BANGLA SURF GIRLS - Lunenburg Doc Fest

AVAILABLE TO VIEWERS IN NORTH AMERICA

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Witness the thrills and struggles of three teenage girls from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh who fight insurmountable odds to achieve their dreams.

Shobe, Aisha and Suma break away from the drudgery of their lives by joining a surf club in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The girls fight family pressure and social judgement, for a few hours on the waves each day and gain confidence as their natural skill and prowess gains attention and praise. The joy and freedom of the waves are a stark change from the abuse and hardship they face at home. Soon they are poised to make history as Bangladesh’s first women surfers. However the fate of the club itself hangs on the leadership of the coach who has his own challenges. The odds stack up but the girls refuse to give up. Balancing the freedom of the waves with the restrictive realities of their circumstances, we experience the thrill and struggle of coming-of-age in a developing country.

2021 / CANADA / 86 mins

Filmmakers

Elizabeth D. Costa, Director, Cinematographer

Elizabeth D. Costa is a refreshing new talent from Bangladesh whose skills in documenting intimate images are evident in her first feature documentary, Bangla Surf Girls.
For over eight years Elizabeth has worked on media projects as producer, director, assistant producer, editor, and cameraperson. Recently she completed two projects for SBS Dateline, Ausstralia and Big Blue Communications.
Elizabeth was invited to participate in the Film Independent lab 2020, the Chicken and Egg Accelerator Lab 2017. She is also an alumni of the IDFA academy .
She honed her career as an intern script supervisor for Tareque and Catherine Masud in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She worked for BBC Media Action, NOS Television, VICE News UK, Spanish TV, and Bloomberg TV. She also worked as assistant producer with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on A Journey of Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers. Elizabeth is also the Communications Advisor for the United Nations Development Programme, which works to eradicate of poverty, and reduce inequalities and exclusion in nearly 170 countries.