Film on Bangalee-American immigrants banking on crowdfunding

‘Dawat,’ a planned short film about Bangalee American immigrants, is going to be made by the end of the summer, reports The American Bazaar.

Dawat or Invite is being described as a love letter to Bangalees’ culture and rich but often-flawed nature.

The filmmaker raises money through crowdfunding, according to the report. It is reportedly supported by Jhal NYC, a popular food stand that provides social entrepreneurship for Bangalee diaspora.

For the New York city-based filmmaker Suswana Chowdhury, telling a story about a first-generation Bangalee American was almost a cathartic journey, writes The Bazaar.

The filmmaker was quoted to have said that her latest film, Dawat, would be a nostalgic and surreal journey for thousands of Bangalees who left their lands to find a new home in America.

Directed by Juhi Sharma, the film’s script was written by Chowdhury and Pooshpol Islam.

Dawat is said to be about a young girl, Ishita, who confronts her mother about her dreams to go to California and pursue her filmmaking dreams. The role of Ishita will be played by Sita Sarkar and that of her mother by Shireen Bakul.

In many ways, Dawat is her own story, according to Bazaar. But Chowdhury was quoted to have said the story is not only hers; it strikes a chord with every single Bangalee American, as it gently opens that conversation about inter-generational gap among immigrants in America.

Buoyed by this belief, Chowdhury and her team have now gone for crowdfunding, said the report.

They hope to finish the film before the summer of 2019 and start sending it across the film festival circuits.

“We started the crowdfunding for the film only last month,” Chowdhury told the American Bazaar.

“We thought of taking this route as we genuinely believed that stories of Bengali diaspora, their unique quirks and customs and their vast repertoire of food has not been told at all in mainstream media. We believe that every immigrant would want to be a part of this journey hence we asked for crowd funding this project so close to our hearts.”

The film’s promo reportedly showed the story of a night in a Bengali home in a Jamaica, Queens, neighborhood in New York. The filmmakers say that they intend to shoot the rest of the film in Jamaica, which boasts one of the largest concentrations of Bangalee Americans.

The film is comprised of an all Bengali cast, while the crew members are predominately women and people of colour, added The American Bazaar.