Cinematic media have long been important for remembering and memorializing the 1971 Bangladesh War of Liberation (or, Muktijuddho). They have also been important vehicles for critiquing and reconciling with war’s trauma. 

Analyzing Muktijuddho films through Black and transnational feminist frameworks, Elora Halim Chowdhury (University of Massachusetts Boston) considers the power and potential of human rights cinema in her latest book, Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh (Temple University Press, 2022). As Chowdhury shows, cinematic representations not only portray marginalized experiences but also put those experiences on a global stage.

Film and media scholars Gwendolyn S. Kirk (Indiana University Bloomington) and Alka Kurian (University of Washington Bothell) will be joining the author for this discussion.

Elizabeth Lhost will moderate.

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Conversations on South Asia is sponsored by the Bodas Family Academic Programming Fund, the Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages Program, and the History Department at Dartmouth College.