After 13 years of the Asiatica FilmMediale, co-founder Sebastian Shadhauser, reflects on the idealism that made artistic director, Italo Spinelli, and himself, to “encounter” the East.
When they were children, perhaps some felt their perspective less wide than the infinite and their lives a little longer than eternity. That time of childhood made everything achievable. When they grew up they found that they lived in a country where “reason didn’t matter”. Through this awareness, one could cross the borders of his own nation, of continent, of his social, political, cultural and religious structures.
The formation of the mind isn’t only educational but also environmental. In many cases, beside being literal, it’s also cinematographic. Western movies are deeply influenced by American cinema and sporadically Asian movies appeared in cinemas. But these movies were improperly considered “exotic”. When they were children, perhaps some felt their perspective less wide than the infinite and their lives a little longer than eternity. That time of childhood made everything achievable. When they grew up they found that they lived in a country where “reason didn’t matter”. Through this awareness, one could cross the borders of his own nation, of continent, of his social, political, cultural and religious structures.
Finding another definition of exotic became one of the reasons that pushed us to create Asiatica Filmmediale and our Encounters with Asian Cinema. They were meant as “Encounters” as it was not just film shows, and not just a film festival. “Encounters” define better the casual opportunities for research, and for understanding to develop. In 2000, after three years of obtaining funds, “Asiatica Filmmediale” was born in Rome.
Italo Spinelli (artistic director and the creator of the meaning and content of “Encounters”) selected movies with a primary criterion to find filmmakers and themes that are obscure or unheard of in the West. The other criterion was to show shorts and documentaries, which are not the concern of Western distribution. So films with a deep cultural impact was favoured over the spectacular glamour of red carpets. In this way, these movies gathered a small community of Roman people and Asian ethnic groups living in Rome.
Asiatica Filmmediale also happens to be that rare festival where tickets and the festival’s catalogue are free. This is to ensure that the “encounters” are not just for the advantaged, as in many festivals: where business takes over the culture.
During one of our early years, there was a director who used to shake our hands with white gloves. After three days of watching films, talking and eating together, he took off his gloves. He became part of our encounters. Today, Italo often greets people by carrying his hand to his chest and bowing. This is a gesture imported from India.
In Asian movies, the influence of Western cinema can be seen. It’s interesting to observe that the presence of American cinema was filtered through the influence of European cinema. Mostly, Asian films have innovative screenplays that recontextualise Asia, from old-fashioned stereotypes. In Asian movies, the use of scenography and music have a different function from European cinema. In European films, scenography is predominant, and is functional to the narration of the film, while music, which increases or decreases in each sequence of the film, highlights the importance of different moments. In Asian films one notes that scenography gives a highly coloured impact to sequences, and music is used to evoke the cultural traditions of various historical moments. I think also for this reason the audience in Rome unconsciously became attached to these “encounters”. Through the screening of Asian films in Rome, we created a comparison of customs, with Western cultures.
By comparing customs, morals and ethics, the audience could abandon the absolutism of its own viewpoint and be open to a cultural intertwining without giving up the expression of its own culture. By observing this in the small community of our audience (between 15,000 and 25,000 people), Asiatica Filmmediale has strived for a harmonic balance between different cultures. But if cultural harmony is possible, then why not in politics as well?
During these 13 years, Asiatica Filmmediale always had a big support from both its audience and embassies of Asian countries, but few acknowledgements from Italian political departments. Without ethical learning from culture, how can those in politics be able to govern their citizens? It’s not law that makes a country manageable, but the citizens’ conscious adhesion to the law.
Asiatica Filmmediale is dedicated to spreading these films. In the beginning, the dream was also to create an archive of Asian films and Western cinematographic materials. The archive could be freely consulted by everyone; with the possibility to buy films. The Instituto Luce of Cinecittà of Rome is such an archive that can be consulted. But all audio-video material aren’t exportable.
It is necessary to be able to exchange films that express artistic content, and the cultures of the world. Film directors observe events, and interpret their country’s environment, the particular and global history of nations and communities, with different points of view. Perhaps these films give a vision of how humanity can coexist with contrasts and contradictions, but without conflicts.
Notes on the competition films With only six films in competition, Asiatica FilmMediale vies with the Hawaii Int’l Film Festival for the most compact competition (Hawaii also has six). It does fit the festival’s aim of giving viewers a more reflective experience. Yang Yonghi’s Our Homeland (Japan) expressed the anguish of re-united Korean families that have been split between North and South. That theme of rootlessness was also evident in Mao Mao’s Here Then (China), which follows a group of alienated Beijing youths, looking for emotional connection. In Eytan Fox’s Yossi (Israel), the disrupted family is again seen through a gay doctor, who has to confess to his late lover’s parents that their son was his romantic partner. In veteran Girish Kasaravalli’s The Tortoise, An Incarnation, the importance of the family is set against the duty to the nation, when a man is forced by his loved ones to portray Gandhi in a TV series. In Gao Qunshu’s Beijing Blues (China), the cop genre is given a twist when the city’s top detective finds himself a captive of his family’s emotional turbulence. But the NETPAC prize went to Majid Barzegar’s Parviz (Iran), a tale of family breakdown leading to violence. >From the first sequence, the actor, a giant figure silhouetted in semi-dark light, contains in himself the entire story. The images are always a metaphor of the actions played by the actor. There is no psychological introspection. But step by step, image after image, we see him being progressively marginalised, leading to the final disaster. The disaster is the failure of a social community towards a fat, clumsy being who is taken for granted and never really appreciated for his helpfulness. The film described perefectly the absence of love, without any pathos.
Report by: Sebastian Shadhauser and Philip Cheah