Day 788: The Festival!

This was the first day of my attendance at the festival proper (since I was busy with the editing most of yesterday) and it was huge fun!

After breakfast in the morning, my editor, me and a few other delegates were driven to the public library which was the primary screening venue as well as where the festival's information desk, media desk, etc. were located. It was during this drive that I first
got to see the streets in Dhaka in daylight and it was beyond fascinating! The crowds, shops, rickshaws and the equally fascinating passengers on it, all the vehicles with some kinda damage or the other, the unavoidable traffic jams, etc. were all very interesting.

At the public library, after collecting our official delegate passes, the editor and I walked around the premises and realized that our movie was pretty much the only one that had no publicity around the premises. Many of the other film makers had put up their film banners, posters, leaflets etc. but of course we had not planned any such thing for Mausams. We talked to some of the volunteers and they agreed to take us to a printer post lunch if needed.

But then there was the problem that we didn't have a copy of an appropriate poster with us. So then both of us went around in search of an internet place, found one within the library premise not without a bit of difficulty, and then found an old email which had a copy of
the poster.

Then came the issue that neither of us nor the guys at the internet place had a thumb drive for us to download the poster onto and take it to the printer! After some to and fro conversation in broken English and sign language, it was established that they have a card reader and that was a good solution because we had several cards for our cameras.

So after downloading the poster successfully, grabbing a delicious samosa and a cup of awesome coffee, we decided to watch a film first, before going for lunch and to the printer afterwards.

We picked the Shorts and Independant Section and watched about 3 short films - one shocking, one boring and one interesting.

Lunch was served at the Dhaka club, which was a very short distance away and it was pretty good food. Post lunch we sat down and reworked the poster a bit to change the screening details to the one in Dhaka vs. the one in Singapore it originally had.

Then along with a volunteer, we proceeded to the printing shop. The printing shop we visited was one amongst several other printing shops that lined what seemed to be like a primary printing-shops-area. With the help of the volunteer, we explained to the printing guy what we wanted - i.e. 2 glossy A3 posters and 100 A5 leaflets. As we waited for those, the printing guy decided to be super nice to us - chairs appeared from nowhere ensuring our comfort and this was immediately followed by cups of excellent hot tea, ensuring that we were well pampered.

We enjoyed this Bangladeshi hospitality and spent some time there, marvelling at the crowds outside or as in the case of my editor, photographing every nook and corner of the printing shop.

Post collecting the posters and flyers, we had one of the most adventurous road experiences in Dhaka! We had to maneuver through an avalanche of cycle rickshaws, hordes of fellow humans, cars that never seem to follow any traffic lights etc. before we could get to our own car! It was truly adrenalin pumping!

Back at the public library, we passed the publicity materials to one of the organizers who promised to put them up the next morning, and proceeded to enjoy some Bangladeshi snacks and catching up with a few fellow delegates.

Later in the evening, we watched a screening of three documentaries - one rather unrelatable, one shocking and one absolutely delightful. Post the screening we were taken to another dinner party, this time at the national arts centre.

So dinner was in a lovely, extremely well lit exhibition hall where we were surrounded by excellent paintings all around. We got to meet a few more of the who's who of Bangladesh - mainly from film and other artistic fields. I must also mention that the food was excellent with a special mention for the fried chicken which was to die for! Yummm!

Post the party, it was time for some more editing, before hitting the bed.

Today I really felt like I was part of a huge film festival, in spite of the fact that half the time was spent on downloading, redesigning and printing posters!. Felt awesome!

212 more to go.