{"id":8871,"date":"2021-03-04T01:12:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T01:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/?p=8871"},"modified":"2026-02-03T04:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T04:06:07","slug":"visionary-filmmaker-mashroor-parvez-on-the-dogs-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/?p=8871","title":{"rendered":"Visionary Filmmaker Mashroor Parvez on \u201cThe doGs Illusion\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A short description of your professional career?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been making\nmovies since 2003, I remember the resolution of my first camera being less than\na megapixel and I used to edit in windows movie maker. Those were the days!\nEven back then I wasn\u2019t much of a preacher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My day job is working at an\nIT firm as the creative director. I worked as an assistant director for nearly\n4 years in the Dhallywood film industry before that. I took my graduation from\nNorth South University (NSU) two years later as I got the chance to co-direct a\nfeature film. This was not my project of choice, but I was hellbent on getting\nmy director’s license even if that meant boarding a sinking ship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finally acquired my\nlicense in September of 2014 from the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation\n(BFDC) and started working as a film director in the entertainment industry. I\nended up making a single drama for Channel i (largest private television\nnetwork in the country) that would start the arduous path towards\n“Raian”, my first solo directorial film. When the pilot was not picked\nup, I started to self-finance this project and expanded it into a full-length\nmovie over a period of 3 years that found limited theatrical release in Dhaka\ncity. The journey ended with a special screening at the Bombay Theatre in New\nYork City on the 9th of December 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What have you learned since your first film?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> After seeing the\naudience reception of “Raian” abroad, I knew I had to take a chance\non myself and see if I could make something from the ground up that resonated\nwith those outside of my home country. I’ve done two short films since joining\nFar-East IT Solutions Ltd. and both of them have been selected at film\nfestivals the likes of the International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA)\nToronto and the International Filmmaker Festival of New York (IFFNY), amongst\nmany others as well as winning multiple awards, both national and foreign.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve grown as a person over the years and that clearly showcases in my work and I don\u2019t mean that on a technical level. I\u2019ve always maintained film grammar to tell my stories and I make it a point to break it only to serve the narrative. There\u2019s always going to be a sensationalist aspect to filmmaking but I try to ground the key components in my stories to reality. The theme of misery has been a constant for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
still shot from The DoGs illusion_Photo Credit Ayub Akhand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What projects are you currently working on?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> We think about\nblack and white in terms of good and bad \u2013 the principle of yin and yang. Both\nof my shorts, \u201cThe doGs Illusion\u201d and \u201cThe silence of KNOWING\u201d act as a\nprecursor to what I would end up finishing in my second feature “going\nHome”. Various kinds of despair dropped by at the wayside of life. Not\nwanting to go into spoilers I\u2019ll stick with the basic overview: A serious man who used to wear sunglasses at\nnight wants to go home, after a series of incidents involving his past life.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I painted a framework of\nties that bind the audience to discuss; there is no particular color or shade\nthat I\u2019m looking for. The film was supposed to come out this August but due to\nthe pandemic, the release date got pushed back to next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is\ndifferent about being in the director\u2019s chair with this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> Honestly, it’s the\nshrinking budget that’s mostly a bother as I don’t like to finish every day in\nthe nick of time. I still manage to get the shots I need but time isn’t a\nluxury I can afford just yet. I make films from a very personal space, there’s\na specific story I want to tell, but unfortunately in Bangladesh, most\nproducers are not ready to pay for that. Mainstream cinema is the only segment\nthat’s left in our dying film industry and fortunately or unfortunately, I’m\nconsidered an art film director due to my disinterest towards traditional\nstorylines and song and dance routines common in South Asian films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it was a matter of\nmaintaining the cinematic feel throughout without giving away to the audience\nthe piecemeal nature of the production. I do not plan on becoming comfortable\nwith my work anytime soon and reaching the apex is nigh impossible. After many\nyears of struggling, I have learnt how to light the fire within. I am not\nafraid of it blowing out anymore. I have to believe there is an audience for my\nwork outside of my country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has been your personal key to success?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> I don’t presume to know everything as a director. All my ideas are open to possibilities but I’m careful to not be too open because the experts here don’t know their subject matter very well. Their minds can be closed, focusing on only things that they can do. Expertise in that sense can become a shackle, really restrictive. Granted, this can be a strength as well. I contribute both my professional expertise and knowledge and creative openness to my team. And as they are able to work freely, they feel comfortable working with me. Whether that inherently becomes part of the process, I can\u2019t say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Still photo by Ayub Akhand Poster design by Tamim Khan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What advice would you give to someone who wants to have a career in\nfilmmaking?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> It\u2019s always the\nhardest to get started. That first step is everything. And in the middle of\neverything, motivation does start to run out slowly. That\u2019s when commitment and\npersistence are key. Life is mostly made up of failures, so when success does\nfinally happen it should not be a cause to slow down. This process cannot be a\none-off either, you must teach yourself to do it time and again. And with all\nof the failures I\u2019ve had, it\u2019s a philosophy that\u2019s kept me going over the\nyears. Also whiskey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please name three artists, whose work has influenced your work. What\nwould you like to ask each of them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> Sohel Rana: What\nare your thoughts about prioritizing career over family now that you’re the\nlast living legend of Bangladesh? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Carpenter: While\nshooting “The Thing”, did you know that the finished movie would not\nonly eclipse the original but end up becoming one of the greatest science\nfiction horror films of all time? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Scorsese: What is\nyour go-to “I need a fucking drink” of choice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you enjoy most about your job, your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> I make movies\nfirst and foremost for myself and while that philosophy does not guarantee a\nfilm that will be loved, it does guarantee work with a spirit that has never\nbeen seen before. That to me is worth striving for. Nothing is unsettling about\nhaving your deeply held beliefs reinforced to you. I strive for the truth in\nall my works. Entailing a message about how we don\u2019t have to conform to what is\nexpected of us based on the role we\u2019re handed at birth or the roles we end up\nadopting later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All artists bring themselves around to the same question: Why do I\ncreate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashroor Parvez:<\/strong> I don’t believe in\nthe idea of art for art’s sake. I am deeply invested in the belief that good\nart should make us less moralistic and judgmental and should be a supplement to\nfaith in terms of developing our reserves of kindness towards humankind. One\nway or another, the artist puts themselves through the creative process and,\ntypically, uncovers some greater truth about themselves. For some, it\u2019s to\nexpress a greater emotion, one that can\u2019t be tackled head-on, nor conveyed\nthrough ordinary conversation. For others, it\u2019s the simple production of a\ncommodity. I fall into the former.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A short description of your professional career? Mashroor Parvez: I\u2019ve been making movies since 2003, I remember the resolution of my first camera being less than a megapixel and I used to edit in windows movie maker. Those were the days! Even back then I wasn\u2019t much of a preacher. My day job is working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19216,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871\/revisions\/19216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}