Banladeshi director Tareque Masud 1956 - 2011

Tareque Masud (Bengali: তারেক মাসুদ; 6 December 1956 – 13 August 2011) was an award-winning Bangladeshi independent film director. He was known for directing the films Muktir Gaan (1995) and Matir Moina (2002), for which he won a number of international awards, including the International Critics' Prize and FIPRESCI Prize for Directors' Fortnight at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. He died in a road accident on 13 August, 2011 while returning to Dhaka from Manikganj on the Dhaka-Aricha highway after visiting a filming location. His microbus collided head-on with an oncoming passenger bus. The cinematographer Mishuk Munier, a long-time colleague, was also killed in the accident, while Masud's wife Catherine Masud was seriously injured. At the time of his death, Masud was working on a movie titled Kagojer Ful (The Paper Flower).

Tareque Masud was born in Nurpur village, Bhanga Upazila, Faridpur District, Bangladesh. He studied at an Islamic madrasah as a child, but the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan forces in 1971 put an end to his studies at the Islamic seminary. After the war, Masud pursued general education and went on to obtain a Masters degree in History at Dhaka University.

His wife, Catherine Masud, is a Chicago-born film editor. They have a son, Nishad Bingham Putra Masud.

Career

One of Masud's earliest works was the documentary Adam Surat (Inner Strength) on the Bangladeshi painter SM Sultan of Narail District which he completed in 1989. His most famous film in early age of his career was the documentary Muktir Gaan (The Song of Freedom, 1995) where camera follows a music troupe during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. The members of the troupe sing songs to inspire freedom fighters. The film was made mainly based on the footage of American filmmaker Lear Levin that Masud got from the basement of Levin's house in New York.

Along with his US-born wife, Catherine Masud, who was his co-director and a film editor, Masud ran a film production house based in Dhaka named Audiovision.

His first full-length feature film, Matir Moina (English release title "The Clay Bird") which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, derives inspiration from his own childhood experiences. He won the International Critic's Award at the Cannes film Festival in 2002 for this film, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize for Directors' Fortnight for "its authentic, moving and delicate portrayal of a country struggling for its democratic rights." Matir Moina was received with critical praise and toured the international circuit. It was one of the first Bangladeshi films to be widely circulated and was greeted with enthusiasm for its realistic depiction of life without the melodrama that is prevalent in many other South Asian films.

His latest film, Ontorjatra, is a tale of two generations of Bangladeshi diaspora in London. The film describes the short visit home of a divorced mother and her son. The next project of Tareque and Catherine Masud is Kagojer Phool (The Paper Flower) which deals with the incidents of the partition of the Indian subcontinent. This film may be called the prequel of Matir Moina.

Death

Masud died in a road accident near Ghior Upazila on 13 August 2011 while returning to Dhaka from Manikganj on the Dhaka-Aricha highway after visiting a shooting location. His microbus collided head-on with an oncoming passenger bus. In the accident, his wife Catherine Masud was also seriously injured. He along with the other passengers were traveling to choose shooting locations for his new film. The name of his new movie is "Kagojer Ful" (The Paper Flower) filming of which was supposed to begin after shooting locations were elected.

Masud was travelling with long-time co-worker Ashfaque Munier (aka Mishuk Munier), a well-known cinematographer, TV journalist and CEO of ATN News. Munier also died in the accident. The coffins of Masud and Munier were laid out in front of the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka on Sunday the 14th of August, when thousands of Bangladeshis came to pay their last respects. Ashfaque Munier was also the son of the late Bengali intellectual Munier Chowdhury who was killed by collaborators during the liberation war of 1971.

Filmography

• Sonar Beri (The Chains of Gold), 1985
• Adam Surat (The Inner Strength)(16mm, 54 mins), 1989

Dir: Tareque Masud

Documentary on the life and art of the Bangladeshi painter S.M. Sultan.

• Se (The Conversation)(35mm, 10 mins), 1993

Dir: Tareque Masud, Shameem Akhter

Short fiction about a strained reunion between a man and a woman.

• Unison (Umatic video, 4 mins), 1994

Animated film about the unity of humankind.

• Muktir Gaan (The Song of Freedom)(35mm, 78 mins), 1995

Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud

Feature length documentary film about a troupe of traveling musicians during the Bangladesh Liberation War '71.

• Muktir Kotha (The Story of Freedom)(Betacm SP, 82 mins), 1996

Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud

Oral history documentary about experience of ordinary villagers during 1971 Liberation War

• Voices of Children (Betacam SP, 30 mins), 1997

Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud; Prod: Unicef/Audiovision

Documentary on working children in Bangladesh.

• In the Name of Safety (DVCam, 25 mins), 1998

Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud; Prod: TVE London/Audiovision

Documentary on human rights abuses in Bangladesh

• Narir Kotha (Women & War)(Betacam SP, 25 mins), 2000

Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud

Documentary on experience of women survivors of war.

• Matir Moina (The Clay Bird)(35mm, 98 mins), 2002

Dir: Tareque Masud; Producer: Catherine Masud; Production: Audiovision/MK2

A feature film based on the director's childhood experience in a madrasa in rural East Pakistan during the turbulent 60's.

• A Kind of Childhood (Betacam SP, 50 mins), 2002

Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud; Prod: Xingu Films/Audiovision

A documentary on the lives and struggles of working children in Dhaka city, followed over the course of six years.

• Ontarjatra (The Homeland), 2006

A film about a divorced lady who is returning to her homeland with her son to attend her former husband's funeral.

• Runway Premiered on 2 October 2010
• Kagojer Phool (The Paper Flower), Forthcoming
• Noroshundor (The Barber)

Awards

Won

Muktir Gaan (The Song of Freedom)

• 1997 Film South Asia, Special Mention

Matir Moina (The Clay Bird)

• 2002 Cannes Film Festival, International Critics' Prize
• 2002 Cannes Film Festival, FIPRESCI Prize for Directors' Fortnight
• 2002 Edinburgh International Film Festival
• 2002 Montreal International Film Festival
• 2002 International Film Festival of Marrakech, Best Screenplay Award
• 2002 Cairo International Film Festival
• 2003 Palm Springs International Film Festival
• 2003 New Directors/New Films Festival
• 2003 Karafilm Festival, Best Film

Nominated

Matir Moina (The Clay Bird)

• 2002 International Film Festival of Marrakech, Golden Star
• 2004 Nominated, Directors Guild of Great Britain, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Foreign Language Film

Matir Moina was also the first Bangladeshi film to compete for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Catherine Masud

Catherine Masud (Bengali:ক্যাথরিন মাসুদ), born Catherine Lucretia Shapere, is wife of the Bangladeshi cinema maker Tareque Masud. She was born in Chicago in 1963. Catherine graduated from Brown University, in economics. In late 1980s, she met with Tareque Masud and they married in 1988. Since 1995, she has been living in Dhaka, Bangladesh with her husband Tareque Masud. Under the banner of their production house Audiovision, she has produced and directed numerous films. She produced and co-wrote her first feature "Matir Moina"(The Clay Bird), directed by Tareque, which won the International Critics' Prize at Cannes. Catherine has worked extensively with street children in Bangladesh, and recently completed a documentary based on their life stories, "A Kind of Childhood". Catherine is also an experienced editor, specializing in computer-based non-linear editing, and has set up computerized multi-media and audio-visual facilities as a freelance adviser. She also writes essays and fiction, which have been published in various journals. Besides her professional life, she pursues her interest in drawing and painting.

She is a mother of single baby, Nishad Bingham Putra Masud.