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4-12-2021
Two Malaysian Films
Jun Ng’s “Tanah Airku/ Our Land and Rivers”
Chong Keat-aun’s “Cemetery of Courtesy”
27-11-2021
Ying Liang’s Short films Collection
A Sunny Day
The World of Mindfulness
The More, The Merrier
20-11-2021
LAU Kek-huat’s “The Tree Remembers”
Derived from the proverb "What the axe forgets, the tree remembers", presents the current situation in Malaysia whereas the racial policy is still practiced in Malaysia and the victims forced to have remained in silence.
This film tackles the origin of racism in Malaysia and the taboo of racial riot in 1969.
13-11-2021
Jacky Yeap’s “Sometime, Sometime”
"Sometime, Sometime" peers into the uneventful everyday lives of Zi Kien and his single mother. One day he finds out that his mother has a new boyfriend, Mr Lee, and he is worried that he might lose her to this new stranger. Zi Kien decides to imitate adults like Mr Lee by copying their speech, their clothes, and smoking. However, Zi Kien's body is small for his age and he is still yet to become a man so his behaviour does not match his physical appearance. Their lives remain uneventful until one night when his mother falls asleep drunk, Zi Kien touches her entangled hair and observes her wrinkled face. The next day she decides to get herself a 'haircut'.
Both mother and son begin to act strangely in front of one another, a push and pull of deep desire for love and tenderness yet they get scared sometimes to care too much; causing their relationship to be riddled in anxiety. Because of this, their lives become just a little bit more interesting. They learn of their own unpredictable nature, and how they cope with life as it goes on...
6-11-2021
Tan Chui Mui’s short films collection
“A Tree in Tanjung Malim”
“Company of Mushrooms”
“One Future”
“Everyday Everyday”
“The Need for Rites”
29-10-2021
Cheuk Cheung’s “My Next Step”
Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest existing performing art forms in China. Ever since it was proclaimed as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2001, this 600-year-old art form has been taken seriously again.
MY NEXT STEP tracks the life of young Kunqu Opera artist YANG Yang (28-years-old) over several years. He is the last young wusheng (martial hero role) in the troupe and is considering quitting the profession. He commits to his profession since junior high school and saddles with the responsibility of preserve and develop this heritage theatrical form. He feels desperate but tries to explore other ways out.
The documentary explores the complexities young artists face in the brave new world of contemporary China, the way they understand tradition, art, dream, life and themselves.
Fill with performance excerpts from both traditional and experimental form of Kunqu Opera, MY NEXT STEP offers an intimate look into the world of Kunqu and the inspiring journey of a young man struggles with a fading art.
BETRAY TRADITION, EMBRACE THE FUTURE
23-10-2021
Yang Yishu’s “Lush Reeds”
After moving in with her husband and feeling mentally maladjusted at work and at home, the newly wed reporter Xiayin has been unable to attend to her belongings prior to her marriage. Her colleague’s suicide further dealt a huge psychological blow to her and has also impacted her work. Xiayin keeps all these issues to herself while her husband goes about clearing up her clutter, all the while showing his disapproval of how Xiayin handles her matters. The duress at work and at home spurs Xiayiin to take on an assignment in the countryside There, she meets a little girl, Xiaoshu, who lives alone with her grandmother. Under Xiaoshu’s subtle spiritual guidance and hypnosis, Xiayin uncovers the darkest recesses in her heart. Thanks to these unusual encounters during her trip, Xiayin gets a chance to reassess where she is in life.
16-10-2021
Yang Mingming's “Girls Always Happy”
This is not a heart-warming film about family, but more a film dissected with a surgical knife. Against the backdrop of a mother and daughter living in contemporary Beijing, the film comes across as both bitter and sarcastic at times, re-defining what happiness and tenderness mean in contemporary China.
9-10-2021
Eva Mulvad “Enemies of Happiness”
Enemies of Happiness charts the story of Malalai Joya as she campaigns to introduce democracy to Afghanistan long ruled by warlords and Taliban.
Malalai Joya campaigned in 2005 at the Afghan parliamentary election, the first democratic election in 30 years in Afghanistan. This film follows her efforts to challenge warlords inside a war zone, even as attempts are made on her life. It is a real-life story of personal courage and determination.
2-10-2021
Vincent Chui’s “A Fig”
Written by Hong Kong Film Awards winner Lou Shiu-Wa (The Way We Are, 2008), this feature from indie filmmakers Vincent Chui is a realistic, unadorned portrayal of contemporary family and love relationships: Ka, a common housewife, leaves her husband after big change in the family. Then she encounters Man, who has for years blamed her father Chow for bringing to light his relationship with his lover Tracy after the accidental death of Man’s mother. And so it seems that from departures stems relationships anew, but there are in fact little to be explained in the logic of cause-and-effect for existence, death, encounters, and love.
25-9-2021
Maisy Goosy’s “A Woman is a Woman”
Two transwomen, one at puberty and the other at the midway of her life, both crave for integration and acceptance but experience tons and tons of difficulties. By interweaving the stories of two characters struggling to be themselves, the film helps the audience understand and empathize with transgender people and their quest for acceptance.
28-8-2021
ZHANG Mengqi’s “Self-Portrait: Window in 47 KM”
This is the eighth film in the documentary series, Self-portrait. An 85-year-old man sits under Mao Zedong's portrait, recalling his revolutionary history in pursuit of the ‘New China’. A 15-year-old girl named Fang Hong wanders through the village with her paintbrush, knocking on the elderly’s doors to paint their portraits. My camera follows Fang Hong; together we have built a window for the ‘47-km village’.
21-8-2021
Gu Xue’s “The Choice”
Written by Hong Kong Film Awards winner Lou Shiu-Wa (The Way We Are, 2008), this feature from indie filmmakers Vincent Chui is a realistic, unadorned portrayal of contemporary family and love relationships: Ka, a common housewife, leaves her husband after big change in the family. Then she encounters Man, who has for years blamed her father Chow for bringing to light his relationship with his lover Tracy after the accidental death of Man’s mother. And so it seems that from departures stems relationships anew, but there are in fact little to be explained in the logic of cause-and-effect for existence, death, encounters, and love.