Tareque Masud spent most of his childhood in a madrasa (Islamic seminary school) in Bangladesh. The war of independence from Pakistan in 1971 put an abrupt end to his religious studies, and after the war he entered general education, eventually completing his masters in History from Dhaka University. He was actively involved in the film society movement from his university days, and participated in numerous short courses and workshops on film in Bangladesh and abroad. He started his first film, a documentary on the Bangladeshi painter S.M. Sultan in late 1982. Since then he has directed a number of short, documentary, and animation films.
Tareque Masud’s most widely appreciated films centre around the Bangladesh Liberation War. In 2002 his first feature film, "Matir Moina" (The Clay Bird) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He won the International Critic's Award in the Cannes film festival in 2002 for this film. In general, Matir Moina has been received with critical praise and has toured the international circuit. It is one of the first Bangladeshi films to be widely circulated and has been greeted in general with enthusiasm for realistic depictions of life without the melodrama that is prevalent in many other South Asian films.
He is a founding member of the Short Film Forum, the primary forum for alternative filmmakers in Bangladesh, and in 1988 served as Coordinator of the First International Short Film Festival held in Dhaka. He has also attended international film festivals and seminars in Europe, the U.S., and Asia and writes occasionally on film-related themes for periodicals and journals. He and his American wife Catherine run a film production firm, Audiovision, based in Dhaka. Besides filmmaking, his special interests are folk forms and folk music.

Filmography

A Kind of Childhood (2002)
Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud
Prod: Xingu Films/Audiovision
A documentary on the lives and struggles of working
children in Dhaka city, followed over the course of six years.

Matir Moina (The Clay Bird) (2002)
Dir: Tareque Masud
Producer: Catherine Masud
Production: Audiovision/MK2
A feature film based on the director's childhood experience in a madrasa
in rural East Pakistan during the turbulent 60's.

Narir Kotha (Women & War) (2000)
Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud
Documentary on experience of women survivors of war.

Muktir Kotha (Words of Freedom) (1999)
Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud
Oral history documentary about experience of ordinary
villagers during 1971 Liberation War.

In the Name of Safety (1998)
Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud
Prod: TVE London/Audiovision
Documentary on human rights abuses in Bangladesh.

Voices of Children (1997)
Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud
Prod: Unicef/Audiovision
Documentary on working children in Bangladesh.

Muktir Gaan (Song of Freedom) (1996)
Dir: Tareque & Catherine Masud
Feature length documentary film about a troupe of traveling
musicians during the Bangladesh Liberation War '71.

Unison (1994)
Animated film about the unity of humankind.

Se (The Conversation) (1993)
Dir: Tareque Masud, Shameem Akhter
Short fiction about a strained reunion between a man and a woman.

Adam Surat (The Inner Strength) (1989)
Dir: Tareque Masud
Documentary on the life and art of the Bangladeshi painter S.M. Sultan.

Courtesy: Matirmoina.com