Satellite 2019: Southeast Asian Short Films Screening + Q&A
Satellite is an initiative to celebrate 11 short films directed by 11 practising filmmakers from all of the 11 Southeast Asian countries - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, not forgetting the newest nation East-Timor, rather than putting up a competition among them. The programme intends to introduce independent films as an agent to discuss important sociopolitical topics such as poverty, immigration, sexuality, beliefs, cultural identity, climate change and domestic abuse. Of course it is not to pinpoint that these issues are only experienced by the racial/ethic groups represented in the respective films, rather to recognise and examine the struggles which often are products of neocolonialism, cultural hegemony, class system, patriarchy, etcetera . Other than the diverse curation of film topics, this attempt to advocate equity also shows through the balance of gender and racial representation of filmmakers presented in Satellite. To tackle the stereotypical narratives told through the lens of western media, Satellite stresses the importance of independent filmmaking as a self-assessment tool in the context of Southeast Asia, which shall be projected to criticism all the same, be it content-wise, technique-wise or aesthetic-wise. Satellite concedes that access to filmmaking knowledge and production can be a privilege and allusively elitist, the last thing it wishes is to encourage a sense of condescension towards people who don’t share the same awareness or value. Hence, a Q&A session will be carried out after the screening to stimulate critical conversations between the audience, filmmakers and future investors. Audience will also be asked to fill in an optional feedback form to improve future programmes. All shorts are in local languages with English subtitles. Filmmakers: Nurain Peeraya & Harlif Mohamad (Brunei), Sao Sopheak (Cambodia), Fancisca Maia (East-Timor), Xaisongkham Induangchanthy (Laos), Kyal Li Yin Six (Myanmar), Parthiban Mayalagan (Singapore), Makbul Mubarak (Indonesia), Won Yun Yap (Malaysia), Bee Supavarasuwat (Thailand), Jojo Driz (The Philippines), Nguyen Khanh Ly (Vietnam) Attending filmmakers: Jojo Driz (The Philippines), Parthiban Mayalagan (Singapore) Q&A facilitator: Dashran Yohan (Malaysia) Curator: Lee Sydney Graphic Designer: Jona Lim Special thanks: Kevin Bathman, Jane Koh, Milline Low, Caraok, Julius Raja Manickam #satellite2019 #hinbusdepot #satellitescreening #satellitemov Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/satellite.mov Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/satellite.mov Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/satellitemov Gofundme: gofundme.com/satellite-screening