The 11th edition of CinemAsia Film Festival starts later today, till 11 March at cinemas Kriterion and Rialto in Amsterdam. The festival offers a kaleidoscopic trip through modern Asia with over 30 films that range from history-making blockbusters to arthouse gems and documentaries. The complete online programme can be found on the website of CinemAsia.
Indonesia focus
This year’s special focus celebrates Indonesia’s powerful resurgence with six diverse films, with an emphasis on female filmmakers and strong female characters, such as Mouly Sourya’s revenge thriller Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, or Kamila Andini’s The Seen and Unseen, which uses a sensual cinematic language to evoke the dream space of children. The festival also offers a multifaceted side programme – including a Food Market for culinary discoveries and a special LGBT programme on International Women’s Day on 8 March. This year, the festival also has the specific goal to facilitate the encounter between the Asian and Dutch film industry and organises several dedicated events like roundtables and masterclasses.
Japanese movies
There are a few Japanese movies that can be watched during CinemAsia 2018. Akio Fujimoto’s Passage of Life will have its international première at CinemAsia. This multiple award-winning film is a beautiful and gripping testimony about the migrant experience – a subject that is both topical and universal. A Burmese family seeks asylum in Japan. But when this situation becomes unbearable, the mother takes her two sons back to Myanmar to stay with her extended family. However, the boys, who are born and schooled in Japan, face a devastating culture shock, provoking one to question concepts of ‘homeland’ and identity. On 7 March, 9 March and 10 March you can see the movie with afterwards a Q&A with director Akio Fujimoto.
About CinemAsia Film Festival
Founded in 2003, CinemAsia Festival is the only pan-Asian Film Festival in the Netherlands.
Besides showcasing Asian cinema’s richness in themes and genres, the programme also seeks to reflect the region’s complexity in terms of cultural, social and political diversity.
CinemAsia provides a platform to up-and-coming and independent filmmakers of fiction and documentaries, as well as showcasing high-quality mainstream films.
The festival creates space for the public and the film industry to meet, interact and experience each other. A broad public programme seeks to reflect the richness of Asian cultures, through food market, meet-and-greets with filmmakers and thematic debates. A special industry programme focuses on bringing together the Asian and Dutch film professionals.
The CinemAsia FilmLAB is CinemAsia’s talent development programme, wherein young talent with Dutch-Asian roots are given encouragement and technical support to realise their stories into a short film. Each year a new theme is introduced. Through this programme, CinemAsia contributes to the better representation of makers with Asian roots and their stories within the Dutch film and television landscape. This year, FilmLAB pioneered a collaboration with Taipei Media School in Taiwan to offer a month-long internship program for two students to come to Amsterdam for an immersion course at FilmLAB and participate as film ambassadors during the festival.
CinemAsia is the only festival for Asian culture that gives specific attention to the Dutch-Asian LGBT community through an annual programme focusing on relevant themes.
