I believe a camera can do more than record an image. It can hold memory, protect testimony and help a society look honestly at itself.
My journey began with a fascination for ordinary people and the extraordinary stories hidden inside everyday life. Long before a film reaches a screen, it starts with listening—sitting with people, understanding their silences and earning the trust required to tell their story with dignity.
Learning to See
Filmmaking taught me that looking is not the same as seeing. A frame carries choices: where to stand, when to remain silent, what to reveal and what must be protected. Those choices shape not only an image, but also the way history is remembered.
My work moves between documentary film, photography, oral testimony and archival research. Each medium offers a different way to approach truth. Together, they create a fuller portrait of people, places and moments that might otherwise disappear.
Becoming a Witness
The July Movement transformed the meaning of my work. It was no longer enough to create beautiful images. The responsibility was to witness carefully, preserve evidence and honour the courage of those who stood in the streets.
In those moments, the camera became both a tool and a promise: a promise that the faces, voices, fear, resistance and hope of a generation would not be reduced to a passing headline.
“The work is not to speak over people. It is to create the space where their truth can remain.”
This approach continues to guide every project. I work slowly and collaboratively, allowing stories to develop through conversation rather than forcing them into predetermined narratives. The goal is not spectacle. The goal is human truth.
Stories for the Future
Uprising Arts grew from the need to bring film, photography and archive together in one living body of work. It is a space for documentary storytelling, but also a space for preservation—where images, interviews and personal accounts can remain accessible to future generations.
I see every film as part of a larger conversation between the past and the future. The people we document are not subjects to be used; they are collaborators in the making of collective memory.
The work continues through new films, restored footage, recorded testimonies and contributions from communities across Bangladesh. Each story adds another layer to an archive that belongs not to one filmmaker, but to everyone whose life is connected to this history.