It is absurd to say people are not interested in short films: Sahadat Russell

Just a couple of weeks ago, on 8 July, a Bangladeshi short film titled 'City of Light'  received the prestigious 'Hrithik Ghatak Silver Award' at the 6th South Asian Short Film Festival organised by the Federation of Film Societies of India. The film was directed by Sahadat Russell, a Bangladeshi independent filmmaker and writer. 

However, this is not the first or the only international film award that Sahadat Russell has received. From 2018 to 2023 he won nine awards from different international film festivals in the world. 

In 2018 he won the Best International Film Award in 17th Urban Mediamakers Film Festival 2018, USA for his film 'Color of Childhood'. In the same year he won the Best Director Award from 3rd International Short Film Festival Pune for his film 'Definition of Politics'. And he also won Best Indie Film award in Cannes World Film Festival 2022 for his 'City of Life'. 

Recently Sahadat sat with The Business Standard and shared his journey of becoming a filmmaker and the challenges of being a short film maker in Bangladesh.

From 1998, Sahadat Russell began his writing journey, and in 2002, one of his write-ups was published in a national daily newspaper. Encouraged by this early success, he diligently continued to contribute for different newspapers. During this time, he and his family relocated to a quaint mufassil town named Mawna, in Gazipur district.

Apart from reading and writing, he used to watch a lot of movies and dramas at the time. After completing his BA degree he started to work in a company but left it soon after because he had gotten bored of it. Sahadat felt that the job limited his creative thinking and that it was not really "for him."

After leaving the job, Russell worked as an assistant director in TV dramas and pursued a film diploma in Malaysia, but couldn't finish due to family issues. After pursuing the diploma he decided to make something. 

"I read a lot of literature, and I also wrote a lot. I wondered how it would be if one of my written characters were shown on the screen. From that idea, I made my debut short film called 'Shohid Sattya Saha Lane' in 2013, which was based on the liberation war," said Russell.

After 'Shohid Sattya Saha Lane' he created 'Face to Face,' 'Definition of Politics,' 'The River,' 'Invisible Quarantine,' 'Color of Childhood', 'City of Life' and more.

"Through my films I tell the story of human rights, women's rights, and secularism. And my stories are not any fairytale, it's taken from my surroundings. I love to portray reality," Russell said. 

However, portraying reality on screen brought trouble in Russell's own life, when his award winning film Color of Childhood drew extreme reaction from audiences for its portrayal of sensitive topics.

"After releasing Color of Childhood in 2020, within two days my inbox and call logs became jam packed with threats and hateful messages. Extremists threatened to kill me," said Russell.

"I had to delete the film from my Youtube channel after a few days, and I had to spend six months in isolation as recommended by the police," he added.

When asked about challenges short filmmakers have to face in the country, he replied, "first of all, many people in the film industry of our country look at short films in a dismissive way. But a film is a film. Storytelling is the key here".

"My question to those saying people are not interested in watching short films is: where did you give them the opportunity to watch them? Are any cinema halls screening short films? Are there any good film festivals in this country? Saying that people are not interested without showcasing them is absurd!", Russell lamented.

"I have screened my films multiple times in small settings and every time the places become full packed. So saying that people have no interest makes no sense," concluded Sahadat.