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Dhaka Theatre staged its new production titled ‘Dhabaman’ at the National Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka on Friday.
   Shimul Yousuff, one of the prominent figures in the field of theatre, made her directorial debut through the play, which was scripted by the legendary dramatist Selim Al-Deen.
   A large number of audiences entered the hall to enjoy the latest production of the group.
   Dhabaman is a story of the life moving towards death. The play is in the form of ritual theatre and is based on the naturalist philosophy.
   The story embodies the relationship one has with their pets. In time, pets become a part of a person’s life and sometimes treated like their children.
   Sammilita Sangskritik Jote president Nasiruddin Yousuff said, ‘Selim Al-Deen was a rare and extraordinary writer and a scholar who talked about the animals surrounding human being.’
   Reminiscing about Selim, he said, ‘And it is the first drama of our group in the absence of Selim’.
   Shimul Yousuff, for the first time, is in the seat of a director, in her 36-year-old career in theatre.
   Different roles are played by Esha Yousuff, daughter of Shimul and Nasiruddin Yousuff, Sahiduzzaman Selim, Rozi Selim, Nasrin Nahar and Chandan Aman.
   Apart from direction, Shimul actively took part in music composition, costume and props.
   ‘Madar Pirer Geet’, ‘Maharramer Jari’, ‘Padmar Nachan’, ‘Kas Nitya’ ‘Lathi Khela’, ‘Mahisher Lorai’ and ‘Mandi Dance’ have all been used in this musical play.
   Dhabaman is the 33rd production of Dhaka Theatre.

A special show of Shushuk, Nadi Ebong Amra by Tanzilur Rahman was held at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The director said that he had made the film on dolphin, threatened with extinction, in 2008.
   ‘I want to screen the film everywhere in Bangladesh, to raise mass awareness about the dolphin’, said the director.
   The film has been selected to screen at the Wild Talk Africa festival, said the director.
   The festival is a premiere international wildlife, travel and cultural film festival and conference which take place in South Africa.
   The festival will run between April 19 and April 23, said a press release.

Documentary film makers striving to spread their messages are taking lessons from the freshly crowned king of online community organizing — US President Barack Obama.
   Internet culture and technology are changing the business of making documentary films, from how producers find important stories to how finished works reach viewers, according to The Good Pitch chief executive Jess Search.
   ‘It is daunting for film makers because everything they learned about film is being taken away,’ Search said during a South By Southwest panel talk
   here about film and other media engaging citizen activism in ‘the age of Obama.’
   The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation in Britain is behind Pitch, which puts new-age tools to work developing, funding, and distributing documentary films.
   ‘Where film makers are setting out with social change in mind, it is a time for becoming much more strategic about that,’ Search said.
   ‘Online techniques of distribution and community organizing that go into political campaigns can be put to work.’
   The Pitch community at britdoc.org connects non-profit groups and potential backers with documentary makers seeking film topics or funding.

Hong Kong action movie star Chow Yun-fat will play ancient philosopher Confucius in a new film backed by the Chinese state, media reports here said.
   Chow, 53, made his name in violent Hong Kong action films in the 1980s and 1990s but is perhaps best known to many movie-goers for his role as a martial arts master in 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
   Filming was to begin next month under director Hu Mei, the Beijing Times said.
   The reports did not say when the biopic would be released but reports late last year had said the China Film Group was hoping to screen the movie on the October 1 National Day holiday.
   The ancient teachings of Confucius (551-479 B.C.), centring on peace and social harmony have enjoyed an officially-backed renaissance here in recent years, after being suppressed in Maoist China.