With the tragic death of Tareque Masud in a car crash near Dhaka on 13 August, Bangladesh has lost her tallest filmmaker, and the film world an artist of refinement and compassion, qualities so transparent in his cinema. Author of several documentaries and two feature films, Masud proved his mettle on the world stage with his first feature, The Clay Bird (Matir Moina, 2002), produced by his American-born wife Catherine.. The film garnered three international awards, including the International Critics Prize in Cannes for “its authentic, moving and delicate portrayal of a country struggling for its democratic rights.”
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The world famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (1910-1988) has been the object of many books and documentaries (mainly for TV), but this latest one, Kurosawa la Voie (Kurosawa's Way), produced by Michiko Yoshitake and directed by Catherine Cadou, is a bit different. Catherine Cadou is well known in the film world for being a top French translator in Japanese, for numerous interviews and also subtitles for dozens of classic and contemporary Japanese movies, especially those by A.K.
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Contemporary Filipino film directors have a new mirror, consisting of forty-four retratos (portraits) in a book by famous Spanish photographer Oscar Fernandez Orengo which were exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) two years ago. The choice of the 44 direks is not innocent: most of them belong of course to the young generation of the indie filmmakers who emerged around 2000, like Brillante Mendoza, Aureaus Solito, Jim Libiran, Khavn de la Cruz, Raya Martin, Adolfo B. Alix, and Lav Diaz. But one can also find prestigious veterans, like Eddie Romero (the last survivor of the Golden Era), Elwood Perez, Celso Ad Castillo, Peque Gallaga, Gil Portes, Mel Chionglo, Joel Lamangan, Cesar Hernando, Clodualdo del Mundo, Roxlee, and of course Mario O'Hara, as well as younger ones like Raymond Red.
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The rave film of the 7th Cinemalaya Film Festival (July 2011, Philippines) was certainly The Woman in the Septic Tank (Ang Babae sa septic tank), a first feature directed by Marlon Rivera, and scripted by famed screenwriter and director Chris Martinez, whose own version of Joey Gosiengfiao's 1981 cult movie Temptation Island, was a hit recently in theaters here.
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Chidananda Das Gupta, film critic, author, director and one of the pioneers of the cinema movement in India passed away in Kolkata on 22 May 2011 at the age of 89.
In memory of this scholar, filmmaker and renowned critic, NETPAC organized a tribute at the India International Centre in New Delhi on 23 June. Aruna Vasudev, President NETPAC, Dr Asish Nandy (leading political psychologist, social theorist and contemporary cultural and political critic), Prof Saugata Roy (Minister of State for Urban Development), renowned artist Mr Jatin Das, all of who were closely known to Chituda (as he was affectionately called), and Aparna Sen, well-known filmmaker and Chituda’s daughter, spoke on the occasion. There were readings from the author’s books and a vote of thanks was presented by his daughter, Ratna Lahiri. This was followed by the screening of Das Gupta’s film Amodini with an introduction by Monojit Lahiri. Amodini (1994) was the first film to bring national awards to a husband and wife team: Chidananda Das Gupta won the award fro the Best Bengali Film while his wife Supriya Das Gupta won the award for Best Costume.
In 2005, Chidananda Das Gupta was conferred the first Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Cinema at the Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian Cinema in New Delhi.
As founder/director of 9FilmFestival, it has been great to join with the Bangkok Post as an organizer and communications outlet. When planning the 9FilmFest, we want to give all aspiring filmmakers the chance for recognition. What good does it do to make a short, and have only your family watch it? 9FilmFest co ltd and Bangkok Post Publishing are joining together to bring a truly unique and rewarding event to Bangkok.
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In the twenty years since it was founded, NETPAC has become established as the leading platform for the discovery and promotion of Asian cinema.The genesis of NETPAC in 1990 had coincided with the renaissance of Asian cinema. NETPAC gave early expression to the need to acknowledge and recognise the emergence of new cinematic talent among Asians. It took under its wing a quarterly publication, Cinemaya,which provided a forum for mostly Asian critics, writers and scholars to document and evaluate Asian films and subsequently add them to the Asian cinema canon.
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I first met Alexis in 2004. I was in charge of a young critics workshop at the Berlin International Film Festival, to which Alexis had applied. I remember that he was the first person to be selected; Ollie Baumgarten, Peter Cowie and myself were immediately struck by his enthusiastic promotion of independent Filipino filmmakers and the sense of conviction that his writing was important. This made me think he was cocky and self-assured, not always attractive qualities in a critic. But the Alexis I met a month later was - as he is often described - quiet and unassuming. Through our brief but rigorous interaction at the Berlinale, I grew a deep regard for the kind of critic he was growing to be, and I was extremely envious that Alexis was driven forward by a passion for the cinema of his homeland. He spoke and wrote in a voice that was always considered and provocative. One could not accuse Alexis of hyperbole, even for the filmmakers he vigorously promoted, or of unjustly dismissing films and directors that he did not care for. He relished debate, and I remember two long arguments we had in a pub in Hackescher Markt. - the first over Mario O'Hara's film Woman of Breakwater and the second over who should cover the tab.
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But did 25 years of the Thai National Film Archive actually fly? To me, I feel like time simply crawled, inching forward as if in slow-motion. Twenty five years have felt like 100 years to me. Or even longer. That’s probably because the film archive has become inseparable from my life. I’m with it everyday, from the time I wake up until I go to bed, breathing with it and living with it. Was it really 25 years? That’s only 550 weeks, or 9,000 days, or 200,000-plus hours! That’s nothing! If I were an old-time movie dubbing pro and I saw a shot of myself on screen - skinny, with a wild black beard and hair, rewinding a roll of film at a work desk, then the shot dissolves to show the current version of me - an old, rotund man not unlike a tanned Santa Claus, with white beard and hair – seeing that, I would have narrated the scene: “25 years are so slow like a bad TV show.”
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Prasanna Vithanage's new film, set in the social milieu of the leisure industry in Sri Lanka today, has no male characters of any significance. The main protagonists in the story are three women, two of them actresses in films and tele-dramas, and the other a night club hostess - also an actress of sorts.At the very beginning of the film we find the main character in her home, reading her letters, feeding her cat, making patties, saying goodbye to her guests and dealing with her younger sister who visits unexpectedly. This sets the pace and mood of the film. It is very much a sequence created by Vithanage to show a woman performing, or acting out her daily life. Acting and women are two subjects very much at the heart of who Prasanna Vithanage is, both as a person and as a writer-director of films and plays, and he brings them together in this film with courage and creativity.
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International Women's Day
We are pleased to bring to you, for the second year, our International Women’s Day screening!
Free online screening | 8th March
IWD theme this year is #ChooseToChallenge. A challenged world is an alert world. From challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge - Ubolsyn herself completely embraces the theme!
This year we invite you to a special free online screening of ULBOLSYN from director Adilkhan Yerzhanov. Our sincere thanks to the producers, Guillaume de Seille and Olga Khlasheva, for their generosity and their efforts in facilitating the screening.
The film tells the story of a girl named Ulbolsyn (Kazakh for ‘let there be a son’) whose little sister Azhar is kidnapped by the regional mayor’s brother Urgen for marital purposes and taken away to his village. Ulbolsyn wants her sister to be free and to enter her into a foreign university so that she can pursue a future career. As soon as she learns about the incident, Ulbolsyn decides to fight for her sister and face down the patriarchal world of the people living in the Karatas village.
The film is the recipient of the NETPAC Award in Tallinn Black Nights and TRT award in CineLink Sarajevo WIP 2020