New Asian Currents
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(Alphabetically shown)
New Asian Currents Special Invitation Film |
This year’s New Asian Currents showcases films and filmmakers that have never-before screened at Yamagata. Come to the Yamagata Forum theatre, where you can be sure to expect new encounters.
Venues: Forum 3, 5
- Jurors:
- Philip Cheah (SINGAPORE / Film Critic)
Takashi Toshiko (JAPAN / Dir. Nango jazzzzzzzzz)
A
Are You Listening!- BANGLADESH / 2012 / Bengali / Color / 89 min
Director: Kamar Ahmad Simon
In a small coastal village, children and adults stand together to face the life-or-death crisis of a cyclone. In defense of their community, they fight for the newly-built levies in this film that depicts their resilient, yet flexible lifestyle of back-against-water.
• Oct. 12 F3 | Oct. 14 F5
B
Denok & Gareng- INDONESIA / 2012 / Indonesian / Color / 89 min
Director: Dwi Sujanti Nugraheni
Gareng and Denok raise pigs in the modest house of Gareng’s mother. Despite constant worry over the education of their son and Gareng’s father’s debt, the film captures a family life with no deficit of jokes nor laughter.
• Oct. 11 F3 | Oct. 12 F5
C
The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed- JAPAN / 2013 / Japanese / Color / 151 min
Director: Ota Shingo
The film’s protagonist, director’s friend took his own life with a suicide note pleading that this film be completed. Moving in and out of documentary and fiction, the story becomes chaotic and soon drifts toward destruction.
• Oct. 12 F5 | Oct. 14 F3
D
Ex Press- THE PHILIPPINES / 2011 / Filipino, English / Color, B&W / 90 min
Director: Jet Leyco
On board a train stopped by a landslide, the director weaves fables from his camera window—the news press and the workers at the site, stories of a railway policeman, the New People’s Army, and those who live along the train tracks.
• Oct. 12 F3 | Oct. 14 F5
E
Gold Underground- CHINA / 2012 / Chinese / Color, B&W / 138 min
Directors: Li Xiaofeng, Jia Kai
Like the Gold Rush, the coal mines in Yulin suck people in. Miners, management, truck drivers, and a woman who hires drivers out of her shop—this film depicts each of their worlds in unique perspectives.
• Oct. 12 F3 | Oct. 14 F5
F
Iron Age- KOREA / 2013 / Korean / Color / 38 min
Director: Jung Ji-yoon
Can a film fill the voids that a mother and daughter each possess? An age of violence gradually materializes before the camera, as the director confronts her mother who was incarcerated for her political activism in the 70’s.
War Is a Tender Thing- THE PHILIPPINES / 2013 / Filipino, English / Color / 51 min
Director: Adjani Arumpac
The director shares her family’s stories, chronicling her parents who live on Mindanao Island and her ancestors who share Christian and Muslim roots. A personal documentary that looks into its war-torn history through the perspective of the family.
• Oct. 11 F3 | Oct. 14 F5
G
Mohtarama- AFGHANISTAN / 2012 / Dari / B&W / 60 min
Directors: Malek Shafi’i, Diana Saqeb
Afghani women organize protests in their country in pursuit of human rights for women. The directors listen to what these activists have in their hearts. Joining them in their advocacy, they record their true feelings.
• Oct. 12 F5 | Oct. 14 F3
H
Mrs. Bua’s Carpet- VIETNAM / 2011 / Vietnamese / Color / 35 min
Director: Duong Mong Thu
Tortured by the American soldiers during the Vietnam War, Mrs. Bua lives in a village where people who took different sides during the war live in peace. Experiences of war shared in everyday conversation become the village’s collective memory.
We Want (U) to Know- CAMBODIA / 2011 / Khmer, English / Color / 54 min
Directors: Ella Pugliese, Nou Va, The people of Thnol Lok
What happened in the time of Pol Pot? The directors work together with villagers unearth the truth. The film is an attempt to revive peoples’ memories through the retelling and reenactment of events, allowing those memories to be passed to the next generation.
• Oct. 12 F3 | Oct. 13 F5
I
Raging Land 3: Three Valleys- HONG KONG / 2011 / Cantonese / Color / 310 min
Directors: Chan Yin Kai, Choi Yuen Villagers
The people of Choi Yuen village are forced to relocate for the construction of a high-speed rail system. The director joins them in protest and extensively records their daily farm work, discussions and direct action, over a long period of shooting.
• Oct. 11 F5 | Oct. 13 F3
J
South of the Clouds- CHINA / 2012 / Chinese / Color / 80 min
Director: Wang Erzhuo
A personal documentary that captures the director’s aunt who runs a beauty parlor in Yunnan. From her mouth pour words, which tell stories of her childhood, love and family, as well as the aunt’s love for the director.
• Oct. 11 F5 | Oct. 13 F3
K
Summer Days in Bloom- KOREA / 2012 / Korean / Color / 73 min
Directors: Roh Eun-ji, Go U-jung
“I have a boyfriend now!” After hearing the news from their gay friend, the directors start to film the new couple as they begin living together. She captures their active lives as gay men living with HIV, solidifying their love in the form of memory.
• Oct. 11 F3 | Oct. 13 F5
L
The Targeted Village- JAPAN / 2013 / Japanese, English / Color, B&W / 91 min
Director: Mikami Chie
In Okinawa, the people of Takae village are convicted by the Japanese government for obstructing traffic in their struggle against the construction of new helipads. Their story embodies U.S. military strategy dating back to the Vietnam War, the blocking of the gates to the Futenma base, and their town’s rage against their state.
• Oct. 12 F5 | Oct. 14 F3
M
Jalan Jati—Teak Road- SINGAPORE / 2012 / No Dialogue / Color / 24 min
Director: Lucy Davis
Tracing back the DNA of a single piece of teak, the history of colonization, modernization, and logging in Southeast Asia become visible. Through the use of photographs and animation, a unique journey through time and space begins.
In-Between Days- INDIA / 2012 / Bengali / Color / 58 min
Director: Sankhajit Biswas
Everyone passes through the road of youth. So do transgendered people. Focusing on two young friends, this film colorfully depicts the opposite, daily realities its transgendered characters and the sisters who support them face.
• Oct. 11 F3 | Oct. 13 F5
N
To Sing To Live- CHINA / 2013 / Chinese / Color / 62 min
Director: Zhao Gang
A Sichuan opera group performs daily in a self-built theater. Surrounded by tightly knit extended family relationships, a young, rising star continues to perform to an elderly audience while worrying about the path her life will take.
• Oct. 11 F5 | Oct. 13 F3
O
Tondo, Beloved: To What Are the Poor Born?- THE PHILIPPINES / 2012 / Filipino / Color / 76 min
Director: Jewel Maranan
A mother of three sons living in Tondo is now pregnant with her fourth. Their living space, ringing with the various sounds of the nearby Manila port, jars the senses as it is transformed into cinematic time.
• Oct. 11 F3 | Oct. 13 F5
P
Two Meters of This Land- PALESTINE / 2012 / Arabic, English, French / Color, B&W / 80 min
Director: Ahmad Natche
The preparations for an outdoor music festival are underway near the tomb of poet Mahmoud Darwish. This film documents the space leading up to the event, where reality and fiction coexist, creating a unique cinematic world.
• Oct. 12 F5 | Oct. 14 F3
New Asian Currents Special Invitation Film
- The Last Moose of Aoluguya
- CHINA / 2013 / 100 min
Director: Gu Tao
The sequel to Aoluguya, Aoluguya . . . and Yuguo and His Mother (Ogawa Shinsuke Prize, YIDFF 2011) follows five years in the lives of one family of the Ewenki tribe, who lived deep within the Aoluguya forest until they were forced to relocate. Aoluguya Trilogy will be screened.