvre and sees the original work of art. But in the case of press, photography or film, one cannot differentiate between the copied one and the master. In the age of reproduction, the work of art loses the aura of originality. Benjamin (Benjamin, 1936) says the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. Even the printed copy of Monalisa can be found in front of the Louvre which contributes, to some extent, to the loss of aura. According to Robert Kolker (Kolker, 1999), Benjamin, unlike most of his Frankfurt School associates, did not look at this loss of aura with alarm. Rather, he thought about the growth of popular culture as something to be understood not as an oppressive reality, but as a potentially liberating one. The mechanical reproduction system could democratis e art. One who has a still camera can be a creator of a work of art.

Robert Kolker says nothing is so entirely without aura as digital (Kolker 1999: 71). There is no distinction now between 'original' and 'reproduction' in virtually any medium based in film, electronics or telecommunications. Douglas Davis (Davis, undated) says the fictions of 'master' and 'copy' are now so entwined with each other that it is impossible to say where one begins and the other ends, resembling lovers folded together in ecstasy. Any video, audio, or photographic work of art can be endlessly reproduced, without degradation, always the same and always perfect. Digital bytes, with the presence or absence of signals (1 or 0), have created the option of enormous numbers of replication with the same quality of the primary creation. A digital file can be copied from one disk to another storage device and can be released or uploaded in the Internet.

Walter Benjamin says:
The contemporary decay of the aura rests on two circumstances, both of which are related to the increasing significance of the masses in contemporary life. Namely, the desire of contemporary masses to bring things “closer” spatially and humanly, which is just as ardent as their bent toward overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its reproduction. Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of its likeness, its reproduction (Benjamin, 1936).

Benjamin mentions 'the desire of contemporary masses to bring things closer spatially and humanly', and this desire works in the same way among new and young filmmakers of Bangladesh and other Third World countries to make films from a mass level. The digital film offers making diversified patterns of films -- short or full length, feature or documentary or animation, shot in HDV or on mobile phone, distributed in mainstream theatres or as flash streams on the internet.

Though Benjamin mentioned film as a mode of mechanical reproduction, 35mm film had a certain aura. Especially the production management, huge expense and business and projection state of 35 mm film had the impression of a gigantic task. Anybody who wanted to be a filmmaker, saw its gigantic impression as a hindrance. But the digital film has come to lessen the aura of film. It has created an opportunity for everybody to be a filmmaker. Benjamin's implied idea of welcoming democratisation of art medium has appeared in a truer sense. Not only the production expense or easy management, even the size of digital camera is much smaller than a 35mm camera.

The debate is still going on over whether digital video camera can achieve the quality and aesthetics as of 35mm film. Several directors -- including James Cameron, David Fincher, George Lucas, David Lynch, Robert Rodriguez and Lars von Trier -- have claimed that celluloid film is dead and that future filmmaking will be an all-digital medium. Yet other directors -- including Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino -- have said that they will continue to shoot on film (Barsam, 2007: 368). But the advent of HD (High Definition) or HDV (High-end Digital Video) camera have reached the quality of 35 mm film. Moreover, digital filmmaking offers the option of less expense and time, easy management and more creative control of the director over his/her film. Throughout the world, shooting film in digital format is gaining increasing popularity among makers who want to represent the reality in the film instead of entertainment.

According to Xeni Jardin (Jardin, 2005 cited in Barsam, 2007: 369), digital filmmaking has some advantages in comparison with 35 mm film -- aesthetic and cost advantages.

Holly Willis says, countless pessimists have bemoaned the passing of 'real' film, while as many champions of digital video had heralded the advent of a new democratised form of filmmaking, one that will release us from the tyranny of the Hollywood film industry and the pitfall of the massive consolidation of media within a few transnational corporations (Willis, 2005: 1).The democratic nature of digital film allows more people to be filmmakers. This is especially important in a country like Bangladesh where many talented people want to make films, but the high cost of 35 mm film does not permit it. The low cost and easy management of digital cinema offer new makers a way to start making film and thus changes the cine-scenario of the country.

In big studios, digital cinema is the vehicle of making movies more spectacular and glossy, but in the Third World countries it is considered the new medium for new cinema. This study tends to investigate the potential, trends and problems of digital cinema of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh it remains in its primary phase, however, new filmmakers are proponents of digital cinema. Some senior independent filmmakers have also engaged themselves in making cinema in digital format while some mainstream filmmakers are also showing interest making film in this format.

Bangladesh perspectives
Digital cinema of Bangladesh is only passing through its primary stage. And at this stage, the term 'digital cinema' has become two glamorous words in the cine-scenario of Bangladesh. But the term has created a lot of misnomers at the same time. The technological phenomenon sometimes has been described with wrong interpretations. Even the telefilms broadcast on television channels are sometimes called digital cinema or video fiction as some young makers, many of them from film society background and who dream of making 35 mm films, have tried to apply their film sense in their television productions. Again, the fashionable term is tagged with some ordinary productions made for television channels to enhance credit. Some productions are made in DV camera and transferred into 35 mm. Some productions are shot and edited in digital technology, not sold to television channels, but are never released in mainstream theatres. Others were shot and edited in digital technologies, released in mainstream theatres but not exhibited through professional digital technology. All these productions are called digital cinema in the context of Bangladesh.

Digital technology inspired the digital generation to make films. The government's decision to recognise digital cinema in 2010 has inspired more. The young people of the new generation are well oriented with digital technology. They have grown up digitally -- mobile phones, computers, Facebook. They are living in a visual world -- from billboards on the street to the computer screen at home. So they want to create visual image -- they want to be filmmakers. And the gap between the dream and reality is not very big, with many young people already having started their productions. They reveal their plans of making films on Facebook and on blogs, they collect cast and crew from the online community, they update their production process, release promos on YouTube and invite online friends to see the movie after release. These are going to be really all-digital productions -- pre-production, production, post-production, promotion -- everything is done digitally and with the help of online. If it is a very short film, it is released on YouTube for free. The director needs only the appreciation and criticism from his/her online friends.

The major problem of digital cinema in Bangladesh is its distribution and exhibition. Digital cinema can be distributed and projected in several ways. One is direct projection from the digitally enabled projectors from a hard drive or from similar other external drive. The other distribution systems are satellite systems, terrestrial broadband and the Internet. There is no ideal digitally enabled theatre in Bangladesh for direct projection, not even satellite, terrestrial broadband or the Internet systems for distributing digital cinema. Because of the absence of professional distribution channel and exhibition system, Tareque Masud transferred his digitally made film Ontorjatra (2006) into 35 mm. He went for non-theatrical alternative distribution with the help of film societies throughout the country for his next project, Runway (2010). Tokon Thaakoor made his film Blackout 2006 and has been waiting for five years for its professional release. Morshedul Islam exhibited his film Priotomeshu through an advanced multimedia projector 5000 Lumen. Nurul Alam Atique had to sell his film Dubshatar (2010) to Impress Telefilm because of absence of digitally enabled projection systems. Apekkha (2011) by Abu Sayeed was shown in mainstream theatres with the help of advanced multimedia technology.

However, projector rental is not a professional approach. Bangladesh needs digitally enabled professional cine theatres. This can be done in two ways -- one, digitising the existing theatres, two, establishing new theatres. The problem is, who will do it. The government can develop a digital cine theatre network. This can also be done by entrepreneurs. But until now, there is no sign of that. If the digitally enabled exhibiting theatres cannot be developed, the potentials of digital cinema, the expectations from new cinema will not materialise. Some other non-professional exhibitions, such as exhibition by the rented multimedia projector will be abandoned by the audience. Most of the audience has left the cine theatres decades ago. They prefer to watch movies at home on DVD players or on television. In the cinema hall, if they get the same image and sound as they watch at home, they will reject the so-called digital film. Audience want to see film in theatres, unconcerned about its format. So the projection system has to be improved in terms of in-depth image, surround sound in a comfortable theatre environment. But the utmost precondition is the quality of film. If the digital infrastructure is developed and a good number of quality films are produced every year, then digital cinema can bring a positive change in the declining cine scenario of Bangladesh.

References
Benjamin, W. (2008, originally 1936). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In Badmington, N. and Thomas, J. (ed.). The Routledge Critical and Cultural Theory Reader, p. 34-56. Oxon: Routledge.
Kolker Robert. (1999). Film Form and Culture. Boston: McGraw-Hill College.
Davis, D. (undated). 'The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction: An Evolving Thesis/1991-1995'. http://cristine.org/borders/Davis_ Essay.html, undated, accessed on 30 April, 2010.
Barsam, R. (2007). Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Allen, M. (2003). Contemporary US Cinema. Harlow: Longman.
Willis, H. (2005). New Digital Cinema: Reinventing the Moving Image. London: Wallflower Press.

First publish in The Daily Star: http://www.thedailystar.net/forum/2011/May/work.htm

New book on Digital Cinema in Bangladesh

This book tried to investigate the potentials, trends and challenges of digital film in Bangladesh. The study has studied four digital films as cases to understand the digital film situation in Bangladesh. However, the theoretical notions by Walter Benjamin (1936) and Samira Makhmalbaf (2000) were instructive in guiding this study. According to their approach, new technological art medium always liberate and democratize art forms. Enthusiasts indicate that new filmmakers will embrace digital film as the preferred format and create a new cinema tradition in Bangladesh. Responding to that euphoria of technological liberty, this study has examined the potentials of digital cinema in Bangladesh, the trends of existing digital filmmaking practices and problems of digital cinema in Bangladesh. After in-depth analysis and discussion, this study suggests how to progress digital filmmaking practices in Bangladesh.

Lists of Content

Preface
1. Introduction
Film is Dead, Long Live Cinema
Analog versus Digital Technology
Defining Digital Cinema
Origin and Development of Digital Cinema
Digital Intermediate
Distribution and Exhibition
2. The Work of Art in the Age of
Digital Reproduction
Work of Art in the Digital Age
3. Research Framework and Methodology
Exploratory Study
Qualitative Study
Measures: In-depth Interview and Case Studies
Interview Respondents
Selected Films for Case Studies
Limitations of the Study
4. A Historical Account and
Some Digital Productions
The Beginning
The Turn
Digital Mainstream Cinema
Future
Case 1: Ontorjatra
Case 2: Blackout
Case 3: Priotomeshu
Case 4: Dubshatar
5. Potentials, Trends and Problems
Potentials
Trends
Problems
6. Call for a New Cinema?
Digital Deployment in Bangladesh
Recommendations
References
Criticism of a Digital Film: Blackout

40 Years of Media Experiences in Bangladesh: A Critical Overview

As in other countries, journalism in Bangladesh, too, has experienced three phases. The first was initiated by the politicians, with the media being used as the voice of political parties or for serving political agendas though, for Bangladesh, it was serving the agendas of people also as the country was fighting for rights against West Pakistan central government in 1960s. With time, questions were raised against biased and political journalism and there was advocacy for objective and ethical journalism. Worldwide, behind the introduction of objective journalism, there was a contribution of journalism schools. Today is the age of corporate-owned journalism, a contemporary reality that is both global and local. There are differences in the objective and style of these three kinds of journalism.

Bangladesh as a nation turns 40 in 2011. In this article I will review the trends and developments of journalism in Bangladesh in the last four decades. I will also try to forecast here the trends of the news industry in the coming decade after which Bangladesh will be a 50-year-old nation.

The Ittefaq and Sangbad, two Bangla dailies established in the Pakistan era, are the last two representatives of the first phase of journalism (political journalism), though they can now be identified as doing journalism of the second phase (objective journalism). These two newspapers played historical roles in the different periods of the independence movement. Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television were also involved in different historical moments of the nation. The existence of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra was transient but it was a very unprecedented radical media during the Liberation War in 1971. Other than a few of these media, all print or broadcast outlets appeared in the last two decades. It is to be noted that these two decades are the age of globalisation based on the idea of a free market economy after the fall of communism. As a result, an influence of capitalist globalisation is felt in the media institutions. On the other hand, in the expanding capitalist activities driven by the globalisation process, media remained as part of that process. The existing media situation around the globe as well as in Bangladesh is both the cause and effect of globalisation.

The length of the second phase of (objective) journalism was short in Bangladesh, and this is the difference with the experiences of other countries. After independence, the necessity of political journalism came to an end, even though we saw it until the end of the 1980s. Ajker Kagoj was a prominent representative of objective journalism. The idea of objective journalism, as repeatedly taught in journalism schools, was reflected in Ajker Kagoj. The founding editor of the newspaper was a graduate from the journalism department at Dhaka University. Ajker Kagoj brought several changes in the journalism practices of the country. Besides objective and ethical journalism, the newspaper showed its inclination towards Bengali culture and decency in approach. The newspaper also provided neat printing quality with the help of the then modern desktop publishing and offset printing technology. A significant change was the participation of the intelligentsia and the readers in the daily. Other than staff editorial writers, intellectuals and even readers started writing in the middle page of the daily. All of them were tagged as columnists, and quickly a civil society started to take shape by writing in the middle page of Ajker Kagoj. Later, novelty in journalism was transferred into Bhorer Kagoj. But this short period of objective journalism disappeared after the advent of Prothom Alo in 1998.

Corporate journalism began with Prothom Alo (PA), with journalists who had come from Bhorer Kagoj. The ownership pattern of the daily compelled the same journalists to shift from objective towards corporate journalism. The leading English daily, The Daily Star (DS), established by SM Ali, was taken by Transcom Group, the owners of Prothom Alo which formed a media conglomeration. The PA-DS duo became influential dailies within a few years. Before them, Janakantha and Muktakantha appeared as corporate media outlets, but they could not influence the media industry. The journalism pattern set by PA-DS is followed by other media outlets of recent times. The question is, what is this pattern?

Before answering this question, it is necessary to describe the socio-economic scenario of Bangladesh in the last two decades. The globalisation process based on free market economy in the world and Bangladesh’s democracy after a prolonged autocratic regime came at the same time in 1990. Now the election-centric, immature democracy was in no way against a free market economy. Rather, the parliamentary democracy welcomed the free market economy with the imperialistic influence of countries like United States or alliances like NAFTA. In this global economic system, Bangladesh was at the receiving end. The peripheral capitalist countries of the Third World like Bangladesh have become the market of globalisation. However, other than the readymade garments industry based on cheap labour and the telecommunications sector based on foreign direct investment, in the 1990s, there arrived a class of traders who mainly imported products from foreign countries. These three sectors were parts of the emerging corporate class. A country of 150 million people meant a big potential market. From the traders’ point of view, there was a need to change people into consumers and a consumer culture became an essential prerequisite of the prevailing economic process.

This responsibility of creating a consumer culture fell on the media. Transcom is a group which import foreign products in Bangladesh and PA-DS are two corporate media owned by Transcom. In that process, the prime roles of media since the late 1990s included serving the interests of respective mother companies, upholding the interests of private or business sector as a whole, flooding the pages with advertisements, serving the news of market and corporate companies, informing readers about products in disguise of news -- and thus creating a habit of purchasing. Other than creating a market and introducing consumer culture, the leading corporate media identified the undisciplined activities of political parties as the main obstacle to the expansion of the business sector. In response, they tried to establish a civil society that would advocate for ‘democracy’, ‘good governance’ and a stable political environment; and the leadership of the society would be at the hands of businesspersons. For the same reason, some of the media outlets supported the military-backed interim government in 2007-08. The civil-corporate-media-military alliance has a unified vision of Bangladesh. By depoliticising all organisations, they want a hassle-free business environment. Developing and establishing the discourse of depoliticisation was one of the key responsibilities of the media.

The channel boom in the first decade of the millennium is another phenomenon in the industry. The pattern of today’s television programmes was set by Ekushey Television (ETV) – especially the news presentation, programme selection and graphical presentation style of ETV which are still followed by other channels. Currently, 12 to 13 channels are operating in the country, with more on the way. But all the channels including Channel I, ATN Bangla and NTV are operating within corporate journalism. These channels are totally dependent on advertisement market and as a part of corporate branding they have sold all of their news slots to advertisers. To get their stakes from the competitive advertisement market, they have made their news slot cheaper. The broadcast channels are submerged in the corporate journalism created by the print media. However, it is also true that in the last decade, the middle class has developed a habit of watching television news daily. The government-controlled news served by Bangladesh Television for decades prior to that kept the audience news-hungry. While the government has freed the print media, it still controls the broadcast media. Channels such as ETV, CSB and Channel One were shut down due to political considerations. Because of the covert threat of government censorship, channels still in operation lack boldness in their reporting.

In the first decade of the millennium, the FM channel arrived as a new phenomenon. Four FM channels based on pop music are now on the air. The target audience of these channels are young people and teens who have grown through the consumer culture or who are eager to access that culture. The channels with English-influenced Bengali accents serve hourly news, traffic updates and stock updates. These channels also include talk shows and interviews along with music. These stations survive on the corporate culture created by other media before them.

Against this trend of corporatisation, community radio is going to be started. This radio will work for the development of the local community. But the ownership and license of community radio are only given to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), thus raising questions of whether they can transcend the existing development discourse.

The introduction of Right to Information Act (RTI) at the end of the first decade of the millennium, initiated by NGOs and supported by leading newspapers, is also an important incident in the existing media environment. In India, RTI was a demand of the people, but in Bangladesh it was pushed by NGOs whose agenda is fixed by foreign donors. Still, community radio and the RTI Act are two important developments in the media scenario.

At this moment, the media situation in Bangladesh is quite different from other countries. Where in other countries newspapers are gradually closing down because of the growth of cyberspace, in Bangladesh, new newspapers are coming into operation. The economy of Bangladesh is expanding and the usage of Internet is less than in developed countries. Arrival of new newspapers complies with the prevailing socio-economic situation in Bangladesh. As a result, not only television channels or FM radio, the print media is also expanding here. It should be noted that, until today, the print media is the most influential media in Bangladesh.

The age of Bangladesh as a nation will be half a century in the next decade. There came a great change in the media sector in the last one and a half decades, making it difficult to forecast what changes will come in the next decade. However, the change in the next decade will not be very radical. A few more television channels will go on air. But the existing advertisement market cannot support, say, 20 channels. So either some channels will not start at all or others will close down. Some more FM radio stations and newspapers might be started, but this media expansion may stop after market saturation.

The mainstream traditional media will face a new challenge in the form of cyberspace. More people will be connected with the web and they will be active netizens. In the last five years, some Bangla blog communities have been formed with a membership of some 200,000. Around a million people are connected on social networking media Facebook. These few hundreds of thousands of people will create an impact by non-professional but citizen journalism. This cyber community may make the mainstream journalists insecure in the coming decade. The traditional media will also try to make their presence felt on the web but their symbiotic relations with other powers will result in a lack of spontaneity characteristic of citizen journalists. A friction between professional and non-professional journalism on the web may well be the media conflict of the next decade.

Cinema(s) of Bengal(s)

Until 1956, Bengali cinema meant cinema made from Kolkata. It was a big industry within India since 1930s and Bengali Muslims from East Bengal were basically the consumers of the film. However, the international recognition of Satyajit Ray and artistic success of some other filmmakers like Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen from West Bengal, India had created a profound impact on the filmmakers of Bangladesh. The Dhaka-based first full length sound feature film Mukh O Mukhosh (The Face and the Mask) was made in 1956, just after the next year of the release of Pather Pachali by Satyajit Ray. The film industry of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC), was established in 1957. One of the earlier film Ashia (1960), produced from BFDC and directed by Fateh Lohani was highly influenced by Pather Pachali. After the independence, the first internationally recognized film from Bangladesh, Suryo Dighal Bari (The Ominous House, 1979) by Masihuddin Shaker and Sheikh Niamat Ali was also influenced by Satyajit Ray’s neo-realist filmmaking style. The first film Dhire Bahe Meghna (Quiet Flows the River Meghna, 1973) by Alamgir Kabir – one important auteur of post-independence Bangladesh – was a co-production with India. He had cast several actors from India in most of his films. The three great filmmakers of West Bengal – Ray, Ghatak and Sen – all of them either born in East Bengal and later migrated to India after the partition in 1947 or their ancestors were born in East Bengal.

So the plight of partition, or the reminiscence of their homeland were the subjects of some of films by Ray, Ghatak and Sen. Ritwik Ghatak is one of them who never accepted the artificially created partition of India as well as partition of Bengal and he had always talked about the cultural unison of two Bengals. He made an important film Titas Ekti Nadir Naam (The River called Titas) in Bangladesh in 1973. Thus both of the Bengals had influenced each other which was reflected in cultural expressions like literature, theatre and film. It is not surprising that the independent filmmakers of Bangladesh are influenced by art cinema tradition of West Bengal. Zakir Hossain Raju says:

"In an informal setting such as within the film societies, they [the independent filmmakers] watched and discussed western films from Europe, the US and Indian art films before they embarked in making their own films. Therefore the [independent] short films of the 1980s-90s followed the textual forms of these foreign cinemas, especially of the Indian art cinema and Italian Neorealism." (Zakir Hossain Raju, Bengali or Muslim?: Islam, Identity and Art Cinema in Contemporary Bangladesh, Jamini: Cinema and Identity, ed. Ziaul Karim, vol 5, no. 1, 2009)

Satyajit Ray portrayed the cultural identity of Bengal in his films but he had a universal outlook at the same time. Ritwik Ghatak concentrated in the issues of Bengal only – its politics and culture were his areas of concentration; he talked about the cultural unison of Bengalis and he incorporated melodrama and acting style in his films from local folk drama Jatra. Jatra is a form of folk drama of Bengal combining acting, songs, music, dance, characterised by stylised delivery and exaggerated gestures and orations.

But the cinemas from West Bengal and Bangladesh have distinctiveness as well. Since 1947, both of the Bengals are experiencing different political incidents. Bangladesh has gone through a language movement, and a bloody liberation war. The two predominant religions in two Bengals have created different ways of life, different thinking patterns. In earlier politics, culture and economy, Hindu Bengalis were predominant in all senses. Even the Ghatak’s idea of cultural unity of Bengal was awkward for using abundance of Hindu symbols and icons which might work as hindrance to the unity. According to Sugata Sinha, "He [Ghatak] basically considered that Bengali identity had emerged from an archetypical layer of Hindu mythology present in the collective unconscious." (Sugata Sinha, Ritwik Ghatak and Bengali Identity, Jamini: Cinema and Identity, ed. Ziaul Karim, vol 5, no. 1, 2009).

After 1947, Bengali Muslims from East Bengal had got the opportunity to create Dhaka as their own hub of culture and economy. Now Bengali Muslim filmmakers are more interested in portraying their own history and culture which rarely transcend the timeline of 1947. On the other hand the Bengalis of West Bengal, instead of looking back to the common Bengali language and culture, are eager to get their stake in national Indian context. Observers say the future capital of Bengali literature and culture would be Dhaka. The distinctiveness between two Bengals is getting clearer as time passes.

Seminar: Cinema of Bangladesh: Re-reading Popular Culture and Construction of Identity

The Event

Date: 18 August, 2009, Tuesday, 10:30 am

Vanue: Senate Building, Dhaka University

Organized by: Dept. of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka and Bangladesh Film Archive

Papers
1. “6 Song, 10 Fights and 1 Affair: Re-reading Bangla Cinema”
Presenter: Lotte Hoek, Lecturer, University of Amsterdam
2. “Construction of Identity in the Independent Films of Bangladesh”
Presenter: Fahmidul Haq, Assistant Professor, Mass Communication and Journalism, Dhaka University

Discussants
1. Manosh Chowdhury, Faculty Member, Anthropology Department, Jahangirnagar University
2. Matin Rahman, Filmmaker
3. Zahidur Rahim Anjan, President, Bangladesh Short Film Forum
4. Salimullah Khan, Writer

Abstracts

Presentation 1: “Six Songs, Ten Fights, One Love: Re-reading Bangladeshi Cinema”
By Lotte Hoek

In this paper, I argue that an understanding of popular cinema cannot rely solely on a reading of a film text. Instead, such a text must be placed in its production context and its technological environment before it can function as an object for social scientific enquiry. Currently, the analysis of popular Bangladeshi cinema lacks any thorough engagement with its production context. In this paper, I will highlight one part of the FDC production environment. On the basis of this I will suggest a possible way of re-reading popular Bangladeshi cinema by investigating the diegetic results of the lack of use of wild tracks in the FDC.

Presentation 2: “Construction of Identity in the Independent Films of Bangladesh”
By Fahmidul Haq

This paper tends to analyze how Bengali Muslim identity, the national identity of Bangladesh, is represented in selected independent films. The analysis finds independent cinema of Bangladesh as an influential cultural institution and as an ideal ‘system of representation’ it tries to ‘homogenize’ the nation through depicting Bengaliness, the ethno-linguistic identity approach, as the only identity approach of Bengali Muslims, and it suggests this preferred identity as progressive and modern and portrays Muslimness, the religious identity approach, as the ‘other’ identity which is or should be considered as non-progressive and primitive. As a part of homogenizing the ‘imagined community’, independent cinema widens the prevailing gap between the two conflicting identities – Bengaliness and Muslimness. The findings also suggest that to sustain the ethnic and cultural elements of Bengaliness on the screen, directors don’t hesitate to orientalize themselves to the global audience. The paper highlights and tries to establish popular religion, the syncretic identity approach within Bengali-Muslim identity, which is ignored in prevailing identity discourse in Bangladesh and it examines how this approach is dealt in the independent films.

BLACKOUT: A Vigourous-Bold-Experimental Story Without A Tale

A one-day-fine-arts-student and poet Tokon Thaakoor starts his journey in the premises of cinematography with Blackout. Not strictly a biography, though, it is a part of the same. He, here, himself apportioned into two, as does a bacterium; the two main protagonists Rafi and Madol are an artist and a poet respectively. In many way, they are identical with Thakoor- above thirty, unmarried, live on a garret (an attic), smitten with reverie-love-lust... all carnal desires. The way the poet (in the Blackout) is overwhelmed of his childhood, it seems, Thakoor is visualizing his autobiography. Though Blackout doesn’t show us the every details of an autobiography, it is certainly a documentation of a part of contemporary youth lifestyle and practice of dreamy obsession, the worse for intoxicating drug or liquor, unmet desire for sex. Specially, it is the documentation of artistry-love-lust of those fresh-blood youths, within a-some hundred yards between Dhaka Fine Arts Institute and Aziz Super Market, by whom the contemporary Dhaka-based art-culture-literature is being practiced and exercised. Rather the director didn’t follow the usual narrative of conventional documentary or feature-film; he went through the complex experimental course of metaphor-metaphysics in addition to animation. Probably, it is the Blackout presents before us with large-scale experimental relish ever in our country.

The prime criterion of this video fiction is its statelessness; self-perception dominates here as does in experimental short story. A used-to-viewer of simple narrative cinematography doesn’t feel ease here. This is rather an expression of feelings of this transition period youth- as a poetry, or as an artwork, partly revealed, the rest remains unrevealed. Blackout will definitely touch those young afflicted with creativity-love-lust-liquor-agony; also those non-young interested to realize the present-day youth. Others may refuse to accept Blackout, due partly to its unconventional complex type of presentation, and partly to its immoral (!) unaccustomed (!) commentary. Fortunately, it was not captured in celluloid; in that case, the scythe of the censor-board would be sharper. Here, in Blackout, an artist sketches a mature penis and calls it missile; masturbation contexts are there; character here is both homo- and hetero-sexual. Films released from FDC shows raw nudity, unreliably though; even then, those easily pass the censor-board. Nevertheless, undoubtedly, Blackout would be caught by the board.

In brief, the story of this film is: poet Madol and artist Rafi lives in a garret of two compartments. They sleep together, share all their weal and woe. Rafi named his room Tahiti, the name he borrowed from the Tahiti series of paintings of European Artist Gauguin. Rafi has a girlfriend, he imagines her as Tahiti-girl, loves her, and even wants to marry her. But the girl Miti, though doesn’t disregard him, not certainly loves him. Rafi wants to portrait Miti, he wants Miti offers him a sitting as a model for that. Miti doesn’t exactly want to be a model for him, but for commercial advertisement. At the end of the film, she flies away from Rafi’s Tahiti Island to the Island Bali; she becomes model of an advertisement. However, before that, their relation came off. Another protagonist, Poet Madol is a homebird, depressed; in many of his poetry, there is reference of a girl Shalmoli. Visibly, their relationship didn’t develop anyway. Shalmoli is in her imagination: far away from the town, laid down beneath thousands of Marigold flower on a foggy open meadow, he approaches her crossing the meadow, uncovers her face of flowers, and kisses her. The snapshot of her face covered with colorful flowers remains deeply static in his mind; nothing more than this he can remember. Rafi has got another world outside the room- Miti, Dadu (common Dadu, the living legendary Grandfather of all at Fine Arts Institute), many other friends he often meets on road, senior artist Dhruba Esh, and he has aimless walking on footpath. On the contrary, Madol has a world of one room, the top of the roof, standing on that bickering through beckoning with the little girl at the neighbor building, and a vast world of imagination, where he remember an incidence of his childhood- rubbing his nose on the ground as a punishment for smoking, the very moment of blowing the trumpet of the missing Baul, and some women like Shalmoli-Shokuntola. If Rafi’s room is Tahiti, then Madol’s room is Mokam, where he composes poetry in Photoshop instead of MS-Word. When Rafi goes on a dating with Miti, Rafi has got the option of masturbation. The rest of the film shows casual conversation between Rafi and Madol, sitting or lying on the bed; sometimes discuss on important issues however.

In the film, there is no-story in the above-described story. No-story is the story of this film. So what is the film about? The director wanted to visualize his Time. Madol writes a poetry on a photoshop file: Time, you greeny witch/ you live across the earth/ in the twilight zone/ you sketch the picture of the sunken ship/ with the dead sailor’s bones. Here in Blackout, Dhaka Fine Arts Institute and Aziz Super Market is present as it is, as well is present contemporary singer Kofil Ahmed and his songs, artist Dhruba Esh, writer Ahmad Sofa and his Pushpo Brikshya and Bihongopuraan. This is how accurately the director wanted to present his Time before us. Multiple presence of the song Time, you greeny witch... also indicates that. However, he wanted to visualize his time, but only a part of that could he visualize. Except a still picture of the Buddhijibi Smritishoudho (Martyr Monument) at Royer Bazaar, no other context of his present-time own national politics or fanatic fundamentalism was visualized. The commercial usage of the female in this globalization era is presented through the character Miti a bit; something in reference to politics or others could have been represented through the main two protagonists.

Through the two principal protagonists (probably the two halves of director himself), the references of cannabis-liquor-masturbation-homosexuality were visualized. These were so long been avoided carefully in the visual media of our country. The social structure and the viewers’ conservative mental structure might be the leading cause there. Tokon Thakoor, overcoming that conservatism, took a groundbreaking enterprise obviously. Homosexuality demands a further elaboration in this regard. The two main protagonists pass their casual time together, one leaning on another, or one makes another his pillow. Touching each other or passing one’s hand lightly caressingly over another’s is a very natural for them. Rafi makes inquiries whether Madol has taken something after taking liquor. Their attraction for each other is deep, but the expression is quite natural. Rafi has a Miti, Madol is devoid of any female mating. Once, Miti leaves Rafi. The only real friend remains is Madol, with whom Rafi can share each and everything in the world. Depressed Rafi expresses his pain to Madol; to let alone those pains, they together sings and dances. In the meantime, it is revealed that Madol is truly depressed; he expresses that to singer Kofil: he finds nothing good in anything. In a very sensitive moment of self-contempt, Rafi wants to kiss Madol. Madol says, “O my Elton John, this is Bangladesh”. In response to that, Rafi come back telling, “Oh I was about to forget that”. No other but this kissing scenario represents the homosexuality. Rafi didn’t get Miti, nor did Madol Shalmoli. The real friendship, the real love sustains between Madol and Rafi. Taking reference from Freud’s psychoanalysis, it is a sort of homosexuality. There are a number of artistic films on homosexuality and lesbianism in Europe and America. Specially, Gay-films are studied in queer studies. Molly Haskel terms these films as Buddy Movies. Tokon touches this special field in his artwork.

In addition to the subject matter, he also experimented in relation to the artistry form. Let me repeat, it is the Blackout, the full-length video-film, presents before us with large-scale experimental relish ever in our country. The complex narrative is structured taking help from metaphor-metaphysics. Thakoor acknowledges and dedicates this film to Hrithwik Ghotok and Kuroshawa as his Murobbi (Senior) at title-card, though no sign of Hrithwik’s melodrama or Kuroshawa’s Samurai culture is observed. Rather, it seems he is a follower of Bunuel or Fellini. The horse presented here with a great metaphor. Thakoor’s production company is Astabol (a stable for horse) Love Factory. The calling-bell of Madol-Rafi’s garret sounds the neigh. The neigh sound is also used several times in the soundtrack of Ornob. At the end of the title card, a horse is seen coming from a mountain down along the valley. May be, it symbolizes youth, power, force and virility. Thakoor used foggy morning for his metaphysics. To symbolize blowing trumpet, to make the running of Rafi to flower-cover faces of Shalmoli dreamy, he used foggy mornings. Nevertheless, the limitations of the director must also be noted. One among those is: still pictures of Rafi and Miti are being visualized while in soundtrack, lovely poetic but enigmatic dialogues are being heard. After this sequence, Rafi and Miti is seen coming up on a staircase wearing wedding dress. After that, they stand before a gate. Rafi wants to open the lock on the gate, but the lock doesn’t response. Embarrassed Rafi told Miti that he had brought a wrong key. Here this dreamy scene came to an end. The scene is really nice as a concept that Miti is not going to be his life-partner. This scene could have been visualized in a more attractive and artistic way: let us visualize ourselves a white staircase, no wall around, only emptiness all around, at the end of the staircase there is a metaphysical gate, and a lock of that sort... We may rememorize the scenario of Federico Fellini’s Eight And Half. There are a number of long shot in Blackout, but the action of big close-up will be able to attract the vision of alert viewers. The question of excessive big close-up remains unanswered. Does Thakoor, this way, like to create his own cinematographic language? Visualization of adolescent and young Madol, dissolving the time boundary, is praise-worthy presentation of the director.

The acting phenomenon here is very casual, so reliable and praise-worthy. Tanvir Hasan and Rahul Ananda deserves appraisal for working as Rafi and Madol character respectively. But, Tina as Miti is not so spontaneous. Specially, her dialogue throwing was weak enough. Bappi Ashraf, Borsha Bivabori, Belayet Hossain, Zuena Ferdous Mitul and Dadu worked very well. The conversation between Rafi and Dhruba Esh could have undergone more perfection. Dialogue in this frame seemed to be a bit irrelevant. Rafi comes out of Dhruba Esh’s residence, even then their conversation at floor is seen. Is it editorial problem, or unconventional whimsy of narrative, remains undetermined?

One of the major contributions of this film is its music. Shayan Chowdhury Ornob is a young musician, known for fusion of Bangla songs. He used western musical instrument tremendously here, especially notable here is piano. He is also the sound director of the dreamy part of the film. Therefore, he could handle the music and literary part himself with proven creativity. He proved his excellence in singing the songs “why is the moment so long” and “Time, you greeny witch...”. The former he sang with his own characteristic tone and tune; and the later, actually a poetry of renowned poet Ronojit Das, “Time, you greeny witch...” carried us to a desert. Kofil Ahmed’s song “I eat fire, Sleeps in fire...”, “Be here friend...”, “Jesus....” made a different exaggeration in this film. His songs, non-romantic non-rebellious, are well-put in Thakoor’s film.

Most of the videography, editing and sound editing was perfectly performed by young genius Sameer Ahmed. He has done a great job with tremendous perfection. The superimposition technique, ultimately mandatory for dreamy scenarios, used by the editor is excellent to acknowledge. Along with documentation of the script, like documentary, camera moved without prior preparation. Drinking scenario at garret is to be noted here. The editor proved his expertise in visualizing, at the end of the film, the artwork of Picasso-Dali-Van Gough-Matisse-Bonnard-Klee-Chagall-Jackson Pollock-Kandinski-and-others, photography of known-unknown faces, attractive and erotic images of female body-parts within moments. In the background of this collage, along with journey-music soundtrack of Azarbizan-Iranian sufi singer Ashik Hasan Iskandari, there was soundtrack of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti and Femi Kuti, songs of Bimol Baul, Lalon’s songs, and Don Mackmillan’s Van Gugh song… Starry starry night...

Another notable portion of Blackout is its animation and imagery. Sketching, art direction, playing card design and title animation- this Herculean job was done by Abdul Halim Chanchal. Such extensive animation works were never used in Bangla film before. The director visualized the metaphorical scene “a lonely eagle at moonlit night” with the help of animation, in addition to the title-card at starting and at the end. Chinmoy Devorshi paid his utmost care in visualizing this scene, and the scenario of coming down of the tired horse from the mountain along the valley. The animation at the end title card conceptualized from Dali’s “persistence of memory” is a nice creation indeed. Richard Rozario has done a great job in the field of still photography. A complete sequence was synthesized with the help of still photography only.

Well, Blackout, a 97-minute-video-format film, is straight in its statement, is experimental in its form-technique. Director Tokon Thakoor proved his talent-maturity in his very first film. It seems, he had a long course of preparation before going in for Blackout.

Originally written in Bangla; translated by Auboni Aunarjo.

For Bangla article visit: http://www.somewhereinblog.net/blog/fahmidulhaqblog/28861673

Brick Lane: A Tale of Transformation of an Immigrant Woman

One can easily discover the thematic similarities between the film Brick Lane (2007) by British director Sarah Gavron and Paroma (1984) by the Indian director Aparna Sen. After serving her husband and caring for her children for several years, an ordinary housewife suddenly discovers that she has passed a large part of her life meaninglessly, not taking car of her own need. Of course, these feelings appear within herself after contact with a young man and she discovers how she has been deprived of the charms of life, how her mind and body have been dispossessed of heavenly happiness on Earth. Gradually, the late-thirties woman turns into a lover from a conventional housewife and feels like a young woman who has fallen in love for the first time. And most importantly, she becomes self-determined and self-asserting.

It is the first feature film by the documentary and short filmmaker Sarah Gavron. Though the title of the film is Brick Lane, adapted from the best selling novel of Monica Ali of the same title, you will not find the presence of Brick Lane or the Bangla Town, London much in the film. The storyline progresses as an indoor family drama. After the incident of 9/11, the ethnic Muslims faced racial hatred from white natives which is there in the text; even then you cannot say it is a political film. Rather, it is a story of a woman who came to London in the 1980s as the wife of an immigrant Bangladeshi. The story tells us about the crisis and relationship within the family and above all, the transformation of the housewife into a self-determined woman.

The adolescent Nazneen had passed her playful life with her sister Hasina by running through green and rich paddy or yellow mustard fields. But Nazneen's life changed when from the wide paddy field she was sent to a flat in Brick Lane, at the age of 17, as the wife of a fat and ugly looking 'educated' man, Chanu Ahmed. From a village girl she becomes an obedient housewife. He goes outside only for shopping. Chanu and Nazneen have two daughters. The elder daughter Shahana, aged 13, likes the western lifestyle and chooses mini skirts or jeans as her dress, which is not appreciated by her father. But the younger daughter Bibi, unlike her sister, is habituated with the Bangladeshi way of living.

In the early part of the film, Chanu resigns from his office because he was not offered the long-awaited promotion. His ego as an 'educated man' created financial uncertainty in the family which he tried to overcome by borrowing money secretly from a lender. But Nazneen came forward with a job which she can do by sitting at home. In relation to her job, she met Karim, a young man, who supplies garments to housewives for sewing. An emotional and physical relationship develops between Nazneen and Karim. From the affair, Nazneen comes to know what real love is. From a soft-spoken ordinary woman she gradually turns into a happy and bright woman. Meanwhile, Chanu tries to leave London, where he finds himself unfit and looks for jobs in Bangladesh. But their elder daughter Shahana does not want to leave London. She knows London, not Bangladesh, as her home.

Then there comes the event of 9/11 which made the living of Muslim immigrants in London difficult. To protect themselves, the young generation started upholding Islam as their identity. Karim becomes the leader of the community and with his newly-kept beard, he becomes a sincere Muslim. A community meeting has been called to decide how the racial hatred they are facing can be dealt with. Chanu and Nazneen attend the meeting where Karim is a speaker in favour of Islamism.

Though the character of Chanu is driven by patriarchy, his extensive reading makes him a humanist as well; he stands against Islamism. Chanu's speech in the community meeting was convincing, but not enough to divert the Islamists. He leaves the meeting and asks himself whether this is the right time to go back. Surprisingly, we see Nazneen hold Chanu's hand for the first time. We see the couple walking, holding hands, in the lonely street at night. The long shot creates an impression that Nazneen is not acknowledging Karim's stand in the period of ethnic crisis and supports her husband. Nazneen is not only becoming financially solvent but also growing politically aware and mature.

Karim asks Nazneen to divorce Chanu and marry him but Nazneen refuses. Nazneen came to know, after everything, that her husband and children are her reality and Brick Lane is her home. She joins her 'short-haired and smoker' neighbour Razia who also provided her the earlier job with Karim, in a sewing job. Nazneen tells Chanu that she cannot go and Chanu says that he cannot stay. Chanu leaves London. The film ends with the scene showing a happy and settled mother and her daughters playing in the white courtyard of the house complex after snowfall. But the plane in the sky makes Nazneen's happy face a bit gloomy with worries.

Though the film is on the Bangladeshi diaspora in London, little participation of Bangladeshis can be mentioned here. The main character Nazneen was performed by Tannishtha Chaterjee who is a rising Indian-Bengali actress in the art house cinema circuit. Satish Kaushik, a known face of Bollywood acted as the character of Chanu. Christopher Simpson as Karim is also not an ethnic Bangladeshi. Other than casts, there was little participation by Bangladeshis as crew. Even the Bangladesh part of the film was shot in West Bengal, India.

The responsibility of the musical score was on Joselin Pook of Eyes Wide Shut and Gangs of New York fame. She has successfully created her scores, but she used very few Bangladeshi or Indian musical tracks. But Pook's soundtrack was really mystic and created the environment of the internal complexity and crisis of the struggling characters.

Sarah Gavron and her cinematographer Robbie Rayan have extensively used close-ups to create their own film language. Especially, some big close-ups of Nazneen's face have been used to describe her internal crisis, transformation and dilemma. Tannishtha Chaterjee was very successful in expressing that complexity. Nazneen's dark brown look could easily represent a Bangali housewife. Her expressions of an introvert and fearful outsider on the streets of Brick Lane perfectly suit the character. Her hesitant involvement in the intimate scenes with Karim reflects reality. Her transformation was not revolutionary, rather gradual and natural. Her hesitance and softness were carried out to the end of the film; hence, her change does not shock us. She regrets the proposal of marriage by Karim and Chanu's insistence to go back in such a soft but firm tone that both of them could not circumvent the position of their 'own' girl. Satish was also successful in portraying his character and in the true sense, it was his show. Nazneen may be the main character of the film, but the narrative was carried by Chanu, who keeps the events live. Albeit his self-contradictory character and ugly look, his style and wise roles do not make him a villain of the text. Except for his figure, we do not hesitate to applaud Satish (Bangladeshi men are not usually so fat). Christopher Simpson also performed well as Karim.

The cinematography was stunning in capturing the bright and colourful nature of Bangladesh. The London part was gloomy. The opposite weather of the opposite worlds can be felt by the which convey Nazneen's reminiscence of her adolescence. Also, the indoor scenes of movement were shot with a hand held camera, especially when Chanu runs to beat his elder daughter, Shahana. Rayan created tension and drama in those scenes. In the novel, the Bangladesh part was stretched with much detailed description. For adaptation's sake, Sarah had to cut it very short with slices of scenes with smooth cuts which was a right choice by the editor.

Paroma's transformation was aesthetic and psychosexual; internationally acclaimed photographer Rahul inspired her in exploring her dormant art sense. Rahul appreciated her skill of playing the sitar. But in Brick Lane, the transformation of Nazneen was economic and psychosexual; the catalyst Karim was no talent but an ordinary small businessman. Hence Nazneen represents thousands of immigrant housewives or hundreds of thousands women back in Bangladesh and makes the film realistic and believable.

First Published: http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/08/01/film.htm