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Festival Reports

UNCOVERING “ASIA” AT THE KOLKATA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Mrudula Monday January 22, 2024

On the threshold of its third decade, the Kolkata International Film Festival held on 5-12 December 2023 returned bigger than ever, with over 200 films across 22 programs shown on 23 screens around the state cultural capital, along with talks, masterclasses, exhibits, and the annual Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture.

From the festive opening night at the Netaji Indoor Stadium befitting the incomparable movie fandom in India through the daily long lines and packed screenings to the emotional closing ceremony at Nandan, the droves of people—the culturati alongside the adoring mass audience—enthralled by the diverse selection of world cinema were a sight to behold for a first-time observer like me.

KIFF’s deep appreciation of regional formations in cinema particularly interested me. Apart from the International Competition, the festival promoted overlapping notions of regional cinema: the documentary and short forms competing on a national scale, filmmaking in subnational regions in various Indian languages, and a special interest in the festival’s home region’s proud Bengali cinema tradition.

A MULTIFACETED “ASIAN” REGION

Even the Asia Select, awarded by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), whose jury I chaired, featured seven films that projected a broader imagination of Asian cinema, a region all too often typified primarily, if not only, by East Asian films. Interestingly, in this case, East Asia is not represented.

From Central Asia came Kyrgyzstani Asel Zhuraeva’s God’s Gift; from South Asia, Bangladeshi Syeda Neegar Banu’s Barren Waters, Indian Pranab Aich’s Nanda School of Tradition, and Nepalis Rajan Kathet and Sunir Pandey’s No Winter Holidays, from Southeast Asia, Filipino Joel Lamangan’s Walker and the Burmese collective Ninefold Mosaic’s Broken Dreams: Stories from the Myanmar Coup; and from West Asia, And, Towards Happy Alleys, a documentary about repression in Iran made by Indian filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh.

NETPAC Jury at the Kolkata International Film Festival
NETPAC Jury at the Kolkata International Film Festival

 

MARGINALIZED PLACES, FORMAL EXPLORATIONS

Some films looked back on the formal traditions of their respective film cultures and retraced them anew. They opened windows for their viewers to witness often literally remote, socially marginalized, and figuratively hidden places.

God’s Gift derives its power from the folktale structure, reflecting on a society’s capitalist present, soviet past, and still deeper Kyrgyz cultural memory in a deceptively simple tale of an old couple finding a baby on their doorstep. Deftly, it depicts the avarice of this generation, which looks at an abandoned infant and sees an opportunity to make money, the state bureaucracy’s regimentation of people’s domestic lives, and, in these contexts, the capacity of the elderly to choose a new path and draw new life from age-old stories.

Both multicharacter narratives centered on vulnerable women, Barren Waters and Walker turn to the long-popular episodic melodramas of Bangladesh and the Philippines, respectively, to depict harsh social realities and women’s plight.

In Barren Waters, a restrictive culture in a disenfranchised community, prejudiced against migrants, transwomen, and the displaced, is unveiled. It combines the familiar song-and-dance interludes with the weepies and theatrical performances, punctuating the plot and providing space for emotional expression.

In Walker, it is police brutality that poor women must suffer that is exposed. Daringly referencing state corruption and inhumanity during the recent Duterte regime, the film unflinchingly uses the idiom of social realism, a political form with a long history in the country, as an artistic protest and means of revelation.

THE DISCIPLINE AND DEMANDS OF THE DOCUMENTARY

Three works illustrate the versatility and intensity of the documentary, each one showing the great lengths documentarists take to accomplish their work and explore new styles.

Nanda School of Tradition combines creative reenactment and daily observation to examine a centenarian guru’s exemplary life. The work, filmed over many years, is, in parts, a lighthearted drama, an existential-religious meditation, and a proud celebration of an exceptional man from the living culture of the filmmaker’s homeplace.

For No Winter Holidays, the filmmakers braved deathly winters. They visited their subjects on and off for months and stayed with them in the deserted Himalayan mountains for over a hundred days, cut off from contact with the outside world. The documentary masterfully portrays nature’s cycles, a village’s customs, and two elderly women’s personal histories and inner lives in affective, ethnographic, and figurative ways. 

In And, Towards Happy Alleys, a young woman—a cinephile and a singer—follows the trail of Iranian artists for years, learning their language and immersing in their culture. She interviews Iran’s leading filmmakers, among others, until her journey becomes a means of self-discovery and lending her voice to the cause of a people oppressed by their government.

URGENT CALLS FOR FREEDOM AND JUSTICE

The profound need for freedom—political, cultural, and personal—expressed as unsung songs, hushed murmurs, and anguished weeping—is the theme that weaves together all the films in the Asia Select category.

Broken Dreams captures these many sentiments and the current travails of different Asian societies and peoples today. Composed of nine short films—some non-narrative experiments, others documentary-like in their treatment, and still others straightforward stories—this omnibus is directed by eight political émigrés and refugees who fled the iron-hand rule of the military junta in Myanmar. Remarkably, despite the dangers to their lives and loved ones, they continue to make films that reveal and record heinous injustices and rally and clamor for freedom.

With screenwriter Ilgar Guliyev from Azerbaijan and filmmaker Modhurima Sinha from India joining me to complete the jury, we awarded the prize on 12 December to Broken Dreams and offered this citation:

“For its daring narratives and poetic visual language, weaving together multiple perspectives of protest against oppression and hope against all odds, produced collectively by freedom-fighting artists in exile despite limitations, restrictions, and threats, using the unique platform of film for social justice, the Asian Select Prize is given by the NETPAC jury in solidarity with Ninefold Mosaic to the omnibus Broken Dreams: Stories from the Myanmar Coup.”

 

Written by Patrick F. Campos

*A different and shorter version of this was published by The Telegraph India.

Patrick F. Campos is a film critic, programmer, and associate professor at the University of the Philippines. He is a member of NETPAC and FIPRESCI.

2023 QCINEMA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Mrudula Saturday December 30, 2023

A year after the first-decade milestone of the QCinema International Film Festival (QCIFF), it remains the main gateway of Manila audiences to world cinema and the point of convergence in the Philippines for international film artists and professionals.

The 11th edition, dubbed “Elevated,” which ran from 17-26 November 2023 in six venues, showcased ten impressive programs comprising 63 films and four parallel events. The non-screening events included a Project Market where 19 productions from the Philippines and Southeast Asia vied for grants, the launch of a book on Philippine independent cinema, a film industry conference, and the inaugural Young Film Critics Lab dedicated to emerging film journalists.

A still from the movie 'Mimang' directed by Taeyang Kim
A still from the movie 'Mimang' directed by Taeyang Kim

 

DIVERSE PROGRAMS WITH AN ASIAN CINEMA EMPHASIS

QCIFF’s diverse and well-curated programming featured some of the best in contemporary cinema from around the globe but strongly emphasized Asian cinema in the overall selection. The festival opened with Yorgos Lanthimos’s Venice Golden Lion prizewinning period dark comedy Poor Things. It closed in multiple sites with Anthony Chen’s Gen Z existential drama The Breaking Ice, the Singaporean entry for the year’s Oscars, set in the frozen border city between China and North Korea.

The Screen International program featured films by renowned directors whose works are screening in or have been awarded by distinguished film festivals, including Ali Ahmadzadeh, Radu Jude, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Aki Kaurismäki, Wim Wenders, Tran Anh Hung, Christian Petzold, Andrew Haigh, and Ena Sendijarević.

The Before Midnight and Special Screening programs presented works by We Jun Cho, Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, Junta Yamaguchi, Pascal Plante, Quentin Dupieux, Garth Davis, Gaspar Noé, Moshe Rosenthal, and Wei Shujun, while the Restored Classics section brought back to the big screen a Stanley Kubrick, two Wong Kar-wais, and a Bruce Lee.

Two of QCIFF’s distinctive programs are the New Horizons, which is composed of directorial debuts, and the LGBTQ+ section, RainbowQC. Films by Vuk Langulov -Klotz, Ira Sachs, François Ozon, Michał Englert and Małgorzata Szumowska, and a selection of shorts by Whammy Alcazaren and Pedro Almodóvar were shown in the latter, while the former showcased Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s City of Wind (Mongolia), Victor Iriarte’s Foremost by Night (Spain), Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper (UK), Delphine Girard’s Through the Night (Belgium), and Jeremias Nyangoen’s Women from Rote Island (Indonesia).

A HARVEST OF NEW PHILIPPINE FILMS

While QCinema boasts a diverse world cinema selection, it is consistently a platform alongside the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival for catching the year’s cutting-edge new works from the Philippines and the Philippine diaspora. Three works from different sections illustrate this well.

Emergent Manila-based filmmaker JT Trinidad’s short the river that never ends is a tender look at the life of a middle-aged transwoman struggling to survive with her aged father by the historic Pasig River in a decaying metropolis. 

UK-based British -Filipino Paris Zarcilla’s Raging Grace is a knowingly postcolonial and teasingly allegorical thriller following the horrors faced by an undocumented Filipina immigrant and her daughter in the “haunted” house of a British “master” and his scheming heir. Filipino auteur Lav Diaz returns to the festival with his ongoing response to Duterte’s brutal regime and the Philippine National Police’s complicity in the ex-president’s genocidal “war on drugs” in Essential Truths of The Lake, about a police lieutenant’s obsessive Sisyphean investigation of a desaparecido artist-activist.

QCIFF has also consistently supported Philippine documentaries and short films by simultaneously including them in various programs without setting them apart, maintaining programs specifically for documentaries and shorts, organizing an annual competitive section, and providing grants for their production. In 2023, the support for the Philippine documentary was apparent when the three formally and thematically audacious QCDox selections were screened for free.

Joseph Mangat’s Divine Factory brings viewers to a factory on the outskirts of Manila. In this paradoxical space, members of the LGBTQ+ community lovingly produce religious figurines sold to devotees, many of whom shun them for a twisted understanding and outworking of their religion.

In Nowhere Near, film diarist Miko Revereza examines the formation of his unsettled, alienated self as a once-undocumented immigrant in the US and now itinerant artist through his visits to his native Pangasinan in the Philippines and the familial mythologies and imperial histories that entangle him with this homeplace and continue to influence his striving toward liberation.

Khavn’s National Anarchist: Lino Brocka is a punk tribute to the revered Philippine social realist director, deconstructing fearless Brocka’s themes, imagery, dramaturgy, and soundscapes by reworking the auteur’s surviving films into a seemingly anarchic but meticulously montaged collage film.

Meanwhile, the QCShorts competition premiered six films that received production grants from the festival. These new works by seasoned and debuting filmmakers explore queer issues or employ queering aesthetics, not only in terms of gender representation but also of social, historical, and ecological critique. 

Myra Angeline Soriaso’s A Catholic School Girl is a lesbian coming-of-age story set in Iloilo in a brilliantly designed and photographed convent, by turns comforting as a home and claustrophobic as a cage, about a girl discovering the pang of desire and anguish in the same moment.

Apa Agbayani’s Abutan Man Tayo ng Houselights, on the other hand, penetrates the private world created by and between two aging will-they, won’t-they lovers, each other’s hard-to-kick bad habit, spending a drunken, pulsating, end-of-the-world-like rave night before attempting as the morning light rises to bid farewell and move on, yet again, perhaps finally.

Offering a daring juxtaposition is Lino Balmes’s Microplastics between the trauma of a boy whose yearning for closeness with his father is denied, leading to a series of unfulfilling and aggressive relationships as an adult, and plastic’s insidious and disastrous infiltration of nature, in time destroying everything it penetrates from the inside.

In the tragicomic unraveling of a rural couple’s marriage because of their excessive love for their pets, Aedrian Araojo’s Animal Lovers dissimulates the affliction developing from repressed queer desires when substituted by socially sanctioned but hollow and eventually antagonistic relationships.

The genesis of the Tamblot and Dagohoy revolts waged in Bohol against the Spanish empire is the subject of Roxlee’s characteristically vivacious and rough-hewn worlding, whose historiographic process, creative ritualism, and narrative logic follow no other rules but the artist’s, vividly setting Tamgohoy apart from the polished seriousness of the abovementioned works.

Finally, animator Che Tagyamon returns to QCIFF with Tumatawa, Umiiyak, packing an emotionally complex and broad-ranging social critique in an eight-minute film, combining the bright innocence evoked by doodles and cutouts, the ruing voice of a man grieving the passing of a beloved and the seasons fading in one’s memory, and the images of a decaying city, inhabited by indigents and migrants and neglected and, more recently, violated by state forces.

A still from the movie 'Mimang' directed by Taeyang Kim
A still from the movie 'Mimang' directed by Taeyang Kim

A PRODUCTIVE YEAR FOR SOUTHEAST ASIAN CINEMA

Besides heralding the arrival of new Philippine films, QCIFF offers a clear vision of the direction of cinema in Southeast Asia. On its 11th edition, the festival inaugurated QCSea, a new short film competition for emergent filmmakers from Southeast Asia, a fitting counterpart to both QCShorts and the Asian Next Wave. Out of over 300 submissions, ten eclectic short films competed in its first iteration.

These are Khozy Rizal’s Basri and Salma in a Never- Ending Comedy (Indonesia), a raunchy and irreverent comedy about social mores surrounding sex and child-bearing,; Toan Thanh Doan and Hoang- Phuc Nguyen-Le’s Buoyant (Vietnam), a queer and ebullient fabulist dance film; Sam Manacsa’s noir Cross My Heart and Hope To Die (Philippines), an exploration of the mundane obscurity of death for the rank-and-file; Bea Mariano’s anti-imperial photographic archival experiment, Dominion (Philippines); Stephen Lopez’s dystopian sci-fi cum political allegory, Hito (Philippines); Giselle Lin’s inward-looking personal documentary of trauma and healing, Look into the Mirror and Repeat Myself ( Singapore); Seth Andrew Blanca and Niño Maldecir’s tender comedy Kung nga-a Conscious ang mga Alien sang ila Skincare (Philippines), about the adversity faced by children reared by the LGBTQ+; Moe Myat May Zarchi’s The Altar (Myanmar), a Buddhist meditation about existence and political critique of her country’s oppressive military rule; and Kayla Abuda Galang’s Filipino- American slice-of-life dramedy When You Left Me On That Boulevard (Philippines), about the need to belong in a foreign land.

This year’s Southeast Asian cinema harvest put developments in Malaysian filmmaking in sharp relief, especially revealing considering the censorship its artists continue to face at home. Starting from an ordinary lunch break at a furniture store, Joon Goh’s Mop, from the QCSea Shorts competition, dramatizes power dynamics and the abuse of authority by occasioning for the viewer the virtual embodiment of force and vicarious experience of pain.

We Jun Cho’s Hungry Ghost Diner, from the Before Midnight section, is a joyous and endearing comedy celebrating the poignant aspects of Malaysian culture, including the centrality of food in relationships, running a family-owned restaurant, faith in resplendent ritual and the existence of the supernatural, and desire for familial reconciliation.

THE ASIAN NEXT WAVE

The Asian Next Wave, featuring eight full-length directorial debuts, also included two strong entries from Malaysia.

Tiger Stripes, which won the QCinema Pylon for Best Picture, is Amanda Nell Eu’s exuberant debut, exuding the verve and energy of new cinema, unflinchingly mixing body horror with kampung folklore, and critiquing the patriarchal regimentation of religion to control women’s bodies and identity formation, even from the onset of their puberty.

Another Malaysian triumph, Jin Ong’s Abang Adik, hews closer to the popular episodic melodrama familiar across the region. Still, it breathes new life into the form and, even through its suspenseful and action sequences, unapologetically depicts men weeping and openly invites us to weep with and for them as the film reveals the plight of stateless refugees, who must choose their own family and look after each other in a society where nobody seems to care for them.

The following complete the films from the Asian Next Wave. Thien An Pham’s Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell (Vietnam) and Nicole Midori Woodford’s Last Shadow at First Light (Singapore) contemplate how death and loss span the gaps between worlds and otherworlds.

Yellow Cocoon is a stunningly photographed, enigmatic road film in the vein of Asian works roughly categorized as “slow films” that dreamily follows the wandering of the bereaved in search for faith from the dense pleasure dens of city alleyways to the open and breathing landscapes of remote provinces.

Last Shadow is likewise a dreamy road movie, accompanying a young woman’s journey to find her mother, from Singapore to Japan, then from bustling Tokyo to the eerily quiet places in the Tōhoku region devastated by the tsunami, and from denial to acceptance. Like Yellow Cocoon, Last Shadow embraces the apparitions from the spirit world that break through the ordinary to imbue humanity’s loneliness in the material world with transcendent meaning.

Patiparn Boontarig’s Solids by The Seashore (Thailand) and Jopy Arnaldo’s Gitling (Philippines) are about crossing cultural borders and, in the process, finding solace in the company of the stranger.

Solids tells of a Bangkokian artist spending time in a southern Thai city to research and produce art concerning the seawalls that have caused environmental havoc and who falls in love with a woman from the Muslim minority population who is already arranged to be married.

While Solids employs the metaphor of art production in critiquing culture and imagining ideal social orders, Gitling utilizes the subtitles and the processes of cultural and linguistic translation between a Japanese artist visiting a southern Philippine city to finish his film, and his translator, who speaks five languages, including an invented one, in dramatizing how human bonds are sealed. From an initial transactional relationship, the two develop an intimate friendship that provides a respite from each one’s worlds and allows them to inhabit a liminal space where they can rethink their lives.

The last two films are from East Asia. Love Is a Gun (Taiwan), the directorial debut of actor Lee Hong-chi, who also stars in and co-wrote the film, is about an ex-convict wanting a fresh start but who finds himself without opportunities, sucked back into the life of syndicate crime.

Finally, Kim Tae-yang’s deceptively simple and anti-romantic but symbolically layered and emotionally subtle Mimang (South Korea) is structured around the act and movement of walking and three chance meetings across a significant period of time. It was filmed over several years, faithfully documenting the physical changes in its lead actors’ demeanor and the capital city of Seoul. The film’s three corresponding episodes meditate on rare chances, what we do in response to them, and how our lives play out based on our choices.

THE YEAR’S NETPAC PRIZE

The NETPAC award at the QCIFF is uniquely considered the festival’s Jury Prize. Moreover, unlike in other festivals, the NETPAC jury is joined by the main jury for the Asian Next Wave in deciding the Jury Prize and vice-versa. In 2023, the jury was composed of the following: Patrick F. Campos (Philippines, NETPAC member), chairperson, Panagiotis Kotzathanasis (Greece, NETPAC member), Anita Lee (Canada), Mark Meily (Philippines), Quark Henares (Philippines)

We met on the 22nd of November and unanimously decided to award the NETPAC Jury Prize, the following night, on the 23rd of November, out of the eight entries, to Mimang “for its precisely structured screenplay and corresponding long-durational filming approach that capture the simultaneity and multiple perspectives of regret, nostalgia, yearning, and anticipation paralleling an ever-changing city.”

Photo of Asian Next Wave Jury Members (from left) QCinema International Film Festival Artistic Director Ed Lejano with Jury members Quark Henares, Mark Meily, Panos Kotzathanasis, Anita Lee, and Patrick Campos
Photo of Asian Next Wave Jury Members (from left) QCinema International Film Festival Artistic Director Ed Lejano with Jury members Quark Henares, Mark Meily, Panos Kotzathanasis, Anita Lee, and Patrick Campos

 

Written By   Patrick F. Campos

PATRICK F. CAMPOS is a film scholar, programmer-curator, associate professor at the University of the Philippines Film Institute, and a leading scholar of Philippine and regional cinemas. Author of articles and books on media, art, and cinema, including The End of National Cinema and Scenes Reclaimed, he edits Pelikula: A Journal of Philippine Cinema and Moving Image, curates the annual Tingin Southeast Asian Film Festival in Manila, and co-organizes the biennial and itinerant Association for Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference. He has programmed, juried, or served on the selection committee for Singapore, Guanajuato, and QCinema International Film Festivals, Jogja Asian Film Festival, Asian Film Archive, Image Forum Tokyo, Minikino Bali, Cinemalaya, Cinema One Originals, SeaShorts Malaysia, and Cinema Rehiyon, among others. He is a member of both NETPAC and FIPRESCI.

 

23rd Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023

Mrudula Wednesday December 20, 2023

After a three- year absence, Jio MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Image) 2023 was back in Mumbai in a blaze of glamour, style and drive. The Opening Ceremony (despite its tardy start) at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre – rated the most technologically advanced theatre in India – boasted opulence and design. Acclaimed actress and Festival Chairperson Priyanka Chopra Jonas moderated the event while other well-known stars (Kareena Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Kamal Hassan) had their moments on the stage.

It was an evening full of impassioned speeches and one of awards that had been decided earlier. Veteran Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam and Italian filmmaker and producer Luca Guadagnino were honoured with Excellence in Cinema Awards, while Aruna Vasudev (Founder of NETPAC) received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her extensive work on Asian cinema, as did Nasreen Munni Kabir and Uma da Cunha – both of who have dedicated their lives to promoting cinema in many different ways.

NETPAC Jury at MAMI, 2023
NETPAC Jury at MAMI, 2023

 

This 23rd edition of the festival (it was launched in 1997) returned to Mumbai after a three year gap. And it brimmed with ambition: bringing in new cinematic voices, promoting collaborations and business opportunities and showcasing South Asian Cinema apart from, of course, world cinema. And one cannot miss the fact that three young women were at the helm of this complex operation: Anupama Chopra (Director), Maitreyee Dasgupta (Co-Director) and Deepti D’ Cunha (Artistic Director).

More than 250 films in 70 languages were screened  across the city. The fourteen competing films from South Asia were viewed by a four member jury headed by acclaimed director Mira Nair and other well-known personalities – Edouard Waintrop, David Michod and Isabel Sandoval.  Jio MAMI has made it its goal to become a hub for South Asian and South Asian Diaspora cinema. The non-competition section, too, comprising both features and non-features, had a focus on South Asia.

Enriched with retrospectives, tributes, restored classics, virtual reality screenings, Marathi films (comedy, drama, history, romance, experimental works) and films from around the world, together with a homage to the eminent critic and historian Derek Malcolm who passed away recently,  Jio MAMI fitted the bill of a festival that is rooted as much in the state of Maharashtra and in South Asia, even as it  stretched out  its arms to the world

It was Against The Tide by Sarvnik Kaur (an Indo- French co-production) which walked off with the Golden Gateway Award, a gutsy film about two young fishermen friends who have to face a hostile sea because of climate change and personal challenges. The Silver Gateway went to the Indian film Bahadur – The Brave which dealt with Nepalese migrant workers who want to return to their country during the pandemic. While Agra (yet another Indo- French co-production) about the sexual evolution – even obsession – of a young man living in a crowded tenement.

A still from the film 'Rapture' by Dominic Sangma
A still from the film 'Rapture' by Dominic Sangma

The NETPAC Award was won by Rapture by Dominic Sangma. Coproduced by India, China, Netherlands, Qatar and Switzerland, this beautifully shot film is set in the verdant and hilly state of Meghalaya.  In a village peopled by the Garo tribe, Rapture has a variety of interwoven strands that merge nature, faith, corruption,  church, evil spirits,  rumours of strangers entering the village and of kidnapping and trafficking in human organs. The NETPAC jury commended it for “delicately combining the natural and the supernatural worlds inhabited by a community and for evoking the mysterious challenges it must overcome both in itself and beyond.” 

For ten days, Mumbai’s film lovers were treated to an exceptional feast. With the high goals it has set for itself, Jio MAMI has a long road to tread. 

Written by Dr. Latika Padgaonkar

23rd Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival

Mrudula Wednesday December 20, 2023

What surprised the most at the ceremony of the opening of the film festival: that the festival is organized exclusively by ladies. Festival director is Anupama Chopra, co-director is Maitreyee Dasgupta, artistic director is Deepti Dcunha. I remember that 20 years ago, when I participated at Third Eye film festival in India, this was also Mumbai film festival where all of the management was male. I remember the program director, Sudhir Nandgaonkar, who organized that film festival within 19 consecutive years. In January 2023, he, unfortunately, passed away. Nevertheless, he has contributed to the development of film festival communities and film clubs movement in India.

​ Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in its title means: 

Jio – main telecommunications eco-system in India and its creator is Mukesh Ambani, who is not only sponsoring this film festival, but he also built a cultural center, where the opening of the film forum was held. 

MAMI – Mumbai Academy of Moving Images, where film screenings and other events take place year-round. 

Mumbai Film Festival is the biggest South Asian Film Festival that has been held since 1997. 

Our NETPAC jury that consisted of Latika Padgaonkar from India, Nashen Moodley from Australia and myself, we were watching the program that is composed of films from South Asia along with the main competition jury members. South Asia program consisted of 14 movies from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A number of films already took part in world known international film festivals such as Venice, Busan, Locarno, Saint Sebastian and Toronto. Five films had a world premiere in Mumbai.

​ Prior to discussion of artistic merits, it is interesting to learn the culture of the regions where those movies were filmed in. I could split those films into four categories: 

1. About rights and freedoms of women - A House Named Shahana (Bangladesh) directed by Leesa Gazi, Shivamma (India) directed by Jaishankar AryarA Match (India) directed by Jayant SomalkarThe Sentence (India) directed by Fazil Razak.

2. About a little man– Agra (India) directed by Kanu Behl, Which Color? (India) directed by Shakrukhkhan Chavada, Mithya (India) directed by Sumanth Bhat.

3. About immigrants – Bahadur –The Brave (India) directed by Diwa Shah, Dilli Dark (India) directed by Dibakar Das Roy.

4. About wonderful and mystical events in this world: Guras (India) directed by Saurav Rai, Rapture (India) directed by Dominic SangmaThe Monk and the Gun (Bhutan) directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, The Red Suitcase (Nepal) directed by Fidel Devkota.

Furthermore,  Against The Tide directed by Sarvnik Kaur deserves a special mention as it is the only documentary film in this competition and because it tells a story of fishermen of Mumbai city. This movie received the main prize - Golden Gateway. As Mira Nair said about this film:  “It is a pleasure to learn that such complex filming-wise movie has been created by a female film director.” Mumbai film festival was held parallel to APSA award ceremony and this film “Against the Tide” has received the award as being «Best Documentary» in Asia Pacific.

Among the films about females as a foreigner, I have been impressed by Indian culture of getting married that is still existing in the villages. In the house of a girl, a potential groom is visiting, along with his father and other male relatives. They are all asking her, the same questions: how old she is, what’s her height, what’s her education level, does she work in the fields and so on. Then they depart, with a promise to return back with an answer. That way in the movie A Match such humiliating way of getting married in a form of interrogation is happening seven times. In the movie, A House Named Shahana - a girl is getting married with the help of Internet, where she is traveling to an unknown Indian man in Great Britain. Two other movies are about elderly women who are having trouble to organize and to live their personal lives. 

Another category that was titled “a little man” - other stories about men or families that don’t fall into place. In the movie Agra that received a special jury prize young, sexually restless man who could build his family life despite his family that didn’t believe he could live normally.  In the movie Which Color? unemployed head of the family,   in the movie Mithya

– story of an adopted teenager, whose real parents passed away. 

It is interesting that the category of films about immigrants is completely different than in Europe. In Europe, we see immigrants that are trying to reach the west. And in this category of South Asian films, we see the stories of people who ended up in India. Undoubtedly Bahadur – The Brave deserves attention, it tells a story about Nepalese immigrants during the pandemic, and their inability to return back home because of the closed borders. This film received Silver Gateway award. Dilli Dark is almost a comedy about an African man who is trying to get going in Delhi.

Overall, the program was interesting and touching upon cultures from different angles. 

However, personally, I enjoyed the fourth category the most as it showed something extraordinary, mystical and spiritual. In the film Guras - a touching story about little girl, who is looking for her dog in the neighboring village, and parallel to her search she is communicating with neighbors and a monk and even with the spirit of a dead ancestor (this film received an award in Karlovy Vary). Nepalese film The Red Suitcase tells a story about the red suitcase and its owner, who is already in the coffin, and it returns back to the outskirts village and on the way, the driver is communicating the entire movie, who is the owner of that red suitcase, who was a business owner of  a road cafe in that same village (was shown in Venice). A film from Bhutan The Monk and the Gun shows of drama of the first democratic elections in the country. Why the gun? Because the monk is trying to bury two guns as a symbol of saying “no to war”. (Film was shown in Toronto, Telluride and at Mumbai, it got an award of the audience). North Indian film Rapture is a story of a small village, for me was as an Indian version of Hundred Years of Loneliness by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There are so many extraordinary personalities, and the way they lives are intertwined is impressive. Routine and socially difficult life is weaved with magical and extraordinary. And in that small community, there is everything: faith, love, adultery, fear, corruption, death and rapture, spiritual virtues, and most of all formation of a young soul. 

After extensive discussion about following films -  Against the Tide, A Match (this movie already received NETPAC award), Mithya  and  Rapture, we decided to give Rapture our main prize with the following note: “for delicately combining the natural and supranatural worlds inhabited by a community and for evoking the mysterious challenges it must overcome both in itself and beyond.” 

Written by Gulnara Abikeyeva

NETPAC Jury members Dr. Gulnara Abikeyeva, Dr. Latika Padgaonkar, and Nashen Moodley
NETPAC Jury members Dr. Gulnara Abikeyeva, Dr. Latika Padgaonkar, and Nashen Moodley

 

23rd Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival NETPAC Jury bios

Dr. Gulnara Abikeyeva

Kazakh film critic and researcher Dr Gulnara Abikeyeva was an artistic director of the Eurasia International Film Festival in Almaty from 2005 to 2013, 2022. She launched the film magazine Asia-kino, served as editor-in-chief of Territoriya Kino, and produced TV programmes about Kazakh cinema. As a member of FIPRESCI and NETPAC, she is a frequent jury member at different international film festivals. She is the author of twelve books about cinema, mostly about Kazakhstan and Central Asian countries. 

Dr. Latika Padgaonkar

Latika Padgaonkar is a columnist, editor, translator, former Joint Director of Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival, and former Executive Editor of Cinemaya, the Asian film quarterly. She was a foreign correspondent for The Telegraph in Paris in the 1980s; she has also worked for UNESCO in New Delhi and for the National Commission for Women’s Media Group. Currently, she is a member of the Media Foundation.

Nashen Moodley

Nashen Moodley is in his twelfth year as Festival Director of Sydney Film Festival. During his tenure, the festival has grown vastly. Moodley’s career in film programming has encompassed many leadership roles, including Manager at the Durban International Film Festival (2001–2011) and Programming Consultant for Dubai International Film Festival (2005–2017). 

 

43th Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, 12 to 22 October, 2023

Mrudula Tuesday November 21, 2023

 

A still from the film IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE
A still from the film IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE

The 43rd Hawaiʻi International Film Festival (HIFF) took place in Honolulu from October 12 to 22, 2023. 

Recognized as the vanguard forum of international cinematic achievement in the Asia-Pacific region, HIFF 2023 opened with Taika Waititi's comedy feature NEXT GOAL WINS (USA, 2023), along with feature documentary UNCLE BULLY's SURF SKOOL (2023, Hawaiʻi), they served as HIFF 43's two "Opening Night Films." Legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki's new animated feature THE BOY AND THE HERON (2023, Japan) was this year's Closing Night Film. 

Spotlighting exceptional works and discovering new talent, the NETPAC Award at HIFF honors one Asian Pacific title that is the first or second feature from the filmmaker(s). This year, the HIFF NETPAC Jury was composed of Gemma Cubero del Barrio (documentary filmmaker/producer, Talcual Films), Yuka Sakano (Executive Director, Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, Tokyo), and jury chairperson George Chun Han Wang (Professor, ACM: The School of Cinematic Arts, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, and NETPAC/USA Treasurer). 

Film Poster IOICH  

George Chun Han Wang and Gemma Cubero del Barrio announce the NETPAC Award winner at the HIFF 43 Awards Gala on October 22, 2023
George Chun Han Wang and Gemma Cubero del Barrio announce the NETPAC Award winner at the HIFF 43 Awards Gala on October 22, 2023

On October 17th, a brunch honoring the NETPAC jury was held at the Waihonua Clubroom. The event was hosted by NETPAC/USA president Vilsoni Hereniko and NETPAC Advisory Council member Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, and was attended by filmmakers and festival guests including actress Amy Hill, HIFF Artistic Director Anderson Le, and HIFF Executive Director Beckie Stocchetti. 

The HIFF NETPAC jury reviewed 8 feature films nominated by the festival this year. They are: CORD OF LIFE (China), A GIRL OUT OF THE COUNTRY (Taiwan), MY HEAVENLY CITY (Taiwan), ORPA (Indonesia, Papua), IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE (Mongolia), WHICH COLOR? (India), INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL (Vietnam), and YOU & ME & ME (Thailand).

At the deliberation meeting that took place at the Halekulani Hotel on October 19 from 9:30 to 11:30am, the NETPAC jury selected IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE from Mongolia as this year's NETPAC Award winner at HIFF. An uplifting tale of survival and hope, IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE is the feature debut of Mongolian filmmaker Zoljargal Purevdash. Inspired by her own life experience of growing up in the impoverished yurt district in Ulaanbaatar, Purevdash's refreshing coming-of-age tale of a teenage boy’s arduous journey to keep his family warm while pursuing an alternative future through the promises of a better education, is also a gentle but unambiguous criticism of her fast-industrializing homeland's toxic air pollution that is taking a heavy toll on the vulnerable populations simply trying to keep themselves warm in the harsh winter months. 

George Chun Han Wang and Gemma Cubero del Barrio announced the NETPAC Award winner at HIFF 43's Awards Gala, held on Sunday October 22, 2023 at the Halekulani Hotel. IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE director Zoljargal Purevdash graciously accepted the award through a pre-recorded video speech. 

Other awards presented at the Gala include: HIFF Halekulani Maverick Award for Korean actor/producer Don Lee; HIFF Halekulani Vanguard Award for Japanese actress Sakura Ando; and HIFF Leanne K. Ferrer Pasifika Trailblazer Award for New Zealand actor Cliff Curtis. As HIFF 43 concluded on the island of Oʻahu, the festival continued through November 5, 2023, with screenings on neighbor Islands including Hawaʻi Island (Big Island), Kauaʻi, Lanai and Maui. 

Vilsoni Hereniko, Gemma Cubero del Barrio, Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, Anderson Le, Beckie Stocchetti, George Chun Han Wang, and Yuko Sakano at the HIFF 43 NETPAC/USA Brunch on October 17, 2023
Vilsoni Hereniko, Gemma Cubero del Barrio, Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, Anderson Le, Beckie Stocchetti, George Chun Han Wang, and Yuko Sakano at the HIFF 43 NETPAC/USA Brunch on October 17, 2023

by
George Chun Han Wang (NETPAC/USA)

Jury Members:

George Chun Han Wang (USA) (Jury Chairperson)

Gemma Cubero del Barrio (USA)

Yuka Sakano (Japan)

NETPAC Award:

IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE
(Mongolia, 2023, 96 minutes, Colour)

Directed by Zoljargal Purevdash (Mongolia)

Citation:

"for its insightful and cinematic portrayal of a teenage boy’s arduous journey to keep his family warm, while pursuing an alternative future through the promises of a better education."

Brief Synopsis:

A poor but prideful teenage boy Ulzii determines to win a Physics competition for a scholarship, but his illiterate mother finds a job in the countryside and leaves him with his siblings in the middle of the winter.

Cinemalaya: Unearthing fresh talent and on the cusp of a milestone  

Mrudula Saturday October 14, 2023

Cinemalaya is unlike any other festival, at least its feature competition section is. Usually, in film festivals, international or otherwise, entries are called for and programmers choose a certain number from among them using various criteria such as quality, theme(s) of the festival, representation of a wide base of nations, number of slots available, and so on. Some festivals don’t call for entries and get their content curated through experienced curators. But at Cinemalaya, held every year in the Filipino capital of Manila, the feature film competition comprises ten films made by young Filipino filmmakers who are chosen two years in advance, mentored and funded to make their films – with the end products competing exactly two years later.

The 19th edition of Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, as it is officially called, was no different. Held during August 4-13, it screened ten films whose directors were picked up a two years ago from nearly 200 screenplay entries received, shortlisted to top 15 and then further pruned to top 10. The two juries – the main Competition jury and the NETPAC jury – watched these ten films, as well as ten short films that were chosen from entries received through an open call, to choose the winners in various categories. The NETPAC awards only the best film award in both feature and short categories, while the main jury has a wide range of categories to decide. The festival also screens a selection of Asian films – both feature-length and short – in non-competitive sections (Visions of Asia comprising NETPAC award-winning films from other festivals, Dokyu comprising a curated package of documentaries, and several special screening packages of short films including one curated by Lorna Tee of The Asian Film Network Alliance) but the excitement clearly is around the competition films as the festival every year has been unearthing fresh talent, some of whom have gone on to become flagbearers of Filipino cinema in both independent and mainstream spaces over the years.

Utpal Borpujari of the NETPAC jury is presenting NETPAC awards at the Cinemayala Festival
Utpal Borpujari of the NETPAC jury is presenting NETPAC awards at the Cinemayala Festival

This year too was not different. The selection of the feature and shorts comprised a wide variety of filmmaking visions, and every film was different from the other in terms of visualization, treatment and overall design. Uniquely for Cinemalaya, this year saw the first-ever selection of animation and documentary films in the full-length feature competition, marking a step forward for the festival in terms of widening its scope and opening a new window of opportunity for young filmmakers focusing on these two genres. 

The feature competition comprised quite a few strong films, and the wide range of award winners reflect that fact. One of the most-striking film of the festival was “Iti Mapukpukaw” (The Missing), directed by Carl Joseph E. Papa, which swept the best film award in both main competition and NETPAC sections. Software engineer’s Papa’s animation film effectively utilized the rotoscoping technology to convert real-life footages into animation, creating not only stunning imagery but also using it as a tool to create symbolic layers to its storytelling. The film wowed audiences with its subtle nuances while dealing with several important issues, and the fine acting by its cast added extra zing to it. Subsequently, the film has been selected as the official entry of the Philippines in the Best International Feature category at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Another film that left a powerful impression was Dustin Celestino’s “Ang Duyan Ng Magiting” (The Cradle of the Brave). A no-holds-barred political story, the film’s strong dialogues and overall energy could overbear its weakness of being structured like a stage play across multiple sets. In the immediate context of the recent political history of the Philippines, it’s an important film, but lack of clear references to the timeline of the story might alienate international viewers from the very same context. But nevertheless, it stood out as a courageous film. Another courageous film thematically was Gian Arre’s “Tether”, which could attract viewers with its intertwining of obsessive love with a biological miracle, taking it to nearly-shocking levels. Its lead actress Jorrybell Agoto (who also features in Kevin Mayuga’s high-energy “When This is All Over” set during the Pandemic times) is a face to look out for in Filipino cinema for sure, and it might not be a surprise if she becomes an international breakout star in the future. And Arre too is a voice to watch out for.

The overall line-up in the competition, including the first-ever documentary “Maria” (Dir: Sheryl Rose M. Andes), an investigative, political film on wanton killings during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against drugs, coming-of-age teenage drama “Rookie” (Dir: Samantha Lee & Natts Jadaone), Japan- Philippines love story “Gitling” (Sugarland, Dir: Jopy Arnaldo), nostalgia-themed “Huiling Palabas” (Fin, Dir: Ryan Espiosa Machado) and “Bulawan Nga Usa” (Golden Deer, Dir: Kenneth De La Cruz) and “As If It’s True” (Dir: John Rogers) on the roller-coaster lives of a social media influencer and her untalented boyfriend, was quite interesting in terms thematic and linguistic diversity.  But it is not to say that all the films were perfect cinema, and a few of them would have surely benefitted from further fine-tuning of the screenplays.

In the shorts competition too, a couple of films stood out distinctly from others because of  innovative treatment (specially the NETPAC award-winner “Hinakdal/Condemned”, Dir: Arvin Belarmino) or simple-yet-heartfelt storytelling (the main Competition award-winning “Sibuyas Ni Perfecto/Perfecto’s Onion”, Dir: Januar Yap). One would eagerly wait for quite a few of the shorts directors to come up with their full-length features in the coming years.

Next year, it would be 20 years since Cinemalaya had started. And like every year, the 10 finalists of the 2024 edition of Cinemalaya were presented on stage during the Awards night on August 13. These 10, who were chosen in 2022 and have undergone the Lab & mentoring process during 2023, have exactly a year to film their projects and showcase them in the Competition section in 2024. Cinemalaya is, very encouragingly, a good example of public-private partnership – a joint venture of the Cinemalaya Foundation, Inc., and government-owned Cultural Center of the Philippines. Starting with the 2023 batch, whose films competed this year, each of the chosen films are getting financial grants of Two Million Pesos – which come from equal contributions of One Million Pesos each from the Cultural Centre of the Philippines and the Film Development Council of the Philippines. Cinemalaya has, over the years, unearthed several generations of new cinematic voices, and this year was no different. The only dampener perhaps was that the usual venue, the grand Cultural Center of the Philippines, is undergoing a massive renovation, forcing the festival to temporarily shift for the next couple of years to the nearby and equally-grand Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), which is not exactly equipped to be a perfect film screening facility.

 

By Utpal Borpujari

(The author served as the chairman of the NETPAC jury at the 19th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, Manila, August 4-13, 2023)

THE KAZAN INTERNATIONAL MUSLIM FILM FESTIVAL

Mrudula Saturday October 14, 2023

The Kazan International Muslim Film Festival was held from 5 – 9 September 2023 in the beautiful capital of Tatarstan where Slavic and Islamic cultures meet. The festival is organized by the Government of Russia, The Rais of Tatarstan in partnership with the strategic vision group ‘Russia – Islamic World’ with the motto, ‘Through the Dialogue of Cultures – to the Culture of Dialogue’.

The festival offered a wide selection of feature films and documentaries in the following sections: Competition which included the full length and short features, full-length and short documentaries and a selection of films from Tatarstan. The Chairman of the International Jury was the eminent Senegalese director, Moussa Toure. The non-competition programme included films from the Turkic World, Ethnic Cinema, a retrospective of Andrei Konchalovsky’s films. A pre-recorded address by Konchalovsky was screened (since he could not be present) at the gala opening in which he stressed the importance of cinema (and the other arts) as a form of cognition of the world, which was different from, but as important as the knowledge given by science. The opening film was Two Captains by Bair Uladaev (Buryatia, 2023)

The 100th anniversary of Cinema in Tatarstan was celebrated with an exhibition and screenings of films. The highlight was a programme at the Kazan Kremlin in which live jazz music was played to accompany excerpts from the first silent Tatar film, the historical Bulat Batyr (1928). There was also a section of films for children entitled ‘Visiting Childhood’. Days of Turkish, Syrian, Chinese, Greek and Georgian Cinemas were also presented. Student films from VGIK were showcased. Emir Kusturica was the Guest of Honour at the festival with a screening of his 2016 film, On the Milky Way.

NETPAC Jury members at Kazan International Festival: Sergei Kapterev, Rashmi Doraiswamy, Ildar Yagafarov (From Left to Right)
NETPAC Jury members at Kazan International Festival: Sergei Kapterev, Rashmi Doraiswamy, Ildar Yagafarov (From Left to Right)

Films in Competition

The film awarded by the NETPAC Jury, Ada (Russia, 2023), a feature debut by Stanislav Svetlov, took a refreshingly new look at the coming of age of a young girl in a small hamlet nestled in nature on the banks of the Oka River, a tributary of the Volga. Twelve-year old Ada is loved by the community she lives in and warmly welcomed wherever she goes, by fishermen, by teachers…. The opening sequences that ‘locate’ this hamlet and Ada and the elders she meets are masterful in their pacing and rhythm that allows us to experience the temporality of that space. The high shots of the lush forest, that are repeated through the film give us a feel of life untouched by the high rises of modernity. This idyll is real, though. Ada draws and leaves her scratched drawings as imprints of her having been in those places. In the postbox Ada posts letters without any address to her absent and unknown father. Ada lives with her single mother who loves and supports her. Their relationship is very warm and tender, without both of them losing their independence. Her mother plans on making her relationship with Eduard, a teacher in the local school, permanent. Ada herself is fascinated by Viktor, one of the boys at school. The only ‘conflicts’ in the narrative is Ada inadvertently seeing a moment of intimacy between her stepfather-to-be and his colleague, or that between Viktor and his alcoholic grandfather. The rites of passage - of growing up, first make up, first love, first menstruation, first ‘betrayal’ - are captured in a style that is elegiac and elegant.

The Syrian film, The Road (2022), a different kind of a ‘coming-of-age’ film. A child has been labelled as ‘stupid’ by the school administration. The grandfather who receives this letter decides to teach his grandson himself in a very novel way. He makes him sit on a chair in front of his house and asks him to carefully note down whatever he sees happening on the road. By correcting his grandchild’s spelling, grammar and descriptions, the grandfather enhances his abilities to observe, understand and note down the events that transpire on the road of life. Warring groups that vow to finish off each other and grow more menacing with passing years, carrying more sticks and other weapons, bruised and limping, with old and new members but show no signs of giving up or of reconciliation; a motherly figure who brings in milk for the child, but constantly repeats that the milk can must not be washed; a man who has undergone abdominal surgery and curses the doctor because he cannot help the loud farts, but who later gets cured; a young girl from the boy’s school who goes around distributing traditional bread; the child’s father who occasionally visits and a poet who recites poetry about the times they live in…. these are some of the people who pass by on the road, providing invaluable lessons of life to the boy, making him grow up into an intelligent and capable young man. The director Abdellatif Abdelhamid, who is a VGIK alumni, tells the story of this unconventional education with humour.

Our Home (India, 2022) by Mayanglabam Romi Meitei is about the life of a boy and his family in an isolated fishing community on Loktak Lake in northeast India. The boy goes to school by swimming across the lake every day, carefully putting his uniform and bag in a plastic bag, so as not to wet them. When the family is evicted by the government and the new forces of development take over this village, the precarious existence of the child and his family is further threatened.

The Grand Prize of the International Jury was won by No Prior Appointment (Iran, 2022, directed by Behrouz Shoaibi). It traces the journey back home of a woman who has settled in Germany with her mother. Both are divorced. She learns of her estranged father’s death and returns to Iran to find he has left her a grave in his will. Intrigued and enraged by this ‘property’ she has inherited, she and her young autistic son embark on a journey of self -discovery, healing, and maybe, even love. Fortune, the much-awarded Tajik film (2022, directed by Muhiddin Muzafar)) was also part of the competition section. Set in the period just before the fall of the Soviet Union, it tells the story of friendship between two men, whose long association sours because of a lottery that ‘betters’ the financial situation of one of them. The changing values of the transition period is also depicted in the son of the ‘car owner’ (who keeps calling him on the landline and whom the spectators never see) giving up his training as an opera singer to become a taxi driver in Moscow because this is the job that will get him more money. The other son is corrupt. One of the friends is jailed, but he does not implicate his friend; the other dies unable to bear the stress of living in new times with strange values. The car that had been the bone of contention gets sold and its parts taken out. As this ‘hollowed out’ skeleton of the car is wheeled out on a cart, the dead body of the friend is brought home.

Shorts and Documentaries

The short feature section, Zainab Yunus’ Devotion (Pakistan, 2023) has the director playing the lead role of a young woman who wishes to leave her hometown, Quetta, because she has been offered a job she covets in the media industry in another city. On the day before she leaves her old father takes her around showing her aspects of life she had not paid much attention to and the landscape. ‘When we stay in a city, we become a part of the city’s voice’, says the father, ‘The city will be loyal to you’. The old man’s son has gone missing and he hopes to hear the  missing boy’s voice in the hum of the city’s noises.  The daughter, whose documentary on schools in her hometown makes a mark, decides to stay back in her city. My Life is for You (Tunisia, 2022, directed by Nasreddine Ragam) is about a young plastic bottle ragpicker who, thanks to the encouragement of her teacher, becomes a well-known oncologist who can repay her debt to her teacher when he is ill. Aigul Ablasanova’s The Manning Up (Kyrgyzstan, 2022) deals with domestic abuse and the difficult life of a woman trying to make ends meet with an alcoholic husband.

Two films in the short documentary section stood out for their evocative use of the landscape. Dmitry Semibratov’s Chechnya and the World (Russia, 2022) dealt with the unusual theme of how the war had affected animals who had left their environs but who were now returning to their old habitat thanks to the efforts of forest officers who were animal experts. Among them is a woman too who fearlessly scours the forests and tracks the movement of the animals. The war had caused the chirping of birds to cease,  the migration of animals to Dagestan and other places due to the bombs, and animals who were unable move because they had no legs. As one forester puts it, ‘In comparison to what nature gives us, we give very little in return’. Another moving short documentary on violence was The Land of Buried Women (Kurdistan-Iraq, 2023). An old grave-keeper, who is a gardener as well tends the unnamed graves of women who have died violent deaths due to honour killings, etc. As he remarks, the women are impatient in their loneliness for even their identity is only known to the municipality. He grows plants and trees in this lonely graveyard.

Among the long documentaries Isitas (Iran, 2021, directed by Alireza Dehghan) depicts the oldest adobe city by narrating the history of civilization through the elements (wind, water, earth and fire). A poetic documentary, it underlines the multicultural embeddings of human culture and the need to preserve this heritage. Sachin Ghimire’s Into the Mist (Nepal, 2023) traces the life and work of a well-known Nepali anthropologist, Professor Dor Bahadur Bista, whose research on tribes in Nepal was highly regarded internationally. He disappeared in 1996 and was never found. The film also looks into what might have been the causes for his disappearance. It uses tribal folk songs very evocatively.

Image from the movie Ada, the film that won the NETPAC Award
Image from the movie Ada, the film that won the NETPAC Award

Films from the Islamic and Turkic World

The section, ‘Russia- Islamic World’ had films from Indonesia, Bangladesh and many other countries. Of interest was Knots, a debut feature by Oleg Khamokov (Russia, 2023) in the Kabardian language from the Caucasus. It depicts the growing estrangement between a trucker and the woman he has married and the home they have built that has turned into a symbol of power rather than love.

In the non-competition section entitled ‘Turkic World’, two films from Kazakhstan captured landscape on a magnificent scale:  Storm by Sabit Kurmanbekov (2021) and Steppe by Maksim Akbarov (2022). Steppe tells the story of officers whose job is to protect wildlife. And older officer is training a younger one. Life on the steppe is arduous and there are those who live off poaching and other illegal activities as well as those who help others.

Well-known Kyrgyz director’s swan song Thousand Dreams (2021) also featured in this section. Sarulu, who passed away in March this year has left behind a body of poetic and ruminative works. This last film is about a young couple, a painter and his girlfriend, their estrangement and her return to bourgeois life because he ‘is a loser’. The story is simple: love, loss and disappearance into another world. The real narrative is in the very images Sarulu has called forth for himself and us. “Your new home is the night and stars; Your new soul is the wind and the stream; A little more and you will be out of the reach of the eyes of this world”, says Maria, a spectral being, who, it seems, has come ‘from the inner sea’.  The protagonist tells the story of Wu Tao Tsu, the Chinese painter, who drew a beautiful landscape on the order of the emperor and disappeared into it, away from the emperor. Marat Sarulu in this film has created images of dappled light over layers of more dappled light and shade. The rich contrast of black and white that turns into muted colour every once in a while is ideal for the play of light and shade. The film is about disappearance into a world that is away from the gaze of this one. The disappearance could be into the virtual one of lines on the computer accompanied by the distinctive crackling of electricity sounds, or the play of layered shadows, or the matted light through lit candles in movement. Modernity is present in the light traces of fast-moving trains and vehicles, or the fuzzy images seen through the windows of multi-storeyed buildings. There are the ruins of modernity, too, however, shown to us first by Tarkovsky in Stalker and seen here in abandoned industrial landscapes, empty train compartments, a run-down jeep, huge ducts of deserted factories, an old computer…. Geological images of nature are captured, too: ponds, mountains, rivers, birds, fragile bridges. Sarulu seems to be figuring his own exit ‘beyond the gaze of this world’, bidding adieu through ephemeral images that are real and virtual, of this world and of the cosmos.

An image from Marat Satulu's film1000 Dreams
An image from Marat Satulu's film1000 Dreams

The festival had an impressive fare of films. There were talks on industries and films (including one by Sergei Kapterev, the well-known film historian and NETPAC jury member), meetings with directors and a general spirit of bonhomie throughout the festival. The festival deserves to grow and expand, since it is showcasing films from lesser known regions of Russia as well films from abroad focusing on works from Muslim countries.

 

Written by: Dr Rashmi Doraiswamy. She is a Professor at the Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She was honorary editor (Assistant, Deputy and the Executive) of the world’s first publication on Asian films Cinemaya – The Asian Film Quarterly for many years since its inception in 1988.

 

24th Jeonju International Film Festival – Korea

Mrudula Wednesday August 2, 2023

Jeonju International Film Festival, which is held in Jeonju city of the Republic of Korea since 2000, is considered one of the important festivals of Asia. This year, the 24th festival is hosted by Jeonju City Hall and mayor Woo Beom-Ki, who is also the president of the festival. 

The festival was celebrated as a holiday with enthusiasm by all city residents. It was quite possible to see people, mostly young ones, carrying the accessories of the festival on the streets. In cinemas where the festival films were screening, the exact cinema halls were always full in all screenings. After the screenings, there were discussions and the audience were asking questions to the authors.

NETPAC Jury at the opening ceremony
NETPAC Jury at the opening ceremony

This year the festival was held under the motto of "Beyond the frame". As festival directors Min Sungwook and Jung Junho said in the opening ceremony, the main goal of the Jeonju Film Festival is to give a platform to films that break the usual frames, offer new visual solutions, new narratives and new film characters that offer original approaches.

Jeonju International Film Festival consists of 15 different competitive and non-competitive sections, such as “International Competition”, “Korean competition”, “Korean Competition for shorts”, “Frontline”, “Expanded films”, “World cinema”  (mainly, classical films are screened), “Masters” and etc. In addition, there are awards established by the festival's sponsors, as well as a special NETPAC award. (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) 

The NETPAC jury, consisting of three film critics including me reviewed 11 full-length feature and documentary films produced in Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea, Iran, Mongolia, etc.) during four days and among them, we awarded the Japanese film "Stonewalling" (directed by Ji Huang, Ryuji Otsuka), which stood out for its interesting and extraordinary narrative, visual solution, dramatic structure and topicality, with layers and courage, attracted our attention more than others.

The film “Stonewalling”, is the story of a young Lynn (Honggui Yao) who suddenly finds out about her pregnancy. She is at the beginning of her life, studying and giving birth to a child mean for her the rejection opportunity to have a normal future. Since only one child per family is allowed in China, the girl wants to leave the only chance of being a mother at a more favorable time.

The authors start the story from a very simple and ordinary point, but then the storyline branches out and many different layers are revealed, like social, psychological, spiritual, and others. As a result, the audience gets acquainted with the environment in which the young woman lives, her anxieties, relationships with loved ones and understands her attitude towards her unborn child. The authors in no way blame their protagonist, no one at all. They just show the reality in which she lives. The open ending leaves interpretation up to the audience and forces him to reflect on what he saw on screen for 148 minutes.The film “Stonewalling” shows the development of Chinese capitalism and it takes courage for a Chinese director to make a film about it.

Image from the movie Stonewalling
Image from the movie Stonewalling

“Stonewalling” is the third film by the husband-and-wife directors. Previously, the film was the winner in three categories (“Young cinema Chinese competition”, Best Actress-Chinese and FIPRESCI Prize) in Hong Kong International Film Festival, in one category in Venice Film festival (nominee GDA director’s award), a nominee Grand Prize in Tokyo FilmeX.    

By Aygun Aslanli (Azerbaijan)

 

NETPAC JURY:

Ms. Aygun Aslanli (Azerbaijan) – Chairperson, NETPAC Jury

Mr. Kim Hyung Seok (Korea)

Mr. Choi Yoon (Korea)

42nd Hawaiʻi International Film Festival: November 3- 27, 2022

Mrudula Monday February 6, 2023
Producer Kerry Warkia of KĀINGA accepts the NETPAC Award from HIFF Executive Director Beckie Stocketti, with   Pacific Islander in Communication Executive Director Cheryl Hirasa
Producer Kerry Warkia of KĀINGA accepts the NETPAC Award from HIFF Executive Director Beckie Stocketti, with Pacific Islander in Communication Executive Director Cheryl Hirasa

The 42nd annual Hawaiʻi International Film Festival (“HIFF”) presented by Halekulani took place November 3- 27, 2022 with a multitude of film screenings, events, and programs, and the honoring of invited filmmakers that included “102 features, 124 shorts, and seven nominated film programs. Among the lineup were 111 Hawai‘i premieres, 69 world premieres, 14 U.S. premieres, 10 North American premieres and 7 international premieres from 37 countries.”  This festival, HIFF honored accomplished filmmakers with awards that included a total of $21,500 in cash prizes; (info provided by HIFF). 

The well attended festival opened with a celebration of Hawaiʻi cinema by featuring outdoor community-based screenings at Bishop Museum of two feature films, THE WIND AND THE RECKONING and THE STORY OF EVERYTHING.  Such locally-produced films had a growing presence in this year’s festival with the collection of notably strong nominated films in the Made in Hawaiʻi award categories.  This year’s HIFF Made in Hawaiʻi films are eligible to be submitted for Academy Award considerations.  These awards were won by: THE WIND AND THE RECKONING (directed by David L. Cunningham) for Best Made in Hawai‘i Feature and INHERITANCE (directed by Erin Lau) for Best Made in Hawai‘i Short.

MAKAWALU crew at the HIFF panel event with HIFF Executive Director Beckie Stocketti with Kerry Warkia, Kiel McNaughton, Producers of KĀINGA
MAKAWALU crew at the HIFF panel event with HIFF Executive Director Beckie Stocketti with Kerry Warkia, Kiel McNaughton, Producers of KĀINGA

Other HIFF awards were presented to: THE RED SUITCASE (directed by Cyrus Neshvad) for HIFF Best Short Film Award, BAD AXE (directed by David Siev) for Kau Ka Hōkū Grand Jury Award Winner, and WHINA (directed by James Napier Robertson, Paula Whetu Jones) for the Pasifika Award.

This year, the NETPAC Award was presented to KĀINGA, directed by Ghazaleh Golbakhsh, Nahyeon Lee, Angeline Loo, HASH (Hash Perambalam), Asuka Sylvie, Yamin Tun, Julie Zhu, Michelle Ang; produced by Kerry Warkia, Kiel McNaughton, Shuchi Kothari.  Producers Warkia and McNaighton were in attendance to accept the award.  KĀINGA, is an impressive omnibus film which brought together the work of underrepresented Asian filmmakers with eight diverse stories of Asians assimilating in Aotearoa New Zealand through five decades. The jury shared, “Not only were we impressed by the seamless flow of the unique stories across time, we were touched by the magic that each of the stories brings and recognize the way this form of anthology film reflects the communal nature of native cultures – some of our strongest works come through collective action.”  

The other notable, eclectic array of films that were eligible and considered for the NETPAC award at HIFF 2022 are:

GAGA (directed by Laha Mebow, the first female indigenous director in Taiwan),  LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE (directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar, Philippines),  NEXT SOHEE (directed by Jung Ju-ri, S. Korea), ONE AND FOUR (directed by first-time Tibetan director Jigme Trinley),  PLAN 75 (directed by Chie Hayakawa, Japan),  and, WE ARE STILL HERE (an omnibus film directed by Beck Cole, Dena Curtis, Tracey Rigney, Danielle MacLean, Tim Worrall, Renae Maihi, Miki Magasiva, Mario Gaoa, Richard Curtis, Chantelle Burgoyne, Australia, New Zealand.)

The 2022 NETPAC Jurors included: ​​Elizabeth Daley, former dean of the University of Southern California School (USC) of Cinematic Arts for 30 years, currently the executive director of the USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy; Vilsoni Hereniko, filmmaker, professor at the Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; Anne Misawa, filmmaker, professor at the Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.  

HIFF Audience Awards were voted on by enthused audience members and went to:

DEALING WITH DAD (directed by Tom Huang) for the Narrative Feature Audience Award, THROUGH THE DOGGY DOOR (directed by Joe Alani) for the Documentary Feature Audience Award, E MĀLAMA PONO, WILLY BOY (directed by Scott Kekama Amona) for the Short Film Audience Award, and AGENT ROVER (directed by Gino Caruso) for the Student Short Film Audience Award.

Still from the film, KĀINGA
Still from the film, KĀINGA

For a full list of awardees and more details, please refer to the HIFF site-- https://hiff.org/hiff42-announces-jury-award-winners-honorees/

HIFF highlights included, but not limited to: BROKER, Cannes premiered film, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (MABOROSI, SHOPLIFTERS) and his attendance at the festival to accept the Halekulani Vision in Film Award; the attendance of Jung Woo-Sung, actor (of many iconic Korean films) and director of A MAN OF REASON honored with the Halekulani Golden Maile for Career Achievement Award; attendance of Auliʻi Cravalho (lead in the animated MOANA and recipient of the HIFF Halekulani Vangaurd Award) at the HIFF Future Filmmaker event; the PASIFIKA FILMMAKING: IN CONVERSATION WITH KĀINGA & MAKAWALU Filmmakers with producers Kerry Warkia (the recipient of the Leanne K. Ferrer Trailblazer Award) and Kiel McNaughton, (WARU, VAI); the Spotlight of Hong Kong Honoree event to highlight Actress Josie Ho, featured in her doc FINDING BLISS: FIRE AND ICE; the New American’s Perspective’s program industry panel with Deborah Chow (OBI-WAN KENOBI), Laurent Barthelemy (FINDING SATOSHI), Ellie Foumbi (OUR FATHER, THE DEVIL), Nardeep Khurmi (LAND OF GOLD), and Rena Owen (WHINA), amongst many other HIFF screenings, special events and industry panels.

NETPAC jury: Vilsoni Hereniko, Elizabeth Daley, Anne Misawa
NETPAC jury: Vilsoni Hereniko, Elizabeth Daley, Anne Misawa

The 42nd HIFF had an extremely strong educational component to its festival. This year, HIFF had several educational programs including a HIFF Online Creators & Critics Immersive which selected local emerging creators and critics to learn from industry mentors such as David Chen (host and producer of podcasts), Patrick Willems (filmmaker and video essayist), Taylor Ramos & Tony Zhou, (Vancouver-based filmmaking partnership), and Kirsten Stevens & Duncan Caillard, (researchers and film programmers).  HIFF Education programs also promoted the work or emerging filmmakers and included a HIFF Youth Series, Future Filmmaker Series as well as a Guest Filmmaker Series in which invited accomplished filmmakers visited classrooms K-12 and a unique venture that involved Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students in a “HIFFternship” with the HIFF organization during the planning and event activities of the film festival.

Prof. Anne Misawa (Hawaii/USA) – Chairperson of NETPAC Jury

Other jury members:

Ms. Elizabeth Daley (USA) & Vilsoni Hereniko (President, NETPAC / USA)

The 27th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK)

Mrudula Monday January 16, 2023

The 27th IFFK was held in Trivandrum from 9th December to 16th December 2022. It was an amazing feat, accomplished so successfully by the organizers and the newly appointed Artistic Director, Deepika Susleean.  Amazing as both the 26th and 27th editions of IFFK were held in the same year - 2022.

On the right: NETPAC Jury members  Indu Shrikent, Dr. Nina Kochelyaeva and Jayasree Bhattacharyya. On the left: NETPAC Jury with veteran filmmaker Béla Tarr.
On the right: NETPAC Jury members Indu Shrikent, Dr. Nina Kochelyaeva and Jayasree Bhattacharyya. On the left: NETPAC Jury with veteran filmmaker Béla Tarr.
 

Kudos to Deepika who in a span of 4 months was able to put together a robust programme of nearly 200 outstanding films, inviting several film personalities, and hosting interesting panel discussions and events to enthrall the 15 thousand delegates.  She gave a great deal of importance to restoration of films and the restored ‘Silent’ films presented with live music by Johnny Best generated a lot of interest. 

The legendary Hungarian director, Bela Tarr delivered the Aravindan Memorial Lecture, it was wonderful to be in the presence of this filmmaker extraordinaire. Bela Tarr was also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Iranian filmmaker and women’s right activist, Mahnaz Mohammad was conferred the ‘Spirit of Cinema’ award. Mahnaz had been arrested several times in Iran, the last time while demanding justice for Amini. She could not be present as her passport was expiring so she sent a lock of her hair with her acceptance speech, this gesture was very effective and dramatic at the Opening Ceremony. 

Serbia was Country in Focus and Emir Kusturica was honored with his films in the section ‘Chaos and Control: Films of Emir Kusturica’. 

The other special sections were ‘The Surreal Cinema of Allejandro Jodorowsky’; ‘Retrospective of Paul Schrader’; 50 years of ‘Swayamvaram’ by Adoor Gopalakrishnan; Restored Classics; and ‘Light & Shadows of F.W. Murnau’ among others. The festival opened with the heartwarming film Tori and Lokita by Dardenne brothers. The Best film Award went to Utama, a gem, by Alejandro Laoayza Grisi from Bolivia.

Still from the NETPAC Award winner movie Alam
Still from the NETPAC Award winner movie Alam

 

Some outstanding films by Asian filmmakers were presented in the Auteur Odes section. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker; Call of God, the last film by the hero of IFFK, Kim Ki-duk; No Bears by Jafar Panahi; the roller coaster adventures of Giwar ‘Xatar’ Hajabi in the biopic, Rheingold by Fatih Akin; two films by the prolific Korean filmmaker Hong Sang Soo, The Novelist’s Film (winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Award, Berlinale 2022) and Walk Up; Lav Diaz’s When the Waves are Gone. The award winning film Kerr by Tayfun Pirselmoglu was a visual delight, each frame a painting. It is the first time that the director adapted one of his own books which he had written in 2014. It won the Best Director award. Another film which needs to be commended is A Place of Our Own (Ek Jagah Apni) by Ektara Collective. Aa strong film about two trans gender women, the challenges they face as they struggle to be accepted by society, which will not let go of the strong stigma it holds against therm. Manisha Soni and Muskan (lead actors) of the film received Special Mention from the main Jury for their natural and powerful acting, and a Special Mention from FFSI Jury.

The films for the NETPAC jury were eclectic and diverse representing their respective regions with vivid descriptions of the problems people face in daily life, about migration and relationships. Out of the 10 films in the Asian Competition, six were debut, some films in the Malayalam Cinema today were also debut films. In total there were 24 films to judge and that is a large number for any jury! 

A still from the NETPAC Award winning movie Alam
A still from the NETPAC Award winning movie Alam

 

Our jury gave the NETPAC award to Alam Firas Khoury’s debut film.  The film about the coming of age and political awakening of the Palestinian protagonist living in Israel, is extremely well acted by Mahmood Bakri. Alam was also awarded the Best Debut Director by the main Jury.

The NETPAC Special Mention went to Our Home (Eikhoigi Yum). A family living on the picturesque Loktak Lake in Manipur and barely surviving on fishing is given an eviction notice by the Government. The repercussions of this notice on the family and their livelihood have been captured realistically by the director as he highlights the disasters of globalisation. Our Home also won the FIPRESCI Award, International Competition Section.

The movie Declaration won the NETPAC Award for the best Malayalam Film
The movie Declaration won the NETPAC Award for the best Malayalam Film

 

We awarded Declaration (Ariyippu) the Best Malayalam Film award. The trials and tribulations of a family from Kerala working in a factory in North India. The film makes a powerful statement about the plight of women both at work and at home and migration per se.

Our difficult task of seeing 24 films was made easy by the wonderful hospitality extended by the IFFK team! Nina and Jayasree will join me in saying that being on the NETPAC Jury at the 27th IFFK was an exhilarating experience!

 

Written by Indu Shrikent (India) – Chairperson NETPAC Jury
Other Jury Members:
Dr. Nina Kochelyaeva (Russian Federation) – NETPAC Member
Jayasree Bhattacharyya (India)

Interview

Supriya Suri's Interview with Muhiddin Muzaffar

Director Muhiddin Muzaffar (1) 2 Min

1. I entered the cinema through the theatre. I was an actor in our local theatre called Kanibadam, named after Tuhfa Fozilova. After working for five years, I decided to do a theatre director course. I graduated with honors and became a director. We successfully staged performances at international festivals.

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