Konfiden and the promotion of Indonesian short films

Abstract

After the New Order stepped down in 1998 and the Department of Information was closed down in 1999, the Indonesian government loosened their control on film regulation. At that time, theatres rarely screened Indonesian films and there had been no film festivals in Indonesia for a long period. Meanwhile, advanced digital technology had provided a digital film camera – for the non‐professional user – that more people could afford. Some young Indonesians believed that lots of Indonesians had a digital film camera and used them to make films, instead of just recording family gatherings. These youngsters – mostly from big cities – came from different backgrounds and usually met at alternative film screenings in foreign cultures centres or the Indonesian Cinematheque. Most were well‐educated and dreamed of watching films from their own country. They therefore organized a film festival in 1999 under name ‘the Indonesia Independent Film‐Video Festival’. They chose a short‐film format for the festival because it was easier for common people to make a short film than a feature film with a digital camera. The organizer of the Indonesia Independent Film‐Video Festival established an organization in early 2000 named Konfiden. After 2000, Konfiden tried to promote Indonesian short films at international short‐film festivals such as the Oberhausen Short Film Festival and Tampere Short Film Festival. After 2002, Konfiden’s festival was not the only short film festival in Indonesia. Several film communities in Java started to organize short film festivals. The Konfiden’s next step is to build a film market, database, and to shape the quality for Indonesia short films.     

A Review on the Ninth Shanghai Film Festival

The ninth Shanghai Film Festival drew a close on June 25, 2006, which coincided with the centennial anniversary of the birth of Chinese lm. For all fans of this lm festival, the happy time during the festival will become a most valuable memory in their lifetime.An International Gala for Filmmakers It has been now generally acknowledged that the international fame of participant lm stars, directors and producers decides the international status of a lm festival. Many international stars hav…     

Networking Asia Pacific: queer film festivals and the spatiotemporal politics of inter-referencing

ABSTRACT

Expanding on the critique of Euro-America-centrism in knowledge production, this article examines three spatiotemporal hierarchies through the inter-referencing practices of Asia Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance. First, through the analysis of the documentary short Lady Eva and its circulation, I look at how the network opens up the issue of Pacific indigeneity in the transpacific context, which has the potential to unsettle the existing epistemic structures that rest upon the binary of West/non-West or white/Indigenous. Second, I investigate how the queer film festival alliance serves as sites for the articulation of queer rights, which sometimes cast a progressivist temporal narrative based on a hierarchical arrangement of geographical places. Third, through the case of ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival, I examine how anti-institutionalism in film festival organizing offers a critique of gay-male dominated queer film festivals and the capitalist developmental logic that emphasizes profit and financial viability. By doing so, I scrutinize how the spatiotemporal hierarchies embedded in the film festival network complicate the understanding of inter-referencing as citation, collaboration, and competition. At the same time, I use inter-referencing to further the discussion of spatial politics in film festival studies by highlighting the spatiotemporal hierarchies.     

Queer cultural movements and local counterpublics of sexuality: a case of Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival 1

Abstract

This study is an attempt to examine the ways in which popular culture can restructure the relationship between sexuality and power, through the case of Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival, a cultural arena of newly emerged queer discourses in Korean society. In the past 10 years, queer discourses in Korea have undergone a rapid change. With heterosexual normativity being challenged and ‘queer’ being consumed as a cultural code, Korean spectators come to engage with a queer film festival in multilateral and sometimes contradictory contexts. This study will try to pose a controversial question to the heterosexual society by reading the complex interactions between film festivals, films and spectators while paying attention to the experiences of the participants in the Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival and pointing at the political implications of queer films now in 2006. Through this, I try to look for possibilities of a queer cultural movement which rejects being co‐opted by the heterosexual society, constructs new ideas of social powers in relation with sexuality, and seeks alternative visions for such change in relations.     

‘Somewhere over the rainbow’: global projections/local allusions in Tears of the Black Tiger/Fa thalai jone

Abstract

When director Wisit Sasanatieng’s retro cowboy flick Fa thalai jone (2000 Wisit, Sasanatieng. 2000. Tears of the Black Tiger (Fa thalai jone)  [Google Scholar]) became the first Thai film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2001, under the English‐language title Tears of the Black Tiger, Thai cinema seemed to have truly ‘gone international’. This paper examines the striking disparity, however, in the reception of the film by local and global audiences, to the extent that Fa thalai jone and Tears of the Black Tiger might arguably be understood as two discrete and divergent cinematic texts at the level of viewer signification. For Western critics, ‘Tears…’ is unquestionably a piece of postmodern filmmaking, awash with surface aesthetic appeal, intertextual richness and an apparently unrelenting obsession with style that is seemingly devoid of an original reference point. Fa thalai jone, by contrast connotes distinct meanings for Thai audiences, who are more fully attuned to the original references the film pursues and able to read the aesthetic appeal it has to offer in a framework beyond that of the dominant ‘force field’ of interpretation that postmodernism has come to be in the West. Instead Fa thalai jone offers a homage to Thailand’s cinematic past, posing as a ‘genuine Thai film’ (phaphayon thai thae) and comprehended in terms of an alternative dominant force field of meaning, that of traditionalism and reverence for the past. This paper examines the ways in which Tears of the Black Tiger/Fa thalai jone straddles two alternative interpretive positions in an accomplished move on the part of the director to pursue the globally focused aspirations of modern Thai cinema while remaining idiosyncratically faithful to local sensibilities.     

Kim Ki Duk’s promise,Zanussi’s betrayal: film festival,world cinema and the subject of the region

This paper, focusing on the short film, Dear Kim (2009), and a debate between Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi and Marxist intellectual P. Govinda Pillai at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in 1998, attempts to understand the work done by the category of “world cinema” and the institution of the film festival in the formation of the subject of the region, in this case the south Indian state of Kerala. It focuses on the linguistic region formed in post-independence India, thought of as either mirroring or resisting the nation, and as a cultural resource necessary to inhabit the nation as a citizen. The paper argues for a conception of the subject of the region that is performative, where it negotiates multiple horizons of universality simultaneously. While the figure of the citizen provides it with one horizon of universality, the subject is not exhausted by it. In the case of Kerala, through the figuration of a conception of “world,” operationalized through the conduit of “world cinema,” often located in the institutional space of the film festival, the subject is able to access other horizons of universality, enabling it to transcend the particularities that a politics of location imposes on it.     

异乡年夜饭

今天是中国的除夕。德国大雪飘飘．一片冷清．寥寥无几的行人冻得板着脸，脚步匆匆。车辆夹着雪花，开得逃一样地快。完全没有一点过春节的气氛。除了我坐在暖洋洋的屋里，给远方的亲朋好友打简短的电话拜年，七拜八拜，被那边的热闹气氛感染了，声音也大了，放鞭炮一样的热闹。     

NATIONAL GALLERY EXHIBITS NEW YEAR PAINTINGS

The National Art Museum of China opened an exhibition to display its collection of New Year painting masterpieces prior to the Spring Festival 2008, or Chinese New Year.     

Festival of China Strengthens US-China Cultural Ties

On the evening of October 1, 2005, dazzling art shows in Eisenhower Stage in Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. kicked off the month-long Festival of China. Both Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George. W. Bush and his wife sent congratulatory messages to the festival. In his message, Hu said, "The historic charms and growing vitality of Chinese culture, as demonstrated in the Festival of China, will help American people to better know about China and promote exchange and …     

Comment on Hanasaki Kohei: decolonalization and the assumption of war responsibility

Abstract

The first Asian Lesbian Film and Video Festival, held in Taipei in August 2005, brought forth media art, social activism and cultural exchange on one occasion. It provided a rare opportunity to showcase the experience of Asian lesbians, which is vastly different from the experience of those in Western countries. While there were great similarities in their love experiences among the 36 Asian lesbian shorts selected, they also reflected the differences among the Asian countries in terms of local development of tongzhi culture and community as well as the visibility of tongzhis. Among the Chinese communities, Taiwan was seen to be at the forefront of the development of tongzhi culture, Mainland China was new to the movement, and Hong Kong was somewhere in‐between. Japanese and Korean videos took a critical and reflective attitude towards social regulations and mainstream thoughts, although witty and farcical at times. While the Filipinos show a more tolerant attitude to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community, the major oppressive forces on lesbians were poverty, gender inequality and sexual violence. Only one Israeli documentary was shown at the film festival, which focused on lesbians living in the Jewish Orthodox traditions. The film won international acclaim and attracted much public attention to the issue. Films and videos were found to be an effective means to transcend language barriers and cultural differences for a true cross‐cultural exchange among Asian lesbians. During the few days of festival, a ‘queer nation’, not defined by nationalities or languages, but by the pursuit of love expressions, was constructed around The Taipei House.     

CHINA NATIONAL GRAND THEATRE TO OPEN

On September 25 when Chinese people celebrated their traditional festivity -- the Mid-Autumn Festival, China National Grand Theatre, after nearly six years of construction, has its true face unveiled to the public. Lit up by spotlight at night, the huge egg-shell-shaped structure stood tall like a shining pearl amidst the rippled pool.     

Ancestors and orphan ghosts: Henghua Salvation Rituals of the festival of universal deliverance of the seventh lunar month in Malaysia

Based on field observations and textual analysis of the Salvation Ritual of the Henghua community (those from Xinghua) in Seremban, Malaysia, this article studies mechanisms of cultural transfer and localization strategies in overseas Chinese communities. In Xinghua, ancestors and orphan ghosts are worshiped according to different ritual traditions. Worshiping ancestors is usually done during the Zhongyuan Festival (in the seventh lunar month), and worshiping orphan ghosts is usually reserved for the Xiayuan Festival (in the tenth lunar month). However, the Salvation Ritual of the Henghua community in Seremban is different: it worships not only ancestors, but also orphan ghosts. Worshiping ancestors is a continuation of the Zhongyuan ritual tradition in Xinghua, and worshiping orphan ghosts is influenced by the tradition of the Hokkien communities in Seremban. As a “mixed” religious ritual, the Salvation Ritual has been adapted to the special historical environment in overseas Chinese communities, and has strengthened the social-cultural networks among fellow members of the same village and lineage.     

Beijing Stages Olympic Cultural Festival

Ten Olympic songs were premiered on July 16 at a grand ceremony at Beijing Olympic Sports Centre, marking the end of the third Beijing 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival. According to the organizers, the collecting campaign for Olympic songs will be held annually until 2007, from which the final theme songs for 2008 Games may be chosen. The third Beijing 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival, which was launched on June 23 with the theme of "Civilization of Beijing, Passion for the Olympic Games",…     

The camera in pain: memories of the Cold War in East Asian independent documentaries

Abstract

This article begins with a discussion of the changing topography of cultural production in East Asia over the last 25?years, especially as it concerns the genre of independent documentary film, and then it turns to three independent documentaries filmed in Japan and North Korea, South Korea and Japan, and China, respectively: Yang Yong-hi's Dear Pyongyang (2005 Dear Pyongyang. 2005. Directed by Yang Yong-hi. Busan International Film Festival. [Google Scholar]), Mun Jeong-hyun's Grandmother's Flower (2007 Grandmother's Flower. 2007. Directed by Mun Jeong-hyun. Busan International Film Festival: [Google Scholar]), and Wang Bing's He Fengming: A Chinese Memoir (2006). Erased from the official historical record and excluded from public commemoration, the alternate history of pain traced by these documentaries resubmits the Cold War to examination from deep inside its most private wounds. In the process, the filmmakers encounter not only the memories of the earlier generation that lived through the most violent episodes of the Cold War, but also come to question their own history and identities within the process of the Cold War's decomposition.     

Ritual and Social Change: Chinese Rural–Urban Migrant Workers’ Spring Festival Homecoming as Secular Pilgrimage

Drawing upon Clifford Geertz’s interpretive approach to ritual, this study examines the meaning of the annual Spring Festival homecoming performed by rural-to-urban migrant workers in China. Built on participant observation of the ritual and in-depth interviews with 25 migrant workers, I suggest that the homecoming is a secular pilgrimage, the meaning of which emerges around travelers’ communication about suffering on the journey and the pursuit of an ideal “home” through communal traveling. This ritual exemplifies symbolic forms of communication used to cope with and make sense of social changes in modern societies.     

Music and Middle-Class Culture in Early Nineteenth-Century Leipzig and Birmingham

ABSTRACT

This article concerns the making of bourgeois cultural identity by way of analysing and comparing the ethos and organization of Leipzig's Gewandhaus and Birmingham's Triennial Festival during the nineteenth century. Whilst the origins of Leipzig's music culture are placed firmly within the emergent tradition of Kantian and Romantic idealism and the eighteenth-century revival of classicism which informed the cultural and educational ethos of the German Bürgertum, the beginnings of Birmingham's music culture are placed within the context of British empiricism. Both are then substantiated through an empirical analysis of concert repertoires, journals, newspapers and attitudes towards conductors and artists.     

Developing the evidence base for UK film strategy: the research process at the UK Film Council

The UK Film Council established a Research and Statistics Unit in order to gather data relating to film to inform the development of UK Film Council strategy and to provide an information service to the industry, government, the arts and cultural sector and the wider research community. The Research and Statistics Unit draws data from both official and unofficial sources and commissions its own special-purpose studies to gather information relevant to the strategic objectives of the Council. Key tasks are the measurement of the size of the market for film and the various elements of the film value chain, the performance of films supported by the UK Film Council and the performance of UK films in general. Special-purpose research projects currently include a detailed survey of the film production workforce, a study of the economic impact of the UK screen industries and studies of the social impact of local cinemas and the experience of Black- and Minority-led film production companies. A range of industry and official partners are collaborating in these studies. The Research and Statistics Unit also provides statistical and policy analysis relating to the wider policy environment of UK film, including issues such as the future of film tax incentives. This analysis has been developed within the HM Treasury ‘Green Book’ framework with particular reference to understanding market failure in relation to film. Central to the market failure argument is the cultural value of film in both its qualitative and its quantitative aspects. UK Film Council research is placed in the context of the literature on hedonic pricing and contingent valuation. The industrial challenges of increasing cultural value are discussed. Finally, consideration is given to the potential of film to contribute directly to ‘public value’.     

Social inclusivity,cultural diversity and online film consumption

It has been argued that the circulation of film online is a “democratising process”, evident in the breadth and depth of international film now available online, and in the greater ease of access to this content for audiences across the world. This is seen by some to present greater commercial opportunities for film-making from countries marginalised by previous distribution networks, and to foster a more globally diverse and inclusive film-viewing culture, with particular benefits for diasporic populations. Others, however, have pointed to the way in which audiences’ engagement with film online may be constrained by the economics and technology of online distribution and cultural competencies rooted in social stratification. These factors may limit how and what audiences watch, extending beyond issues of physical access to those of cultural access. As such, they raise questions regarding the demographic composition of the audience for online methods of film distribution and different types of international film. We lack sufficient understanding of these issues, however, due to the limited emphasis upon socio-demographic variables in existing academic research into online film consumption, and the limited consideration of particular film content in relevant market research. This article uses original audience research to interrogate the extent to which online distribution is able to connect audiences to a diversity of international film in comparison to other methods of distribution. It also considers some of the socio-demographic characteristics of the audiences for different methods of distribution and types of international film. In doing so, the article grants us a clearer understanding of the degree to which online film distribution fosters diversity and inclusivity through the connections it facilitates between audiences and content.     

The Cultural Politics of Horror Film Criticism

This article examines film criticism as a social practice. Specifically, it explores the institutional politics of horror film criticism and the various ways critics of the genre justify their own readings and interpretive discourse. It does so by way of positing a horror film “reading formation,” which serves a critical-institutional function within the film academy, namely, securing academic legitimacy for the genre while shoring up cultural and political distinctions specific to elite modes of analysis. Accordingly, the article argues that three intertextual mechanisms (canonical recycling, political auteurism, and symptomatic interpretation) both condition the appropriation of horror film texts as legitimate objects-to-be-read and work to sustain discursive power relations between scholastically credentialed and “nonexpert” reading subjects.     

Renationalisation and resistance of Hong Kong cinema: Milkyway Image’s journey to Mainland China

Hong Kong cinema is an emerging component of the booming Chinese film industry twenty years after the transfer of Hong Kong’s sovereignty from Britain to China. Hong Kong filmmakers and film companies now routinely collaborate with the mainland industry to produce for the mainland audience, prompting many creative artists and companies of the Hong Kong industry to relocate to the mainland. Based on the fundamental idea that both mainland Chinese cinema and Hong Kong cinema are constantly reshaping as a result of inter- and trans-cultural exchanges, this article adopts a bottom-up approach to re-examine the top-down-managed cultural nationalisation of Hong Kong cinema. Hong Kong (co-)produced films are increasingly devoid of local sensibilities and identities. Film companies and talents of the Hong Kong film industry, at least in the mainstream sector, are gradually incorporated into the film industry in the mainland. Notwithstanding these overwhelming tendencies, I suggest that Hong Kong cinema’s legacies exist beyond narrative strategies and genre approaches, and have started to show in film companies’ role in, and their capability of, challenging and reshaping the future of the Chinese screenscape. Specifically, through the examination of a series of film projects from Milkyway Image, a Hong Kong-based film production company, this article shows that Hong Kong cinema’s renationalisation is a process of simultaneous cooperation, negotiation, and resistance.