done and done

So our Bangladeshi journey has finally come to an end. After almost 12 months, both of us are headed back home to our cold and frigged country. It’s also been a a few months since we actually put up a post with more then 2 sentences, but now that we finally have time on our hands, here we go:

In case you didn’t know, the last 4-5 months have been absolutely hectic. We began production of the documentary in early October, finished it in November and a day later flew out to Paris to edit the doc. The editing came to end on  December 23^rd where after a few days rest, we returned back to Bangladesh with dvd copies of the doc.

Although we were only gone for just over a month, Dhaka seemed like a completely different country. When we left, the city was hot, and trees were still green, we go back, trees are covered in dust, the city is cold and grey.

Aside planning our return back to Canada, we didn’t do much else in Bangladesh but show our doc to as many people as possible. Thankfully, Pinky and Salma enjoyed it, laughing at the right places and liking the right moments. Our friends, as well as strangers also had good comments.

We also had the opportunity to show the doc at a few universities, where after discussing with the audience, realized that homosexuality and trans-sexuality is a topic that is still extremely taboo and not talked about publicly in Bangaldesh.

Another thing we did do was donate a computer to Pinky’s hijra community. Now that we’re gone, hijras will hopefully be curious enough to check their new device and learn a few things a long the way.

So now we’re going back home, with our evergreen project/call me salma/appelez-moi salma doc completed., the distribution side of the production company is working hard trying to sell it to as many tv station as possible and we’re trying to plug it into the most festivals possible.

So we’ll keep you posted throughout the coming months, letting you know where the doc will play and what we’re up to now that we’re jobless.

thanks.

Here are a few links of press:

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=125008

http://ebiz.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/02/06/news0171.htm

picture taken from the q+a period of screening at 'University of liberal arts of Bangladesh'

February 14, 2010 | Categories: 'Call me Salma'-'Appelez-moi Salma', Hijras-South Asian transsexuals | Tags: 'Call me Salma' 'Appelez-moi Salma', aude leroux-levesque, Bangladesh, Dhaka, hijra, pinky, salma, sebastien rist, trans, transsexuality | 1 Comment »