Glimpses of Freedom: Independent Cinema in Southeast Asia (Studies on Southeast Asia, 55) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0877277850 ISBN 13: 9780877277859

Publisher: Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2012

Synopsis

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

About this title

About the Author:

May Adadol Ingawanij is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, University of Westminster (London). She has published articles on Thai and Southeast Asian cinema in a range of academic and general publications, including I, , , , , , , and .

Review:

"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)

"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)

About this edition

• Publisher: Southeast Asia Program Publications
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0877277850
• ISBN 13: 9780877277859
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 260
• Editor: Ingawanij May Adadol, McKay Benjamin