A detailed report on the Bangladesh Film Archive was published in your daily on 22-8-2008 & 24-8-2008 entitled "Archives of Neglect".
The report is extensive and your journalist has worked hard on it. In that report we have been quoted in a few places. But unfortunately as the interviews were taken on telephone (always a risky affair!) our wordings and emphasis have often been misplaced and sometimes we have been quoted out of context which have dimmed the professionalism of the piece.
The piece on the Archive is in general a laudable effort but to put the things in the proper perspective we want to state that, Bangladesh Film Archive under its present Director, is doing a better job than his predecessors. During his tenure, lot of positive activities and initiatives in the Archive have taken place. The problems which have been mentioned by your journalist are mostly the endemic ones accumulated as a result of lack of funds and long negligence by the ministry concerned, a treatment meted out to the Film Archive since its inception.
We believe that the most important thing for Film Archive at present is to have its own land on which it can construct its specialized building with proper film vaults and proper training for its in-service personnel. We are generally happy about the present set of officials of the Information Ministry who have all the good intentions and also the necessary competence to make Bangladesh Film Archive a worthy organisation that we all dream of.