Glimpses of Freedom: Independent Cinema in Southeast Asia

by May Adadol Ingawanij (Editor), Benjamin McKay (Editor)

Overview

Since the late 1990s, a vivid new sphere of cinematic practice in Southeast Asia has emerged and been identified as independent. What exactly does this term mean in relation to the way films and videos are made, and the way they look? How do issues of festival circulation, piracy, technology, state and institutional power, and spectatorship apply to practices of independent cinema throughout the diverse region? The authors who speak in this volume—contemporary filmmakers, critics, curators, festival organizers—answer these questions. They describe and analyze the emerging field of Southeast Asian cinema, which they know firsthand and have helped create and foster.

Glimpses of Freedom is the outcome of a project collaboratively conceived by a new generation of scholars of cinema in Southeast Asia, inspired by the growing domestic and international visibility of notable films and videos from the region. Contributors include internationally esteemed independent filmmakers, critics, and curators based in Southeast Asia, such as Hassan Abd Muthalib, Alexis A. Tioseco, Chris Chong Chan Fui, and John Torres. International scholars such as Benedict Anderson, Benjamin McKay, May Adadol Ingawanij, and Gaik Cheng Khoo contextualize and theorize Southeast Asia's "independent film cultures." The interaction between practitioners and critics in this volume illuminates a contemporary artistic field, clarifying its particular character and its vital contributions to cinema worldwide.

Contributors

Benedict Anderson, Cornell University; Tilman Baumgärtel, Royal University of Phnom Penh; Angie Bexley, College of Asia and the Pacific (Australian National University); Chris Chong, independent film director, Malaysia; Hassan Abd Muthalib (artist, writer, and film director), Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia; Eloisa May P. Hernandez, University of the Philippines, Diliman; May Adadol Ingawanij, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, University of Westminster; Gaik Cheng Khoo, Australian National University; Mariam Lam, University of California–Riverside; Benjamin McKay (1964–2010), writer, critic, and academic, Kuala Lumpur; Vinita Ramani Mohan, Access to Justice Asia LLP; Alexis A. Tioseco (1981–2009), film critic, curator, and lecturer, Philippines; John Torres, musician and experimental filmmaker, Philippines; Chalida Uabumrungjit, Thai Film Foundation and Thai Short Film and Video Festival; Jan Uhde, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and Yvonne Ng Uhde, editorial board, KINEMA journal, University of Waterloo

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780877277552
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2012
Series:	Cornell University Studies on Southeast Asia Paper
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Benjamin McKay was a writer, critic, and academic based in Kuala Lumpur. He had just completed his PhD research on 1950s and 1960s Malay cinema when, on July 18, 2010, he died of a cardiac arrest. As a lecturer in Film Studies at Monash University Malaysia, he was much loved by his students. As a critic, Benjamin wrote a monthly column for the Malaysian magazine Off The Edge and was a regular contributor to Kakiseni and the Southeast Asian cinema online journal Criticine.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Dialectics of Independence May Adadol Ingawanij 1

Part 1 Action

Voices of the Fourth Generation of Malaysian-Indian Filmmakers Hassan Abd Muthalib 15

Dissent Isn't Disloyalty: In Conversation with Martyn See Vinita Ramani Mohan 31

The Age of Thai Independence: Looking Back on the First Decade of the Short Film Chalida Uabumrungjit 47

Piracy Boom Boom John Torres 63

Aku, Perempuan, dan Perempuan Itu: Me, Woman, and that Woman Chris Chong Chan Fui 73

Part 2 Reflection

Circumventing Channels: Indie Filmmaking in Post-Socialist Vietnam and Beyond Mariam B. Lam 87

Auteur-ing Malaysia: Yasmin Ahmad and Dreamed Communities Benjamin McKay 107

Smoking, Eating, and Desire: A Study of Alienation in the Films of James Lee Gaik Cheng Khoo 121

Independence and Indigenous Film: The Framing of Timor-Leste Angle Bextey 137

The Strange Story of a Strange Beast: Receptions in Thailand of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Sat pralaat Benedict R. O'G. Anderson 149

The Thai Short Film and Video Festival and the Question of Independence May Adadol Ingawanij 165

Part 3 Advocacy

Like the Body and the Soul: Independence and Aesthetics in Contemporary Philippine Cinema Alexis A. Tioseco 183

The Piracy Generation: Media Piracy and Independent Film in Southeast Asia Tilman Baumgartel 195

The Substation and the Emergence of an Alternative Cinema Culture in Singapore Jan Uhde Yvonne Ng Uhde 209

The Beginnings of Digital Cinema in Southeast Asia Eloisa May P. Hernandez 223

Contributors 237

What People are Saying About This

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

For the past decade, I have been trying to understand the region's cinema and decide whether it has unique traits or if it's in a perpetual identity crisis. Was there really a new movement around here? 'Independence' seems like a utopian word amid the economic and political struggles in Southeast Asia, but many of us practice independence, partly out of necessity. This book is a significant contribution in both answering my questions about the cinema around me and revealing to me a glimpse of the future.

Editorial Reviews

Glimpses of Freedom draws on a plurality of perspectives and hence styles of writing and analysis in order to create what feels like a dialogue between the various authors.... Some of the authors' frank explanations regarding their implications in their topics of study... lend their essays the intimate perspective of primary witnesses. In addition, the relatively short length of the essays, resonating with the title of the volume, give the reader provocative glimpses of independent Southeast Asian filmmaking.

-- "Journal of Asian Studies"

From the Publisher

"For the past decade, I have been trying to understand the region's cinema and decide whether it has unique traits or if it's in a perpetual identity crisis. Was there really a new movement around here? 'Independence' seems like a utopian word amid the economic and political struggles in Southeast Asia, but many of us practice independence, partly out of necessity. This book is a significant contribution in both answering my questions about the cinema around me and revealing to me a glimpse of the future."

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Glimpses of Freedom draws on a plurality of perspectives and hence styles of writing and analysis in order to create what feels like a dialogue between the various authors.... Some of the authors' frank explanations regarding their implications in their topics of study... lend their essays the intimate perspective of primary witnesses. In addition, the relatively short length of the essays, resonating with the title of the volume, give the reader provocative glimpses of independent Southeast Asian filmmaking.

Journal of Asian Studies