Tilman Baumgartel (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The rise of independent cinema in Southeast Asia, following the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers there, is among the most significant recent developments in global cinema. The advent of ...
More
The rise of independent cinema in Southeast Asia, following the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers there, is among the most significant recent developments in global cinema. The advent of affordable and easy access to digital technology has empowered startling new voices from a part of the world rarely heard or seen in international film circles. The appearance of fresh, sharply alternative, and often very personal voices has had a tremendous impact on local film production. This book documents these developments as a genuine outcome of the democratization and liberalization of film production. Contributions from respected scholars, interviews with filmmakers, personal accounts and primary sources by important directors and screenwriters collectively provide readers with a lively account of dynamic film developments in Southeast Asia. Interviewees include Lav Diaz, Amir Muhammad, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Eric Khoo, Nia Dinata and others.Less
The rise of independent cinema in Southeast Asia, following the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers there, is among the most significant recent developments in global cinema. The advent of affordable and easy access to digital technology has empowered startling new voices from a part of the world rarely heard or seen in international film circles. The appearance of fresh, sharply alternative, and often very personal voices has had a tremendous impact on local film production. This book documents these developments as a genuine outcome of the democratization and liberalization of film production. Contributions from respected scholars, interviews with filmmakers, personal accounts and primary sources by important directors and screenwriters collectively provide readers with a lively account of dynamic film developments in Southeast Asia. Interviewees include Lav Diaz, Amir Muhammad, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Eric Khoo, Nia Dinata and others.
Khavn de la Cruz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Four Manifestos by Filipino Independent Director Khavn de la Cruz
Four Manifestos by Filipino Independent Director Khavn de la Cruz
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0014
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
A short manifesto by key Indonesian independent film makers
A short manifesto by key Indonesian independent film makers
Anna Backman Rogers
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748693603
- eISBN:
- 9781474412216
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748693603.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Anna Backman Rogers argues that American independent cinema is a cinema not merely in crisis, but also of crisis. As a cinema which often explores the rite of passage by explicitly drawing on ...
More
Anna Backman Rogers argues that American independent cinema is a cinema not merely in crisis, but also of crisis. As a cinema which often explores the rite of passage by explicitly drawing on American cinematic heritage, from the teen movie to the western, American independent films deal in images of crisis, transition and metamorphosis, offering a subversive engagement with more traditional modes of representation. Examining films by Gus Van Sant, Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola, this study sets forth that American indie films offer the viewer an ‘art experience’ within the confines of commercial, narrative cinema by engaging with cinematic time (as a mode of philosophical thought) and foregrounding the inherent ‘crisis’ of the cinematic image (as the mode of being as change). The subject of this book is how certain American independent films appropriate ritual as a kind of power of the false in order to throw into crisis images – such as the cliché – that pertain to truth via collective comprehension. In his study of genre, Steve Neale (2000) has outlined how certain images and sound tracks can function ritualistically and ideologically; cinema, according to Neale, both creates a horizon of expectations for an audience and also draws upon existing stratifications and categories in order to shore up established identities and modes of thought.Less
Anna Backman Rogers argues that American independent cinema is a cinema not merely in crisis, but also of crisis. As a cinema which often explores the rite of passage by explicitly drawing on American cinematic heritage, from the teen movie to the western, American independent films deal in images of crisis, transition and metamorphosis, offering a subversive engagement with more traditional modes of representation. Examining films by Gus Van Sant, Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola, this study sets forth that American indie films offer the viewer an ‘art experience’ within the confines of commercial, narrative cinema by engaging with cinematic time (as a mode of philosophical thought) and foregrounding the inherent ‘crisis’ of the cinematic image (as the mode of being as change). The subject of this book is how certain American independent films appropriate ritual as a kind of power of the false in order to throw into crisis images – such as the cliché – that pertain to truth via collective comprehension. In his study of genre, Steve Neale (2000) has outlined how certain images and sound tracks can function ritualistically and ideologically; cinema, according to Neale, both creates a horizon of expectations for an audience and also draws upon existing stratifications and categories in order to shore up established identities and modes of thought.
John A. Lent
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
To discuss Southeast Asian Independent Cinema is to encounter problems of definition, first, in trying to delineate the region itself, and second, in setting the parameters of independent film. ...
More
To discuss Southeast Asian Independent Cinema is to encounter problems of definition, first, in trying to delineate the region itself, and second, in setting the parameters of independent film. Southeast Asia is a diverse mixture of many languages, cultures, and beliefs pulled together for political convenience; it is a colonial, and later, Cold War construct of Western origins. The region and in turn, its film, are not entities unto themselves; they are inseparable from their Indian, Malay, Chinese, and other roots.Less
To discuss Southeast Asian Independent Cinema is to encounter problems of definition, first, in trying to delineate the region itself, and second, in setting the parameters of independent film. Southeast Asia is a diverse mixture of many languages, cultures, and beliefs pulled together for political convenience; it is a colonial, and later, Cold War construct of Western origins. The region and in turn, its film, are not entities unto themselves; they are inseparable from their Indian, Malay, Chinese, and other roots.
David Hanan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The essay explores Aryo Danusiri’s observational documentary “Lukas’ Moment”, a film made in Merauke in the province of West Papua. It will situate Danusiri’s first work of observational cinema, ...
More
The essay explores Aryo Danusiri’s observational documentary “Lukas’ Moment”, a film made in Merauke in the province of West Papua. It will situate Danusiri’s first work of observational cinema, “Lukas’ Moment”, in the context of the work of a number of key filmmakers who pioneered these interrelated documentary movements, among them, Jean Rouch and Frederick Wiseman, and an Australian documentary collaboration with Aboriginal people made in 1981, “Two Laws”.Less
The essay explores Aryo Danusiri’s observational documentary “Lukas’ Moment”, a film made in Merauke in the province of West Papua. It will situate Danusiri’s first work of observational cinema, “Lukas’ Moment”, in the context of the work of a number of key filmmakers who pioneered these interrelated documentary movements, among them, Jean Rouch and Frederick Wiseman, and an Australian documentary collaboration with Aboriginal people made in 1981, “Two Laws”.
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The article gives an overview of the recent upsurge of independent cinema in Southeast Asia. I argue that these films are examples of a new transnational cinema forthe lack of alternative: as the ...
More
The article gives an overview of the recent upsurge of independent cinema in Southeast Asia. I argue that these films are examples of a new transnational cinema forthe lack of alternative: as the political and social situation in the countries where they have been made does not allow for their inclusion into the mainstream of the national cinema, they have turned to an international market to find an audience. I argue that a new generation of film-makers has been empowered by the easy and cheap access to digital video. Thanks to digital cinema technology, film-makersfrom South East Asia have the opportunity to produce their alternative and often very personal works. Using Arjun Appadurai's influential essay ‘Disjuncture and Difference’ (1996) as a theoretical framework, I discuss some of the specific traits of recent independent films from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines, and point out their genuinely transnational nature with regard to distribution and reception.Less
The article gives an overview of the recent upsurge of independent cinema in Southeast Asia. I argue that these films are examples of a new transnational cinema forthe lack of alternative: as the political and social situation in the countries where they have been made does not allow for their inclusion into the mainstream of the national cinema, they have turned to an international market to find an audience. I argue that a new generation of film-makers has been empowered by the easy and cheap access to digital video. Thanks to digital cinema technology, film-makersfrom South East Asia have the opportunity to produce their alternative and often very personal works. Using Arjun Appadurai's influential essay ‘Disjuncture and Difference’ (1996) as a theoretical framework, I discuss some of the specific traits of recent independent films from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines, and point out their genuinely transnational nature with regard to distribution and reception.
Tito Imanda
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This essay discusses the correlation and struggle between the two motives in the recent wave of religious films from Indonesia: on the one hand, the propagation of religion to as wide an audience as ...
More
This essay discusses the correlation and struggle between the two motives in the recent wave of religious films from Indonesia: on the one hand, the propagation of religion to as wide an audience as possible, and on the other hand the desire to make as much profit as possible. After the religious melodrama “Ayat-Ayat Cinta” broke ticket sales records for local movies in 2008, a number of other films followed in the same year, confirming the beginning of the new film trend.Less
This essay discusses the correlation and struggle between the two motives in the recent wave of religious films from Indonesia: on the one hand, the propagation of religion to as wide an audience as possible, and on the other hand the desire to make as much profit as possible. After the religious melodrama “Ayat-Ayat Cinta” broke ticket sales records for local movies in 2008, a number of other films followed in the same year, confirming the beginning of the new film trend.
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0013
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This article was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer in September 2006, and caused such uproar in the local film scene, that the newspaper felt obliged to print a number of statements by ...
More
This article was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer in September 2006, and caused such uproar in the local film scene, that the newspaper felt obliged to print a number of statements by directors and producers in consecutive issues, that are documented in extracts here.Less
This article was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer in September 2006, and caused such uproar in the local film scene, that the newspaper felt obliged to print a number of statements by directors and producers in consecutive issues, that are documented in extracts here.
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0016
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Interview with Lav Diaz
Natalie Böhler
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Mingmongkol Sonakul’s “Isarn Special” (2002) as well as a number of other recent Thai independent films, such as those by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, refer to acting and narrating techniques familiar ...
More
Mingmongkol Sonakul’s “Isarn Special” (2002) as well as a number of other recent Thai independent films, such as those by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, refer to acting and narrating techniques familiar from Thai drama traditions. The ensemble of the troupe is fundamental, as all elements of the play, namely narration, acting, music and chorus, are divided equally and non-hierarchically between the troupe members, assigning to each their specific functions that are, in equal measure, complementally significant in the formation of the artistic synthesis of the play. An equally important dramatic tradition is that of shared narrating. The essay points out how contemporary independent films from Thailand continue a “aesthetics of discontinuity” that goes back to traditional theatre.Less
Mingmongkol Sonakul’s “Isarn Special” (2002) as well as a number of other recent Thai independent films, such as those by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, refer to acting and narrating techniques familiar from Thai drama traditions. The ensemble of the troupe is fundamental, as all elements of the play, namely narration, acting, music and chorus, are divided equally and non-hierarchically between the troupe members, assigning to each their specific functions that are, in equal measure, complementally significant in the formation of the artistic synthesis of the play. An equally important dramatic tradition is that of shared narrating. The essay points out how contemporary independent films from Thailand continue a “aesthetics of discontinuity” that goes back to traditional theatre.
Khairil M. Bahar
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Malaysian director Khairil M. Bahar discusses the production of his low-budget independent film “Ciplak” (Plagiarize, 2006).
Malaysian director Khairil M. Bahar discusses the production of his low-budget independent film “Ciplak” (Plagiarize, 2006).
Tan Pin Pin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0012
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Tan Pin Pin’ s 55-minute “Singapore Gaga” (2005), a tribute to the buskers, street vendors and assorted urban characters of the city state, was the first documentary from Singapore that got an ...
More
Tan Pin Pin’ s 55-minute “Singapore Gaga” (2005), a tribute to the buskers, street vendors and assorted urban characters of the city state, was the first documentary from Singapore that got an theatrical release in the city state. In the essay the director describes how she managed to get the off-beat film shown on the big screen despite next to no marketing budget.Less
Tan Pin Pin’ s 55-minute “Singapore Gaga” (2005), a tribute to the buskers, street vendors and assorted urban characters of the city state, was the first documentary from Singapore that got an theatrical release in the city state. In the essay the director describes how she managed to get the off-beat film shown on the big screen despite next to no marketing budget.
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0017
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Interview with Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Interview with Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0022
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Interview with Yasmin Ahmad
Interview with Yasmin Ahmad
Intan Paramaditha
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The essay explores the connection between the ways in which the new generation of Indonesian filmmakers channelled their aspiration through Masyarakat Film Indonesia/MFI and the larger discourse of ...
More
The essay explores the connection between the ways in which the new generation of Indonesian filmmakers channelled their aspiration through Masyarakat Film Indonesia/MFI and the larger discourse of post-Soeharto sexual politics. How do the new filmmakers see sexuality, and how does this perspective differ from that of the state? What is the significance of depicting sexuality in contemporary Indonesian cinema? The focus is on the debates around censorship between MFI and the Censorship Board in the Constitutional Court as well some films, particularly “Chants of Lotus” and “Women: In the Cut”, a documentary on how “Chants of Lotus” was afflicted by censorship.Less
The essay explores the connection between the ways in which the new generation of Indonesian filmmakers channelled their aspiration through Masyarakat Film Indonesia/MFI and the larger discourse of post-Soeharto sexual politics. How do the new filmmakers see sexuality, and how does this perspective differ from that of the state? What is the significance of depicting sexuality in contemporary Indonesian cinema? The focus is on the debates around censorship between MFI and the Censorship Board in the Constitutional Court as well some films, particularly “Chants of Lotus” and “Women: In the Cut”, a documentary on how “Chants of Lotus” was afflicted by censorship.
Anna Backman Rogers
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748693603
- eISBN:
- 9781474412216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748693603.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
American independent cinema is certainly a cinema in crisis, but it is also a cinema of crisis. A great deal of useful scholarship has been carried out on the notion of independence and the ...
More
American independent cinema is certainly a cinema in crisis, but it is also a cinema of crisis. A great deal of useful scholarship has been carried out on the notion of independence and the definition of indie cinema as a hybrid industry (‘indiewood’). This study partakes of that conversation, but from the perspective of the aesthetics and poetics of crisis that figure or visualise notions of ambiguity and the in-between. The cinema of crisis delineated here is one that explores the difficulty or impossibility of progression through extended moments of liminality and threshold. In a cinema of crisis, the concept of a plot is subservient to the investigation of what it means to exist in a moment of threshold within the context of a rite of passage; this moment may usher in transformation, or it may lead to stasis and not offer any form of resolution. What the viewer sees on screen are bodies that may halt, falter, freeze and become-surface, or evolve, mutate, dissolve and merge: these are bodies in crisis because they are either atrophying or becoming-other.Less
American independent cinema is certainly a cinema in crisis, but it is also a cinema of crisis. A great deal of useful scholarship has been carried out on the notion of independence and the definition of indie cinema as a hybrid industry (‘indiewood’). This study partakes of that conversation, but from the perspective of the aesthetics and poetics of crisis that figure or visualise notions of ambiguity and the in-between. The cinema of crisis delineated here is one that explores the difficulty or impossibility of progression through extended moments of liminality and threshold. In a cinema of crisis, the concept of a plot is subservient to the investigation of what it means to exist in a moment of threshold within the context of a rite of passage; this moment may usher in transformation, or it may lead to stasis and not offer any form of resolution. What the viewer sees on screen are bodies that may halt, falter, freeze and become-surface, or evolve, mutate, dissolve and merge: these are bodies in crisis because they are either atrophying or becoming-other.
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Interview with Brillante Mendoza and Bing Lao
Interview with Brillante Mendoza and Bing Lao
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0018
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Interview with Pen-ek Ratanaruang
Interview with Pen-ek Ratanaruang
Tilman Baumgärtel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083602
- eISBN:
- 9789882209114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083602.003.0019
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Interview with Nia Dinata
Interview with Nia Dinata