As discussed last week I realized I needed to focus on more research on the culture and region. In the 1970s, Bangladesh was fighting for independence from Pakistan. It was a language war, West Pakistanis were not allowing East Pakistanis to speak Bangla. Alema was telling us about how her grandfather had to go through a checkpoint where they wanted to see if you could speak Pakistani. Him and his kids passed through but the family behind them, did not. A lot of pain and suffereing happened in this war. There is obviously way more that went on during this war and it is not easy to cover most of it because, most of it is lost to time.
Because of this, I feel like it should be really reiterated that this film is going to be dealing with something pretty serious. With that in mind, our story is told through a child.
I started with more visual research as well as actual research on the time period.
We also have to remember that our story takes place in a rural village. Not that any of these fashion influences and styles won't be worn in a smaller town, but the majority of the people are working in fields and farmlands. They are poor so they cannot afford manufactured clothes, more often traditional clothes are worn for comfort. Below is a link I found of a huge catalouge of pictures of rural Bangladesh.
These pictures do range in the years they were taken but that does not remove the fact that they are great references.
Something also quite significant were the women in the country at this time. They were of course contributing their "house-hold" skills to war time struggles. However, women were also in combat and soldiers fighting for their independence.
With this in mind, our main character is a little girl, much like the little girl holding a rifle in the image above. This film is going to be very real. It must be done with care and without all this research we would not be able to deliver the message.
Something you may have noticed: all these pictures are in black and white. It is very hard to find any reference from the 70s that have any color whihc is strange since the decade before there are planty of images in color. This definetly brings up the poiint that this war is very hidden and unknown. See I knew there was a war over there but I ahd no clue wat the war was for or when it even happened. It's clear that not much information is saved and kept safe.
Here's a link I used to learn some of the trends in fashion.
For our film, I tried to gather som images here that would refelct parts of our aesthics.
These are more of the happier images, all of children.
These are all the more war-time focused imagery.
With these images, I was also quite interested in the music of the time. Alema started me with this reference:
Now this is a contemporary song, released only a few years ago but it still does invovle the war.
Runa Laila was one fo the many insanely popular singer/actors of the time. As well as Kabori Sarwar and Babita Kapoor.
Gobinda Halder was a lyracist and poet in Bangladesh. In 1971 he wrote this song "Rokto Lal" which translates to red blood. He also wrote the song below.
CW: the last video is restricted for a reason. There are a lot of graphic war-time pictures included but I feel it does help illustrate why they were writing music. They had pain to express. Don't watch if you are sensitive to graphic imagery of war.
Here we also have a few traditional folk music from Bangladesh originally recorded in the 50s. As well as actual war-time music from the era. I won't lie I was jamming out to these songs while writing this. I am working with Alema to translate everything so I have a better understanding on what these songs are about.
With all these research I have started on concept art and that's what I will be working on for now on. Of course if more research comes up, it will be included.
Here's the concepts I have now:
I do not have much but I am working on finishing the market scene and more concepts of children specifically.
See ya later sk8r!
JR
