Biography
Sohel is an award winning filmmaker, writer, and producer based in Lisbon, Portugal. He teaches films at several universities around the world. His films have been screened internationally in various film festivals and universities. Sohel received the best feature documentary film award from South Asian Film Festival of Montreal, Canada in 2021, and from Tasveer South Asian film Festival, Seattle in 2021 for his film The Ice Cream Sellers 75” (2021)
He also received the best film award from Lusofona University, Lisbon in 2015 for his film A Passagem (2014). In the same year, he won the Special Jury Award at the Encontros International Cinema de Vienna Film Festival in Portugal.
Sohel is the director and chief organizer of Mostra de Cinema sul Asiatico, Lisbon, Portugal.
Sohel is currently working on his new film, Autopsy of a Genocide in the Rohingya Camp in Bangladesh and Dancing with the Sea, about the deadly works and daily lives of four Portuguese barnacles fishermen in the Atlantic Ocean.
Born in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Sohel’s love of visual art, literature, and storytelling drew him to filmmaking early in life. In 2014 Sohel received European joint masters degree in documentary film directing (Docnomads) from three prominent European Universities ( Lusofona University, Lisbon, University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest, and Sint LUKAS International University, Brussels). He also studied English literature at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh. Sohel finished the first semester of his PhD study in social and cultural anthropology at NOVA University of Lisbon. He worked in CANNES award winning Portuguese film A Fabrica de Nada (2017) as an intern.
His graduation film A Passagem (2014) screened in many film festivals and universities including Doclisboa international film festival and Cinemateca Portuguesa. He made a feature length creative documentary film The Ice Cream Sellers (2021) about the Rohingya genocide through the eyes of children. The Ice Cream Sellers (2021) has been screened in many film festivals especially in The USA, Germany, France, India, Nepal, Canada and Colombia. And many top universities including Yale, NYU, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Hawaii, University of Chicago, Boston University, University of Oregon, Rutgers University, Radboud University, VU Amsterdam, University of Sussex, UK, Linkoping University, Sweden, Durham University, UK, Humboldt University, University of Cologne, Germany.