From ecology to literature. Representing climate change and environmental problems in the Bangladeshi context

Afternoon dedicated to Bengali studies: round-table discussion, preceded by the screening of two films

Program

 

Projection of two films

Delta du Bengale : Voyage en Terre d'Infortune. 51 minutes

In 2005, the Argos collective carried out the first international survey of climate refugees. As photographer, Laurent Weyl went to Bangladesh to meet those fleeing the rising waters in the south of the country. Seventeen years later, Laurent and Tihami, his interpreter at the time, set off to find the same families, to see what consequences climate change has had on this resilient, but so fragile people.

 

Whale songs. 12 minutes

"Song of Whales" is a classic 2D animated short produced by Afroza Hossain Sara and his team about human greed destroying the environment and impending catastrophe, seen through the eyes of a destitute fisherman and the revolt of nature represented by a grieving mother whale.

 

Round Table

The city-river relationship. A look from Dhaka and the Buriganga

 

The aim of this round table will be to discuss environmental and heritage issues in Bangladesh, particularly in the old city of Dhaka (Buriganga). These issues will be approached from various angles, that of the question of climate migrants who temporarily or permanently leave the Sunderban region to settle there, as well as that of port and river redevelopment and their socio-cultural consequences.

These themes are the subject of work carried out by Pascal Bourdeaux, lecturer at the EPHE and Vietnamese language graduate, as part of the 12th International Session of the NGO Initiatives pour l'Avenir des Grands Fleuves in cooperation with the Alliance Française de Dhaka, and that of reporter Laurent Weyl.

 

Initiatives pour l'Avenir des Grands Fleuves is an international NGO founded in 2015 by Erik Orsenna and CNR, with the aims of alerting, mobilizing on the issues and future of rivers and their ecosystems, inviting to more sustainable practices. A collective of multidisciplinary experts, IAGF forms a space for international dialogue, sharing knowledge open to parties involved between rivers worldwide.

 

Round table: Olivier Bougnot, lecturer, literary translator, Inalco, moderator.

With the presence of:

Pascal Bourdeaux, IAGF member and historian specializing in the history of religions, Senior Lecturer at the EPHE;

Laurent Weyl, photographer and founder of the Argos collective;

François Grosjean, Director Alliance Française de Dhaka;

Jessica Bergstein-Collay, IAGF project manager ;

Shaheen Akhtar, Bangladeshi novelist, editor, communications & media, Ain O Shalish Kendro, civil rights organization;

Kaiser Haq, Bangladeshi English-language poet, essayist and teacher, University of Liberal Arts, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

Event organized by: Philippe Benoît and Olivier Bougnot