Filmmakers
Mak Hossain :: Writer-Director
Mak Hossain :: Writer-Director Originally from Bangladesh, Student Academy Award winning writer-director, HOSSAIN was born in the small Gulf country of Bahrain. Shortly afterwards his family migrated to the melting pot of Arabia, United Arab Emirates. Growing up in the capital - Abu Dhabi, he was exposed to the good, the bad and the ugly side of Middle East from an early age. The economic, social and racial disparities between Bangladeshis and Arabs would make an indelible impression on him.
HOSSAIN first took on the camera in high school to make an experimental short film about an atheist living in a predominantly fundamentalist Muslim society. Encouraged by the reception of the film he continued to make short films while attending Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) where he studied Business Management and minored in Film Studies and Marketing.
Summer 2005, HOSSAIN traveled to Bangladesh in order to make a short documentary about the lives of three girls living in the slums of the capital, Dhaka. The 25 minute film titled Three Beauties won the Student Academy Award in 2006. Currently HOSSAIN is developing a feature length screenplay about the September 11, 2001 experience told from the perspective of an an Arab student studying at a Midwestern university in the States.
Jahan Hassan :: Producer
Jahan Hassan :: Producer A fierce champion of art and culture, HASSAN is also a seasoned entrepreneur. A graduate of the University of Dhaka, he migrated to Los Angeles in 1989.
After an initial period of hardship, HASSAN founded and managed a profitable telecommunications firm in California from 1991 to 2002. Fascinated by the moving image since childhood, he started his film production company in 2001 and produced feature films both in Bangladesh and Los Angeles (Rising Shore).
In 2002 he founded the Bangla newspaper, Ekush, which has gone on to become the largest Bangladeshi bi-weekly in the United States. Currently HASSAN serves as the editor-in-chief of the Ekush and produces short and feature length films during his free time.
Rashed Zaman :: Director of Photography
Rashed Zaman :: Director of Photography A graduate of METU University (Ankara, Turkey) ZAMAN worked as a professional architect for 4 years before moving to Los Angeles in order to study cinematography at the University of California – Los Angeles.
Upon graduation he completed a number of short and feature length films in the States before migrating to his native Bangladesh. In April 2007, he became the first Bangladeshi to have one of his photographs published on the cover of National Geographic's Society for Children edition, A Little Peace. ZAMAN is currently one of the busiest and most celebrated cinematographers in the Bangladesh Film Industry.