Presented by Objectifs

7 to 10 September 2016
Ratings: TBC
Presented by Objectifs

Asian Film Focus (AFF) presents cutting edge films based on a thematic approach from the region. With screenings and dialogue sessions with Asian programmers and filmmakers, the programme strives to promote dialogue and exchange between players in the Asian independent film industries, their audiences, and their peers.

This year, AFF will feature films from South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Theme: Youth Today

Situated in the transitional period between childhood and adulthood, many Asian youths today live in environments saturated with media and technology that are also bound by traditional attitudes. As such, we hope to explore ideas about what it means to be a youth in an Asian society at present. What are their aspirations and fears? Do youths today share the same concerns as previous generations? What is the impact of Asia’s obsession with youth?  Through looking at the differences and similarities of youth culture across Asian societies, the programme hopes to then connect to broader issues and concerns in contemporary Asia.

This theme will be explored through short films that have been selected by curators from the focus countries. The curators are:

  • Teresa Kwong (Hong Kong)
  • Pimpaka Towria (Thailand)
  • Leong Puiyee (Singapore)
  • Vanessa Yun (South Korea)

Click here for the line up. For more about the film programmers, click here.

Special programme:

Power of Asian Cinema Documentaries from the KBS Busan Headquarters and the Busan International Film Festival
–       Thailand
–       South Korea
–       Kazakhstan
Click here for more information.

Dialogue Sessions

If art mirrors life, how does cinema capture the fleeting essence of youth, and how does it reflect reality? These sessions will examine the portrayal of youth onscreen and its socio-cultural connotations.

Click here for more information.


Ticketing Details

Tickets are $5 per screening. To purchase tickets, please go to: http://aff2016.peatix.com/

Tickets are also available at the door before each film screening.

The Dialogue Sessions are free.

With support from the Singapore Film Commission.


 

YOUTH TODAY: SHORT FILMS

Film Screening / 7 Sept, Wednesday, 830pm / 107 min
Tickets here: http://aff7sept.peatix.com/
There will be a post screening Q&A session

A young unemployed man has difficulty communicating with his girlfriend. As he struggles to cope with his fragile state of mind, a series of mysterious killings unsettles the residents of Block 142B. Some claimed to have seen a tiger roaming at the estate. Adapted from Dave Chua’s short story ‘The Tiger of 142B’ from the book ‘The Beating and Other Stories’.
The filmmaker questions the meaning of his life as he turns 18 years old. Going through the daily motions, he captures moments that he goes through with his friends and at home no matter how mundane. This documentary is a reflection of what life is through his youthful eyes.
Throughout our lives, we learn by imitating other people. Children imitate the behaviour of adults. Every saying, clothing, reading material, and habit penetrates into our everyday lives, slowly and surely turning you and I into the same assembly-line product.
The students of an isolated school are bound by ten strange rules. They are made to follow the rules without any questions. One day, student 329 decided to rebel and break away.

Chak is a sentimental boy who enjoys indulging in his imaginary world. Ellen is an imaginative girl who likes to talk to her soft toy hippo. When Ellen vanished into thin air, her secret admirer Chak, feeling heartbroken, decided to totally forget about her and starts falling in love with Yan. But Chak slowly realised that his dream should be Ellen, the girl who has a vivid imagination like him. Yet, what Chak has to face is the brutal reality.

Banners with derogatory messages are plastered all over a town, resulting in the humiliation of a student. Comedy ensures when her classmate, who is secretly in love with her, volunteers to remove the banners.

 

The Tiger of 142B (Directed by Henry & Harry Zhuang)

The Tiger of 142B (Directed by Henry & Harry Zhuang)


Film Screening / 8 Sept, Thursday, 830pm / 83 min
Tickets here: http://aff8sept.peatix.com/
There will be a post screening Q&A session

A scout for professional teams drops by a high school baseball club. One of the players, Byunghoon, hopes to impress the scout but the director of the club just wants to show Sungjun, Byunghoon’s rival, off. The scout requests to watch a match between Byunghoon and Sungjun because he remembers Byunghoon’s brilliant play in the past. But the coach suggests something to Byunghoon and their match has an unexpected result.
Bee is a country girl who has come to work in Bangkok, and is unfazed by political unrest and clashes in the streets. Then, her ex-boyfriend shows up suddenly. After he leaves, Bee starts to get ready for her nighttime job.
A time in the future when everybody owns a TELE-TALK BEAR that helps to relate messages to specific targets. Unfortunately Ah Fung’s TELE-TALK BEAR is out of order and brings about a lot of miscommunication. After this, Ah Fung realizes that communication is not merely the transmission of words.
A young man decides to visit Sarajevo to search for something that could inspire him. Instead, he meets the trams, the mountains and finds a stack of family photos.
A hairstylist acquires mythical powers after she dyes her hair purple.
Minhee and Taeseon are having a good time at the beach. Suddenly an unknown noise roars, and it is revealed to Taeseon that he is in the dream. He tries to wake up but Minhee doesn’t want to let him go.

 

Somewhere Only We Know (Directed by Wichanon Somumjarn)

Somewhere Only We Know (Directed by Wichanon Somumjarn)


Film Screening / 9 Sept, Friday, 730pm / 99 min
Tickets here: http://aff9sept.peatix.com/
There will be a post screening Q&A session.

A young boy goes through a life-changing experience as he deals with moving away to a new place with his mother.
A story about a teenage superhero’s life in Hong Kong.
A girl drugs her lover with goldfish food in an attempt to make him forget the problems in their relationship.
Zhenhui and Minyi run into each other at a class gathering during their final  year. Through the night they rekindle the past and there are hints of romantic interest between the both of them. However it is unable to progress because something hangs over them and they quickly realise that what they have with each other will expire.
Mrs. Young-hee meets a young man who looks just like her first love. She soon finds out who he is and they head on a journey where she recollects her past.

 

I Am Not A Superhero (Directed by Jonathan Tam)

I Am Not A Superhero (Directed by Jonathan Tam)


Film Screening / 10 Sept, Saturday, 1pm  / 89 min
Tickets here: http://aff10sept.peatix.com/
There will be a post screening Q&A session.

When best friends Goy and Lee realize that their period dates no longer coincide, they are forced to confront secrets and lies.
Two friends reconnect at their childhood haunts in the heartlands. As the night lengthens, their conversations draw out how they have deviated from their dreams through the course of life.
Two brothers are deeply passionate about singing and free-running, but they are far less talented than they think. One day they suddenly wake up with the abilities they have always boasted about, however they later face a huge disappointment.
One hot summer night, a down and out novelist picks up a discarded bamboo wife (known as a traditional hollow bamboo bolster used in Korea during summer). But from this point, his sleepless night lasts forever.
Sleepless Night With Bamboo Wife (Directed by Lee Seung Ju)

Sleepless Night With Bamboo Wife (Directed by Lee Seung Ju)

 


 

SPECIAL PROGRAMME: POWER OF ASIAN CINEMA

POWER OF ASIAN CINEMA is a documentary series co-produced by KBS Busan Headquarters and the Busan International Film Festival. Comprised of ten episodes, the series aims to improve our understanding of Asian cinema as well as to ascertain its growth and bright future. Each episode covers films and history of cinema of a different Asian country. From his/her own perspective, the filmmaker looks into the past and the present of the cinema in one’s country. Under this Special Programme, the documentaries from Thailand, Kazakhstan and South Korea will be screening at Asian Film Focus.

Power of Asian Cinema / 10 Sept, Saturday, 5pm to 9pm

Tickets here: http://affpoac1.peatix.com/

The Scala opened its doors in 1970. It had one thousand seats and every night, they were filled. In those days, going to the movies was something special. The cinema was a place where people got dressed up, went on dates, and fell in love. But today, everything has changed. There is a multiplex in every mall and the young generation watch movies on their phone. But at The Scala, time has stood still. The cinema is still run by many of the same staff who have been there from the beginning. It is now the last remaining standalone cinema left in Bangkok. And soon, its time will come to an end too.

Tickets here: http://affpoac2.peatix.com/

A film director and an actor have worked till midnight at a film studio. A security guy locked all doors and so now our heroes have to look for an exit, walking through the studio and meeting various people on their way – famous Kazakh film directors, film critics and just strangers, who start discussing, suggesting, arguing, threatening, and chasing them. And this all leads to discovering and understanding what makes up the cinematic language of Kazakh filmmakers.

Tickets here: http://affpoac3.peatix.com

Memory in Cinema rewrites the history of Korean cinema through cineastes and their distant memories and faded films. The pivotal moments of Korean cinema remembered by the major figures in Korean film history are transformed into a documentary. The most memorable sequences that director Im Kowntaek remembers is the five minute long take shot in Seopyonje, in which he cinematises the Korean sentiment to sings one’s sorrows away and draws strength to carry on. Having lived through the Korean Way, he confesses his painful experience merged with his cinematic life and enabled him to make more honest films. Actor Ahn Sung-ki spent his whole life with film. When Korean cinema industry in the 1970s was unstable, he strayed. And when it was back on the right track in the 1980s and 1990s, he returned cinema. Lee Yong-kwan, Festival Director of the Busan International Film Festival, remembers the birth of the Festival as a crucial moment in Korean film history. As a man who has devoted his life to cinema, he will never forget the moment when the 1st BIFF opening film Secrets & Lies was screened.

 

The Story of Kazakh Cinema - Underground of Kazakhfilm (Directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov)

The Story of Kazakh Cinema – Underground of Kazakhfilm (Directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov)


 

DIALOGUE SESSIONS

Join us as we discuss this year’s AFF theme with filmmakers, film curators, and writers.

Register to attend here: http://affdialogue1.peatix.com/

Panelists: Teresa Kwong (Hong Kong), Pimpaka Towira (Thailand), Tan Jingliang (Singapore), Dapho Moradokphana (Thailand)

Moderated by: Amanda Lee Koe, writer

Tiger mothers, cram school, snapchat– these are but some of the markers of the youth experience in Asia. Framed in an East and Southeast Asian context, this session will look at how youth is depicted in films, and how these representations are symptomatic of growing up in a specific culture and society.

Register to attend here: http://affdialogue2.peatix.com/

Panelists: Vanessa Yun (South Korea), Ghazi Alqudcy (Singapore), Choi Byungkwon (South Korea), Ng Chak Hang (Hong Kong)

Modearted by Silke Schmickl, Curator/Manager (Programmes), Institute of Contemporary Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts

Looking across generations, this dialogue session will focus on the changing depictions of youth in cinema and its correlation to societal trends, starting with iconic American teen films from the 1980s such as The Breakfast Club, to dystopian cult titles like Battle Royale. How have depictions evolved over time, and are there characteristics of the experience of youth that persist?


 

ABOUT THE FILM PROGRAMMERS

Teresa Kwong / Hong Kong

Teresa Kwong is a promoter, curator and producer for film and media arts. Currently the Programme Director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, she is committed to promoting and nurturing multidisciplinary creative talents in the region. Previously, Teresa led the Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia between 2004 and 2014. She is a member of the

Network for Promoters of Asian Cinema) and has served on the jury of various international film festivals, including Busan and Rotterdam. Teresa is also a film producer, having worked on films such as Addicted to Love (2010), Big Blue Lake (2011), Flowing Stories (2014) and Dot 2 dot (2014).

Leong Puiyee / Singapore

Puiyee is responsible for the film programme and projects at Objectifs. She has managed film events such as the Singapore Short Film Awards, cINE65 Short Film Competition and the Fly By Night Video Challenge. She is also the Programme Manager (Short Films) for the Singapore International Film Festival. An occasional zine artist, Puiyee has taken part in the 2013 Tokyo Art Book Fair and Print Lab: Art and Design publication exhibition under Grey Projects.  Puiyee graduated with a diploma in Arts Management from Lasalle College of the Arts.

Vanessa Yun / South Korea

Vanessa is currently the International Sales Manager at Central Park Films, a Korean film distribution company whose short film offerings have traveled to international film festival such as Cannes, Vancouver and Busan. She studied film at Chung-ang University and has directed four short films and a web drama series that was released on Youtube. She is now working on a feature film project.

Pimpaka Towira / Thailand

Recognised as the first female Thai director to be noticed by international viewers and critics, Pimpaka is a pioneer on the Thai independent film scene. She has worked as a producer, a film writer, a video artist and a film lecturer. Pimpaka was previously programme director for the Bangkok Film Festival and has served as jury for international film festivals like Oberhausen and Yamagata. In 2009, Pimpaka received the Silapathorn Award (an honour for Thai contemporary artists), which was presented by the Ministry of Culture in Thailand. She is the co-founder of Mosquito Films, a sales and festival distribution company based in Thailand with other leading Thai filmmakers.