To Be a Marma

A film by Edward Owles (15 mins, Bangladesh, 2021)

A portrait of the Marma, a minority indigenous people living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts on the Bangladesh/Myanmar border. Ruled over by an increasingly symbolic tribal monarchy, as well as the Bangladeshi state, they are battling to protect their identity, culture and land in the face of mass climate migration into their ancestral lands from the rest of Bangladesh.

WINNER - Inspiration Award, AHRC Research in Film Awards 2021

Selected Festival Screenings 
Etnofilm, Slovakia
Intima Lente Film Festival, Italy
Moscow International Festival of Visual Anthropology, Russia
OKO Ethnographic Film Festival, Ukraine
Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival, USA
Youth Film Access Festival, Soctland

Cast & Credits
Director / Camera: Edward Owles
Consultant Anthropologist / Producer: Farhana Hoque
Producer: Alison Rooper
Editor: Edward Owles, Emiliano Battista
Inspired by the original research of Farhana Hoque
Music: Smoldering by Kai Engel, Free Music Archive

Featuring: Princess Daisy, Bohmong U Chauw Prue, Guru Bante, Mong U Ching

Partly funded by 'Border Crossings', part of Open City Film Festival