On December 28, 1895 the first commercial public screening of motion pictures was held at Salon Indien du Grand Cafe, Paris, France; by — Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean mostly known as The Lumiere brothers. The screenings marked the beginning of a new era for the movie industry.

Since 2001, Dhaka University Film Society (DUFS) has been observing the day as “World Cinema Screening Day”. On December 29, DUFS in association with Bangladesh Film Archives (BFA) arranged a daylong event atTSC, DU marking the occasion.

The event included a poster exhibition, discussion on the Bangladeshi movie industry and film screening.

The event started with poster exhibition in the morning. Colourful post-

ers of Bangla feature films “Shareng Bou”, “Shutorang”, “Kajol Rekha”, “Dharapat”, “Nawab Sirajuddaula”, “Rupbaan” and other movies considered as some of the finest Bengali films ever made from the period 1964-1993 were displayed.

“With the help of Bangladesh Film Archives we were able to display some 52 rare posters of Bangla feature films starting from 1964-1993,” said Nahad UI Kasem, president DUFS.

At the discussion speakers discussed the current state of the movie industry— the golden age of Bengali cinema, causes of its downfall, importance of digital film making, piracy and its effects and the situation of the current cinema hall business.

Vice Chancellor of DU, Dr. AAMS Arefin Siddique was chief guest at the discussion. Dr. Mohammad Jahangir Hossain, director general, BFA was present as the special guest.

Noted film maker Morshedul Islam and managing director Modhumita Movies Ltd, Md. Iftekharuddin Naushad were also present at the occasion. A paper on the Bangladesh movie industry was presented by film researcher Imran Ferdous.

At the film screening session, DUFS screened “Mukh O Mukhosh", The Lumiere brothers collection and thee short films “The Boxer goes to heaven” from Serbia , “What do I know” from Bosnia and “Kosouq” from Albania at theTSC auditorium.