Emerging voices from Southeast Asia: seeing a region in its films

Emerging voices from Southeast Asia: seeing a region in its films

A special issue by Fridus Steijlen (KITLV) and Bart Barendregt (Leiden University) in the newest IIAS Newsletter is now online available. November 2013’s issue of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) included a theme program on ‘Emerging Voices from Southeast Asia’, featuring fourteen recent documentaries from the region and several Q&A sessions with some of the directors.

In addition, Cambodian documentary film director Rithy Panh was invited to comment on a retrospective of his oeuvre. Coinciding with this program the KITLV, Leiden University, IIAS and IDFA organised the seminar ‘Making History, Everyday Life and Shifting Moralities’, in which some of the filmmakers involved shared thoughts about each other’s methodologies and ongoing concerns with scholars studying Southeast Asian contemporary culture. A supplementary roundtable,on the use of film in research and the classroom, took place on November 27th at the launch of LeidenGlobal.

“Discussions at both occasions proved stimulating but did not – and this won’t come as a surprise – provide us with definite answers to all questions we had initially posed ourselves. As we became increasingly aware of yet other themes that merited our attention we realized the need to instigate further dialogue between filmmakers and students of the region. This special Focus issue hopes to prompt such dialogue by referring to some of the discussions at the November meetings, but also by offering some of our colleagues, all experts in the field, the chance to comment on these discussions.”

Click here for the entire special issue of the IIAS Newsletter (in PDF).

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