Tag: film

May 3, 2018

Mayfly Docus: “Die Tomorrow” and “14 Apples” at SIFA’s “Singular Screens”

By Dan Koh (1,715 words, 15-minute read) At this year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), the two films from Southeast Asia are documentaries, or hybrid-documentaries—just like last year’s three, curiously. Despite the glaring gaps that remain in the funding,…

February 22, 2018

Lao film industry finding its feet on international stage (via SEA Globe)

Despite working with limited funds, the spectre of state censorship and the difficulty of only having three working cinemas in the country, local directors are creating a thriving film industry in Laos Mattie Do does not hold back. In her…

February 2, 2018

Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab unveils second round of projects (via Screen International)

Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC) has finalised the selection for its second edition, focusing on first-time filmmakers from Laos, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Established producers such as Fran Borgia (A Yellow Bird) and Anthony Chen (Pop Aye) are attached…

January 30, 2018

One Man, Stand Alone: On the trail of the old movie theaters (via Asiola)

“After nearly 10 years of documenting the vanishing stand-alone movie theaters in Southeast Asia, I’d like to invite the public into my world, to experience exactly what it is that I experience when doing this work.” Philip Jablon is a cultural…

January 19, 2018

This Duo Came Up With A Solution For M’sians Who Like Movies But Hate People (via Vulcan Post)

There’s no denying that at some point, all of us have dreamed of having an entire cinema all to ourselves, along with the freedom to scream, shout and blabber all we want without anyone telling us to tone it down….

January 12, 2018

Oscar predictions: Cambodia frontrunner in best foreign language film category

“The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, is an annual awards show celebrating achievements in cinema across a number of categories from the past year. “First They Killed My Father” is among the 92 films on the Academy’s initial…

January 4, 2018

An interview with Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya [Sindie]

“Mouly Surya’s latest genre smash hit, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, was screened last month in Singapore as part of the 28th edition of the Singapore International Film Festival. A work that resists easy classification, SINdie had the privilege…

January 4, 2018

Laos film festival nurtures big screen dreams

“Boating along a serene stretch of the Mekong River near the UNESCO World Heritage town of Luang Prabang, some passengers were overcome with emotion. “I screamed,” said Xaisongkham Induangchanty. “We all screamed.” Tears poured down Siege Ledesma’s face. “I cried…

December 19, 2017

“Shuttle Life 《分贝人生》”: Grief and Powerlessness in Modern Malaysia

By Sherlyn Goh Xue Ting (1100 words, 8-minute read) Bold and unrelenting, Shuttle Life 《分贝人生》is an emotionally-charged social drama about Malaysia’s urban poor, offering a poignant insight into privilege and powerlessness in modern Kuala Lumpur. Featuring strong performances and gritty…

November 16, 2017

Malaysian Tamil Film “En Veettu Tottatil (The Farm)” Wins at Yellow Fever Indie Film Festival [Malaysia]

“When contacted, the director, Karthik Shamalan, said, “At first when we received the email from Yellow Fever Indie Film, we were very surprised. We didn’t believe it until we saw the official announcement on their website!” He added, “We are…

November 6, 2017

First Asean-China Film Festival to take place in Malaysia in December [SEA]

“This year is the the 50th anniversary of Asean (Association Of Southeast Asian Nations). To commemorate this, the Asean-China Film Festival has been announced to establish a long-term exchange and cooperation platform for the Asean film industry, in line with China’s Belt and…

October 5, 2017

Tan Pin Pin’s “In Time To Come”: On the Edge of a Snow-Globe Starburst

By Marcus Yee (872 words, 8-minute read) A time capsule of a film on time capsules, Tan Pin Pin’s latest film In Time To Come is underpinned by a confounding observation: Singapore’s national obsession with time capsules, despite the nation-state’s…

July 10, 2017

Three O.P.E.N. Southeast Asian Documentaries

By Dan Koh (1,231 words, 6-minute read) At the inaugural Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab in Bangkok last week, some of us participants chatted about how close we live to each other regionally, but how far it actually feels, with…

April 19, 2017

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…

April 5, 2017

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…

Mattie Do: Horror Film? It’s all Ballet.

By Chan Sze-Wei (903 words, 5 minute read) Many things have been written about Mattie Do, the pioneering female film director from Laos. She’s put her country’s horror films on the world festival map. “She wears international laurels including the BFI…