Festival Focus on Asia.

FOCUS ON ASIA--FUKUOKA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

FUKUOKA, JAPAN

SEPTEMBER 16-25, 2005

PUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

PUSAN, SOUTH KOREA

OCTOBER 6-14, 2005

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 

DECEMBER 11-7, 2005

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

JANUARY 25-FEBRUARY 5, 2006

Film curators and festival organizers these days are feeling the urgency to shape programs that foster cultural understanding and exchange, and support the development of new cinematic voices. Focus on Asia--Fukuoka International Film Festival's (FIFF) small, but sensitively crafted, noncompetitive Asian showcase featured twenty-five films from Bangladesh, mainland China, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. This year, the festival frequently referenced the Middle East--especially Iraq--from a variety of cultural and historical vantage points. "Feature Presentation" films from the region included Fukuoka's first-ever feature films from Iraq (Life, 2002, by Iraqi-born Kurdish-American filmmaker Jano Rosebiani) and Syria (Waha al-Raheb's strong debut Dreamy Visions, 2003). Even in the folkloric Tales of Intransigence (2004, by Reis Celik) set in remotest Anatolia, the American bombing of Iraq is deftly woven into the deceptively simple story of a race between a passenger minibus and a horse-drawn sleigh. While there were a few weak spots in catalog presentation of the selections, Fukuoka's program was consistently smart and engaging. There were several standouts shot on video--including a Tamil/Malaysian family melodrama The Gravel Road (2005, by Deepek Kumaran Menon) and the Mongolian epic Tumur of Mountain (2004, by O. Bat-Ulzil).

A short flight from Fukuoka, Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) is decidedly different in tone, mission, and sheer scale. From red-carpet photoflashes and rousing outdoor screenings in seaside Haeundae, to frenzied fan gatherings in downtown Nampo-dong, this year's PIFF was indeed largely focused on celebrating Asian cinema in a Korean context. Even before the festival opened, screens were mostly occupied by domestic productions--including the whimsical and poignant Korean War blockbuster Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005, by Park Kwang-hyun). Such recent movies were prominently on display in PIFF's "Korean Panorama." The late Lee Man-hee was the subject of a revelatory retrospective as Korea's "Poet of the Night," and another source of pride was the vintage pop-nationalist animation Robot Taekwon V (1976, by Kim Chung-gi), recently restored for one billion won and presented to eager multi-generational audiences. With the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in town, the tenth PIFF also created a special series that focused on the theme "Communication" in films of APEC-member countries.

Cementing its role as a leading film festival in Asia, PIFF inaugurated the new Asian Film Academy--an intensive workshop to foster Asian talent led by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, a recent participant in PIFF's successful film market, Pusan Promotional Plan. His romance Three Times (2005) opened the festival; fellow Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang was represented by his film The Wayward Cloud (2005). However, lesser known emerging Taiwanese and mainland Chinese talents also made their marks at Pusan: Lin Yu-hsien with the crowd-pleasing documentary Jump! Boys (2005), Robin Lee with the fantasy The Shoe Fairy (2005), and Cheng Wen-tang with the drama Blue Cha Cha (2004). Gender and sexual identity exploration in the mainland DV docu-fiction Tang Tang (2004, by Zhang Hanzi) was provocative in the best way.

A veritable rainbow of invention, the Thai film Citizen Dog (2004) by Wisit Sasanatieng also ranked as a festival favorite. While Thai cinema has established a stellar reputation on the world stage, Indonesian cinema is on the rise (with eight films at PIFF). These included Joni's Promise (2005), a light and lively cinephilic slice of Jakarta life by Joko Anwar, and Gie (2005) by Riri Riza, a thoughtful biopic about a student activist in the 1960s. Included in the "Asian Pantheon" section, the Uzbek film Tohir and Zuhra (1945, by Nabi Ganiyev) is a fairytale treasure. However, PIFF does not show "Asian" films exclusively, incorporating a significant "World Cinema" strand. This year's highlights included the Palestinian films Waiting (2005, by Rashid Masharawi) and Paradise Now (2004, by Hany Abu-Assad), both of which were also screened at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).

Paradise Now, the opening-night film at DIFF, is one of a number of timely films that are either from or about Palestine, including the well-crafted documentary Improvisation (2005, by Raed Andoni) about oud-playing brothers, and the aforementioned Waiting--a touching feature that travels to refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Syria was also represented at DIFF with the poetic Under the Ceiling (2005, by Nidal Al-Dibs), set in modern-day Damascus. DIFF--whose motto is "Bridging Cultures, Meeting Minds"--is already a major festival in terms of Arab cinema. Though only in its second year, its "Dubai Discoveries" and "Arabian Nights" programs are already superbly curated. Another strand, "Emerging Emiratis," allowed a glimpse of work by young United Arab Emirates filmmakers. In particular, Ali F. Mostafa wowed viewers with an accomplished short called Under the Sun (2005). A New Day in Old Sana'a (2005, by Bader Ben Hirsi), an elegant first feature from Yemen, was screened, as was Albert Brooks's misguided Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005), DIFF's unevenly received premiere of a Hollywood movie. The promotion company Unifrance brought an impressive array of French and Franco-Arab films and talent. This included rai pop-music superstar Faudel who stars in the charming Algerian comedy Bab El Web (2004, by Merzak Allouache) and Vahina Giocante who appears in Nuit Noire, 17 Octobre 1961 (2005 by Alain Tasma)--a powerful reconstruction of abuses suffered by Algerians in France. Bosta (Autobus, 2005), the delightful Lebanese musical about a motley bus-load of postmodern dabkeh dance performers, directed, written, and produced by Philippe Aractingi, was featured at an open air screening at DIFF (and has enjoyed record-breaking box office success in Lebanon).

In contrast to Dubai, Rotterdam was gray and cold, but an excellent place to watch the international films missed at the previous festivals and the original programming was plentiful. An act of faith was required at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) to bear the misery of "Filmmaker in Focus" Nagasaki Shunichi's 1982 Heart, Beating in the Dark, but his sequel/remake of the same title (2005) was brilliant in a self-reflexive manner that made the pain worthwhile. IFFR gave ample attention to short films, and I was grateful for the opportunity to watch anthology disks of shorts from the "Asian Hot Houses" section by James Lee (Malaysia) and Khavn (Philippines) in the festival's press library. The renegade Khavn also directed a rowdy genre-defying feature called Bahag Kings (2006). "Bahag" means g-string, and Khavn did some guerilla publicity wearing the garment. Filipino films were conspicuously nearly absent at Pusan this year, but Rotterdam included thirty-four titles including shorts and critic Noel Vera's featured selections for the "Cinema Regained" program. There was also a fascinating panel discussion on cinema in the Philippines.

Another stimulating forum was the one-day Hugo Bals Fund Conference, Raising Voices, with roundtable discussions on international training programs and the fostering of culturally distinct creative expressions. One main unresolved question regarded where the film begins--with the script, or with the image? Philippe Aractingi, a panel participant and recent graduate of Sud Ecriture (a script-development program for projects from the Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East) has emerged as a new hero for Lebanese cinema and, quite possibly, for independent filmmakers worldwide.

ANNE CIECKO is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and editor of Contemporary Asian Cinema: Popular Culture in a Global Frame (2006).

info

For more information about the festivals discussed see:

www.focus-on-asia.com/e/index.html; www.piff.org; www.dubaifilmfest.com; www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com