The 9th edition of Liberation DocFest has been postponed because of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases around the country. Organisers of the event, originally scheduled for April 6-10, recently announced the postponement on Facebook. “Due to Bangladesh Government’s decision to go to nationwide lockdown because of escalation of covid pandemic again, Liberation War Museum, the organiser of Liberation DocFest decided to temporarily postpone the festival,” the post reads. Also read: ‘Highways of Life’ takes top prize as 8th Liberation DocFest concludes DocFest is an annual initiative dedicated to the documentary cinema to highlight the struggle for liberation and human rights of people in various parts of the world and its contemporary significance. A new schedule for the event will be announced soon, the organisers said. However, the ‘Exposition of Young Film Talent 2021’, a storytelling lab for documentary filmmakers will take place on Wednesday and conclude on April 10, as per its schedule. Also read: Liberation DocFest: Enthralling tales from home and beyond “We had to postpone this year’s Liberation DocFest at the very last moment due to the recent surge of COVID-19 and the subsequent nationwide lockdown. This prompted the trustee members to postpone the festival but the storytelling lab will continue online as per its schedule,” Md Shariful Islam Shaon, Festival Programmer at Liberation Docfest Bangladesh, told UNB. The workshop and pitching session, in association with Dhaka DocLab, will cater to 10 projects from Bangladeshi documentary filmmakers which were selected for this year’s workshop. Marking the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Independence, the festival is scheduled to introduce a series of new screening sessions and special ceremonies in a hybrid format, due to the ongoing pandemic. Also read: 8th Liberation Docfest Bangladesh-2020 begins connecting global minds virtually A total of 1,900 films from 112 countries have been submitted to the organisers this year. Among them, 110 documentaries will be screened at the festival. This year is also marking the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of Liberation War Museum, which will be observed with the screening of 12 documentaries from the last five decades along with a special exhibition of 25 one-minute short films when the festival will take place in the future.

The National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 has recommended to stop the ongoing Amar Ekushey Book Fair as the country is seeing a massive jump in daily cases. It has also proposed to halt all types of social events and shut other recreational centres to curb the spread of coronavirus. At its meeting, the committee also recommended increasing ICU and Covid-19 ward beds at Dhaka hospitals to deal with the increasing stream of patients. Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh records highest-ever daily cases, 59 deaths It welcomed the 18-point directive issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and emphasised formulating a specific action plan in this regard. Boi Mela hours curtailed The surge in coronavirus cases forced the Book Fair management to cut short the daily operational hours. Also read: Boi Mela to be open for 3.5 hours a day due to COVID-19 Currently, the fair remains open from 3pm to 6:30pm daily. Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh recorded its highest daily coronavirus cases on Thursday when the health authorities confirmed 6,469 new infections in the last 24 hours. Also read: Restriction on gatherings, quarantine rule among PMO’s 18-point directive to contain Covid surge The infection rate also jumped to 22.94 percent from 19.9 percent on Wednesday.