Private Project

Searching Roots : An Artist's Tale

“My village was in the middle of a green hill and the primary school was far away from it. Education was rare for indigenous people in those times. I was surprised to see beautiful black & white drawings in textbooks. On my asking, a teacher explained how these are first drawn by an Artist and then printed on books by a process. That day, I had decided to become an Artist by any how”.

This is the beginning story of Joydeb Roaja, almost 40 years ago. How an oppressed indigenous boy struggled to become a mainstream artist, where everything was different than his own identity. Joydeb Roaja has been living in Chittagong City for more than 30 years. He came from a remote village of Tripura Clan at Khagrachori district of Chittagong Hill Tract, Bangladesh. He is now 47 and has a family of two children and an artist wife. After completing the MFA in University of Chittagong, Joydeb is determined to live on as an independent artist. His journey is always hard and surviving but innocently festive.

Once started with regular art events by joining national and global art exhibitions, Joydeb recalled the historical continuity of injustice to and sufferings of hill tract people in his art works. Their identity and existence were overlooked in the course of progress, and their habitats and natural balance had been ravaged in the name of area control, tourism, development and reservation of forests. Till present days, Joydeb realizes his alienation in urban life. According to him ‘it is like renting a home’ and not rooted somewhere he belongs to.

Joydeb participated in many art exhibitions around the world and met prominent artists with their visionary approaches. He then changed his course and started a new journey to find the roots of his identity and destination of human civilization. He gradually develops his own style and language to express in search of his spirit and faith in Art, is deeply rooted in and evolved from Nature only, the world of trees, river, stream and mostly mother earth and transforms his creative world to connect and represent them. He evolves his art and craft to amplify his own identity with homegrown sensibilities and reality. His performing arts commemorates his ethnic origin and the organic world he has conversed with since his childhood. Joydeb’s approach towards art is humble, serene and true to his origin. His spontaneous act propagates the spirit of non-violence even though he is convinced that nature and his people are truly victimized by the so-called politics of progress.

The world now possibly hears the voice of Chittagong tribes through memories, struggles and deeper connections of nature. A story of the transformative homecoming of a tribal artist through a creative immersion, to his own landscape; a journey back to the root that takes a stance from within.

  • Rafiqul Anowar
    Writer
  • Rafiqul Anowar
    Director
  • Rafiqul Anowar
    Producer
  • Joydeb Roaja
    Key Cast
    "Joydeb Roaja "
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    17 minutes 25 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    70,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Bangladesh
  • Country of Filming:
    Bangladesh
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Rafiqul Anowar

RAFIQUL ANOWAR (RUSSELL)

Producer, Writer & Director

Rafiqul Anowar (Russell) was born on 15 October , 1978 at Chittagong, Bangladesh and has been working as an Independent Producer, Writer and Director. He completed Masters in English Literature. His career started as a film society activist in 1998. Anowar also writes film criticisms and short stories. Rafiqul Anowar’s debut film as Director was The ADVENTURER (2014) had been screened in various film festivals and sessions nationwide. It won first prize at the short film section of Liberation History and Research Festival in 2015. He also directed other short films ‘HIJACK’ (2008), THE ANCIENT REBEL (2008), FUN ( 2012 ) and involved in many other short films, documentaries as performer, writer and producer. In 2014, he was appointed as Adjunct Faculty, Film Production in University of Chittagong. He joined at DOCEDGE Kolkata in 2019 and participated with project A Mandolin in Exile at Exposition Young Film Talents competition, where it won the ‘Best Project’ for 2019. Anowar also participated in documentary platform for co production market named Dhaka DOCLAB , 2019, third session and joined at PRODUCERS WORKSHOP with his fiction project Swapnochari (Traveler of Dream ) in FILM BAZAAR, 2019 that held in Goa, India. He used to write for TV and Web fictions for national tv as well.

Rafiqul Anowar recently premiered his feature documentary A MANDOLIN in EXILE on 27 August, 2020. The film is based on the human rights issues of the Rohingya Crisis. It is now selected in various online and offline festivals like Changing Face International Film Festival, NSW, Australia ; The Lift-Off Sessions, Lift-Off Global Network, UK ; (October 2020) First-Time Filmmaker Sessions, UK & 19th Dhaka International Film Festival, 2021, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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Director Statement

I feel interested in making this feature documentary on this particular Artist. His Art works and approaches to understanding nature are very naive but unique. His landscape and history of indigenous people are very known to me, as the hill area is very near to my native village in greater part of Chittagong, Bangladesh.

My father used to work in the said Hydro Electric Project at Kaptai. Natural harmony and ecology of the place was destroyed and people of those hill areas were not happy for that . In each step ordinary ethnic people were facing checking, harassment, and questions by the military and regular authorities. No proper school, medical or other facilities were enough for them from the part of the Government. They were poor and remote people. When we used to travel, in those areas we experienced the helplessness of those indigenous people. A hateful sad look towards us. Usually, we seemed like foreigners and strangers to them.

I met Joydeb Roaja in the university, who was a student of the Fine Arts department. We were the same batch mate and later became friends. Joydeb belongs to indigenous tribe called Tripura, a minor ethnic group of Chittagong hill tracts. It was amazing for me to get such a remote person, who desired to cross the ocean like barriers to become an Artist. His story of determination to become an artist since childhood fascinated me. I was invited by him to the exhibitions and performing arts. I found his all through art works reminds of those childhood experiences which was his own reality of Childhood. So, I made my decision to tell that story, along with the journey through Joydeb and his Art Work. The focus point is the theme and subjects of his Art and Artistic Journey, but ambience and background should be the history of those suffering people from past to present as well. While starting research work, I found another interesting theme, his transformation of ideology and decision to return to his mother nature through Art. The story of joydeb is also the story of a universal artist of the world.