Two Vietnamese Film Projects Gain Support from Cannes Festival [Vietnam]

“Two Vietnamese directors — Pham Ngoc Lan with the film project “Culi Never Cries” and Le Bao with “Taste” — are amongst the 16 directors that have made their way to the L’Atelier supporting programme for young filmmakers, organised by the film foundation Cinéfondation of the Cannes Film Festival. The sixteen directors whose projects have […]

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Iswadi Pratama, an auteur of Indonesian theatre [Indonesia]

“Indonesia’s foremost theatre director, the internationally acclaimed Iswadi Pratama, staged an extraordinary eight productions in 2016 There is no simple way of describing Iswadi Pratama. He claims to be a self-taught artist, yet his exceptional talents seem to suggest otherwise. Having spent most of his life bringing realities to the stage he insists that he

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A region in flux: “People, Money, Ghosts (Movement As Metaphor)” [Thailand]

“What do four contemporary artists from three other Southeast Asian countries have that could resonate in a country like Thailand? Turns out, a whole lot. From aesthetics, to spiritual beliefs, to societal struggles, Jim Thompson Art Center’s latest group exhibition, “People, Money, Ghosts (Movement As Metaphor)”, depicts the continual change that the region is going through,

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Coming out and breaking through: The Philippine queer cinema roundtable [Philippines]

“Queer cinema in the Philippines is going through some kind of resurgence. Although LGBTQ stories have always had a constant presence in local film — a number of iconic LGBTQ classics enjoyed mainstream success from the late 70’s to the early 90’s — the number of local pink movies released per year had dwindled dramatically.

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17 – 23 April 2017: Singapore

School of Contemporary Music Festival 2017, 7 – 30 Apr, various timings and venues Held as part of The LASALLE Show 2017 at the end of the academic year, this graduation showcase presents the college’s music students performing at the culmination of their years of training. More information. Every Brilliant Thing by Bhumi Collective, 18 –

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#not pho your entertainment [Vietnam]

“Over the past year and a half, May Tran (writer, student and professional procrastinator of Vietnamese descent) has been inundated with PR for two professional and sixteen-hundred amateur productions of Miss Saigon. The following piece has been cobbled together from segments of the largely incomprehensible fury essays she wrote during her frequent and violent rage

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Raka Maitra discusses Pallavi in Time – I never look back [Singapore]

“Raka Maitra from CHOWK Productions (Singapore) presents a brand new piece of dance at Esplanade Theatre Studio under Esplanade’s Raga series of programmes showcasing Indian performing arts in dance, music and theatre throughout the year. After selling out performances of The Second Sunrise at Da:ns Festival in October, Raka offers Pallavi in Time. A follow-up

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17 – 23 April 2017: Indonesia

Top Picks in Jakarta, Bali and Yogyakarta from 17 – 23 April 2017   JAKARTA   Pesona Sastra Jawa, 18 April 2017, 3:30 PM, Bentara Budaya Jakarta Javanese Modern literature is losing popularity and readership. Many Javanese authors had switched to write in Bahasa Indonesia to widen its readers, making Javanese literature even more rare.

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An Artist’s Comprehensive History of Southeast Asian Photography [SEA, Singapore]

“I was first introduced to writer and photographer Zhuang Wubin’s work when I moved to Cambodia. His writings on Cambodian photography are well-researched, accessible, and thoughtful — exactly what I was seeking as a newcomer to the area. Zhuang became an important node for me to learn from and think through photography in Cambodia, and later the region as a whole.

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10 – 16 April 2017: Singapore

When Space Dissolves into Luminosity; Where Flowers Bloom Amidst Rocks, iPreciation Gallery, 15 April – 29 April 2017 iPreciation presents an exhibition comprising works by 10 Singaporean artists, which spans different mediums ranging from sculptures, paintings, prints and mixed media, and seeks to examine how artists approach questions of authenticity while navigating the ever complex world. Artists

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10 – 16 April 2017: Indonesia

Top Picks in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Malang from 10 – 16 April 2017   JAKARTA    Duet of Amplified Sewing Machine, 9 April 2017, 7 – 9 PM, Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Hall A2, Jakarta Can a Singer sewing machine sing? Artist Steffi Muller and Lisa Simpson will say, “Yes!” A closing event of the

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K.S. Maniam is still in Malaysia, slams Dewan Sastera’s erroneous essay [Malaysia]

Malaysian novelist K.S. Maniam is still based in Malaysia and has not left to the United States as claimed in Dewan Sastera recently. Government department, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), through its monthly Malay language magazine, Dewan Sastera had reported in its April, 2017 issue that the 75-year-old had migrated to the United States. In an essay titled “Kolonialisme dan

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‘Bend in the River’ set to take a new twist: Khmer Times [Cambodia]

A deeply personal tale of revenge and redemption is set to return this weekend as Sophiline Arts Ensemble brings the celebrated “A Bend in the River” to Phnom Penh’s Chaktomuk Theater. While director and choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro will keep the story’s original roots, her focus will be to increase the production values of the

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Art that Moves: Brendon Fernandez

Art that Moves is an occasional series where we ask artists and other creative workers to reflect on artworks, performances or events that were personally important to them. This week, actor Brendon Fernandez tells us about a production he saw as teenager that gave him the courage to become an actor. We caught up with Brendon

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It Changed My Life: Film-maker Kirsten Tan’s journey from quirky distraction to movie magic [Singapore]

“Today, the 35-year-old is one of Singapore’s most exciting film-makers with a robust slate of award-winning short films and documentaries under her belt. Her first feature, Pop Aye – an offbeat tale about a disenfranchised architect and the elephant he adopts – just nabbed prizes at two of the world’s most important film festivals: Sundance

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Who’s Normal Anyway?

By Akanksha Raja (920 words, 9-minute read) Normal opens with a dreary, dull morning assembly at Trinity Girls’ School, immersing the audience in a mise-en-scène that is all too familiar to anyone who has been through any part of public education in Singapore. This bleary-eyed 7AM routine, of forced uniformity and subservience, is broken by

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Political Acts review: Artists weave defiance into performance art [SEA]

Review of POLITICAL ACTS: PIONEERS OF PERFORMANCE ART IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, Arts Centre Melbourne Steven Tonkin has curated a useful survey of Southeast Asian performance art as part of the inaugural Asia Triennial of Performing Arts. The photographs and videos of seven artists contain glimpses of their social environments, reminding us that performance art comes

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Contemporary art taking off in Philippines as galleries host more visitors and collectors take a global view

At the opening of Art Fair Philippines in Manila last month, a young sound artist named Jon Romero was using an overseas visitor to conduct electricity between metal sheets. Each time Romero tapped on the visitor’s arm, the electrical charge created a sound. Romero began playing the visitor like an instrument. “It’s the electricity flowing

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Garin Nugroho’s ‘Satan Jawa’ Flirts with the Dark Side

By Nuraini Juliastuti (1124 words, 12 minute read) Satan Jawa (Garin Nugroho, 2017) a silent movie, in black and white (inspired by Nosferatu and Metropolis), had its world premier with the ‘live’ performances of Gamelan Garasi Seni Benawa and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as part of AsiaTOPA (Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts) in Melbourne recently. To

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3 – 10 April: Singapore

28.8 by Teater Kami, 7-8 Apr, Aliwal Arts Centre Written and directed by Adib Kosnan, this play targets a specific audience of young men and women who can relate to the challenges that living in Singapore poses to them financially. The play sees the blossoming of a relationship moving into marriage, before hitting different obstacles that

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3 – 9 April 2017: Indonesia

Top Picks in Jakarta, Bandung, and Yogyakarta from 3 – 9 April 2017   JAKARTA    Arus Bawah, 3 – 16 April 2017, Kineforum, Jakarta For the first half of April, Kineforum are bringing films with the theme of Arus Bawah or Under Current. Arus Bawah is a reflection of the undercurrent in society. Just

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