Film

White Wall
White Wall was commissioned by the UK Film Council. The animation film chronicles the plight of a little girl who wants to find meaning in her life and runs to the end of the world in order to find the answers to the questions that are troubling her. Made in Brussels, London and Tehran, all the backgrounds were hand drawn by Sanchita Islam, including the turnarounds which were used to animate the little girl using 3-D animation.
Medium: Animation
Duration: 12 minutes
Date: 2010
Weakbladder
Sanchita Islam made Weakbladder as her final MA film, shot on 16 mm with an animation piece the film follows the main character, the school girl Sophie. She is bullied and has a difficult home life, the film traces the trials and tribulations of the main protagonist. The film achieved the second highest grade in her year. Sanchita made the film when she was twenty three, it was the first main film she ever made after four long years at the London School of Economics, where she was day dreaming most of the time.
Medium: 16mm
Duration: 10 minutes
The Park
Commissioned by Gunpowder Park, The Park depicts the views of the local community that inhabits St Albans focusing on the usage/lack of usage of Victoria Park, identifying which sectors of the community currently use it and which sectors don’t. The idea behind the film is to raise questions and encourage informative discussion.
Medium: DV and Super 8
Duration: 25 minutes
Skin
Funded by a National Lottery grant Skin discusses how young black and Asian youth are bleaching their skin in the quest to achieve a fair complexion. The participants in this film openly talk about this controversial practise.
Medium: DV
Duration: 11 minutes
Rural life
Shot to accompany the film ‘five women’ this film depicts rural life in Bangladesh without romanticising the poverty.
Medium: DV and Super 8
Duration: 7 minutes
On the moon
Award winning international arts organisation motiroti launches 60x60 Secs, the first project of 360° Britain India Pakistan. 60x60 Secs consists of sixty one-minute films commissioned by motiroti . Established and emerging artists from the South Asian Diaspora - twenty from each of the three countries - present their unique views on identity in an age of globalisation. Sanchita Islam was one of the sixty artists commissioned by Moti Roti 60x60 Secs introduces fresh artistic voices, images and ideas that transcend existing cultural and geographical definitions to unravel complex identities and stories. A character journeys through London, Bangladesh, Cuba, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and New York ending up at her final destination on the moon.
Medium: Super 8
Duration: 1 minute
Old meets young
Combining drawings, photography, super 8 footage shot in Bangladesh and DV footage shot in London, this film conveys the lives and dreams of a dying generation of Bangladeshis who gather daily at St Hilda’s community centre just off Bethnal Green Road. It is a place for them not to feel lonely but to play games, eat and drink tea.
Medium: DV and Super 8
Duration: 20 minutes
From briarwood to barisal to brick lane
Shot in New York, Bangladesh and London, this film explores notions of home, shrinking geographical boundaries and the personal impressions of a scattered Bangladeshi diaspora. There is a book, photography, drawing and painting project that accompanies the film of the same title.
Medium: DV and Super 8
Duration: 30 minutes
Connecting kids
Connecting Kids was funded by the British Council in Indonesia and Malaysia. The film connects the lives of street kid musicians, slum kids and disadvantaged kids living on local estates through a photography project, a book publication and four films shot in Bangladesh, London, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. There is a book that accompanies the film of the same name.
Medium: DV Cam & Super 8
Duration: 50 minutes
Inside out
Brick Lane has undergone rapid change over the last decade at an incredible pace – the question is who is benefiting: the developers, the bar owners or the local community? This film broadcast in March 2008 on BBC1 explores whether the gulf between the haves and have nots is increasing or diminishing as money flows into the area and questions whether investment and gentrification has increased or bridged the divide.
Medium: DV and HDV
Duration: 9 minutes
Connecting faith
Connecting Faith was shot for the British Council Bangladesh. The film depicts the views of three young Muslims in Bangladesh, Malaysia and London. Each person that features in the film holds a different view about what it means to be Muslim. The film shows how there is not a definitive view of Islam and that it is open to a myriad of interpretations.
Medium: DV Cam & Super 8
Duration: 42 minutes
Rohingya Lives Matter
In 2018 I went as a volunteer, to work with Action Aid in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh and meet the Rohingya refugees. The film depicts life at the camps and features drawings and photography. To date film has been screened in London, Brussels and Rome and Wolverhampton Art Gallery in London. I am determined to continue my work related to the Rohingya and will not rest until they receive justice. When does the trauma end and the healing being?
Duration: 14 minutes
Date: 2018
Five women
The film was made for the British Council for a show entitled the hard core poor show’ at the Commonwealth Institute 2001. It chronicles the impact of a Grameen bank loan on the lives of five rural women workers in Bangladesh.
Medium: DV and Super 8
Duration: 16 minutes​​​​​​​
Avenues
Avenues is a film that follows the stories of Bengali and Somali kids living in the Brick Lane area and explores the relationship between the two groups, there is a book that accompanies the film that was shot with the co-operation of the participating kids at Christ Church and New Avenues (now both defunct) with the special assistance of Derek Cox, a youth worker in the area for the last thirty years.
Medium: Super 8 and DV
Duration: 27 minutes
Hidden
Hidden was funded by a National Lottery grant. The shots reflect the daily lives of the women at two East End refuges, many of whom have since moved out of the refuge and successfully rebuilt their lives. There is a book and photography project that accompanies the film entitled Hidden.
Medium: DV Cam
Duration: 33 minutes
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