Bangladesh Film Festival for International Mother Tongue Day

The first ever Bangladeshi film festival is going to take place in Manchester, UK on the 20th and 21st of February 2010. Manchester University Bangladesh Student Society (BSS) is going to organise the film festival with the cooperation of Routes into Languages North West, the University of Manchester Students Union (UMSU) and Channel-i Bangladesh.

Films to be screened in the festival include the famous productions of renowned Bangladeshi film makers Chashi Nazrul Islam, Humaun Ahmed, Touquir Ahmed and Shahidul Islam Khokon. The official versions of these Bengali films to be shown contain English subtitles for the benefit of international audiences and new generation non-residents Bangladeshis (NRBs) living in
the UK.

BSS, one of the largest associations of Bangladeshi Students in the UK, is also going to observe the Bangla Language Martyr’s Day and UNESCO-adopted International Mother Language Day in parallel to the film festival. A discussion event on this occasion will be organised at the University on the 21st of February 2010 at 3 p.m before the film screenings. The aim of the programme is to observe International Mother Language Day and to create awareness about it. The target audiences are students, faculty members, ex-students as well as the multilingual community living in Manchester. Mr. Asad Alam Siam, Bangladesh Assistant High Commissioner in Manchester, and Ms. Jocelyn Wyburd, Executive Director of the Manchester University Language Centre, will be present as speakers in the discussion programme.

International Mother Tongue Day is proclaimed by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1999, and has been observed yearly since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. It originated as the International recognition of Language Movement Day, which has been commemorated in Bangladesh since 1952.
 

For more information, please contact the Bangladesh Students' Society: bss_man@umsu.manchester.ac.uk