Press Room
Wednesday 1st August 2007 | UAFF
US-ASEAN Creative Project and the Smithsonian Institution present the 2007 US-ASEAN Film Festival
With Love: New Films from Southeast Asia
In the last few years, Southeast Asia has become one of the world’s great centers of cinematic creativity. This film series, co-sponsored by Freer and Sackler Galleries of Smithsonian Institution and the GRACE Heritage Foundation, brings together a selection of outstanding films from a variety of genres and styles, reflecting the region’s character as a cultural crossroads. This series is presented in honor of the 30th anniversary of (Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)–US relations, “One ASEAN at the heart of dynamic Asia.”
ASEAN is composed of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar , the Philippine , Singapore Thailand and Vietnam
In November 2002, a non-profit organization named The Global Renaissance of ASEAN-American Culture and Entertainment (GRACE) Heritage was established. Its goal: To enrich and promote ASEAN on the world stage through its creative projects, and to provide a venue for talents to showcase their works. GRACE Heritage is endorsed by 10 Southeast Asian embassies in Washington and ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong. Starting in 2005, the National Geographic, Freer & Sackler Galleries of Smithsonian Institution and Barnes and Noble have agreed to be the co-presenter of the US ASEAN Creative Project™ in its various projects.
Two of the films in the series, “I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone” and “Syndromes and a Century,” were commissioned as part of the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna honoring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 250th birthday.
“Love for Share,” Friday, September 14, 7 p.m.
In person: Director Nia Dinata. Dinata’s film looks at polygamy in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world, through the connected stories of three women. The women come from varied social classes and backgrounds, all of whom are married to men with multiple wives. No stranger to controversy (her previous feature Arisan! featured the first same-sex kiss in Indonesian film history), Dinata tells these women’s stories with great passion and sympathy. (Indonesia , 2006, 119 min., Bahasa Indonesia with English subtitles)
“I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone,” Sunday, September 16, 2 p.m.
The films of Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang, subject of a 2004 Freer retrospective, are cinematic tone poems immediately recognizable for their impeccable mise-en-scene, low-key, absurdist humor, and atmosphere of longing and desire. In his latest, Tsai films for the first time in his native Malaysia, where a Chinese man, beaten and left for dead in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, is nursed back to health by a migrant worker from Bangladesh. Intended for mature audiences. (Taiwan, 2006, 115 min., Taiwanese, Malay, Mandarin and Bengali with English subtitles)
“Hello Yasothorn,” Friday, September 21, 7 p.m.
In Person: Anchalee Chaiworaporn, film critic.
Filmed in a retina-scorching palette of garish colors, and featuring a cast clad in retro-60’s outfits and hairdos, Petchthai Wongkamlao’s zany musical is a prime example of Thailand’s bounty of over-the-top gut busting comedies. The multi-talented Wongkamlao stars (under his stage name Mom Jokmok) as a country bumpkin who travels to Bangkok to retrieve the woman of his dreams, who was sent there by a meddling aunt who wants to keep the couple apart. (Thailand , 2005, 96 min., Thai with English subtitles)
“Syndromes and a Century,” Sunday, September 23, 2 p.m.
In Person: Anchalee Chaiworaporn, film critic.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s beguiling yet good-natured films–among them “Blissfully Yours”and “Tropical Malady”–have gained him an enthusiastic following on the international film festival circuit. His latest feature combines two love stories, separated by decades, whose similar details resonate across the years and flow with the logic of dreams. The film’s gently seductive atmosphere and repeated symbolic motifs suggest a voyage into the transcendental mysteries of life and love. (Thailand , 2006, 105 min., Thai with English subtitles)
“Love Conquers All,” Friday, October 12, 7 p.m.
An award-winner the Pusan, Hong Kong and Rotterdam film festivals, Tan Chui-mui’s ironically-titled fiction feature debut is at the forefront of a burgeoning independent film movement in Malaysia . Making creative use of digital video, Tan’s film is about a young woman who moves from the country to the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, where she falls under the spell of a charismatic but possibly dangerous suitor. (Malaysia , 2006, 90 min., video, Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay with English subtitles)
“Before We Fall in Love Again,” Sunday, October 14, 2 p.m.
Like his frequent collaborator Tan Chui-mui, James Lee uses the digital video medium to tell intimate stories about relationships. After a man’s wife disappears, he meets a man with whom she’d been having an affair. The two become unlikely accomplices in trying to solve the enigma of why she left them. With its sly humor and natural performances, Lee’s film is mystery wrapped in a tale of lost love. (Malaysia , 2006, 99 min., b&w and color, video, Mandarin with English subtitles)
“Village People Radio Show,” Friday, October 26, 7 p.m.
With a painter’s eye for nature and a pleasantly laid-back sensibility, talented documentary filmmaker Amir Muhammad presents a portrait of aging guerilla fighters from Malaysia ’s outlawed Communist party living in exile in the Thai jungle. Their reminiscences of decades of fighting, and their fascinating views on reconciling party doctrine with their Muslim faith, are punctuated with excerpts from a Malay radio adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale – a metaphor for the party’s historical relationship to the Malaysian government. (Malaysia, 2007, 72 min., video, Malay and Thai with English subtitles)
“Singapore Dreaming,” Sunday, October 28, 2 p.m
In Person: Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh, co-directors
By turns boisterously funny and gently lyrical, this delightful film by husband-and-wife team Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh follows a family trying to make ends meet in Singapore ’s topsy-turvy economy. The father plays the lottery obsessively, his son can’t find a job despite his degree from an American university, and his son-in-law is reduced to tricking his friends into buying insurance policies. All this changes when dad finally does win big–but not necessarily for the best. (Singapore, 2006, 105 min., Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese and English with English subtitles)
About ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is comprised of ten countries in Southeast Asia, the region straddling continental Asia and Australia and bordering both the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Diversity is a part of life for ASEAN's 575 million citizen who are more likely than not multi-lingual, living in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious community. ASEAN members are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Timor Leste, the only non-ASEAN member in Southeast Asia is a candidate for membership.
About UACP
US-ASEAN Creative Project (UACP) is the arm of GH Foundation to carry out its mission in promoting Southeast Asian culture and heritage. Since 2002, GH Foundation has organized various events in arts, entertainment, literature, and sports to raise awareness of the diverse cultures and traditions of Southeast Asia. Its flagship event, the US-ASEAN Film Festival, has been running annually since 2003. It was the first film festival to celebrate films from the region.
Contact Information
US-ASEAN Creative Project by GH Foundation
1701 16th Street NW Suite 218
Washington, DC 20009
USA
+1 (202) 262-3775
info@thegraceheritage.org
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