Kuala Lumpur, 7 March – Astro A-List will be hosting five award-winning directors from Southeast Asia on its SEA Director Focus, a programme that offers viewers an in-sight into the creative minds of these geniuses and what makes them tick. And what better way to get to know them and understand their work than by watching it on the go via Astro Go or in the comfort of your own home on Channel 456. Astro customers can subscribe to A-List via a monthly subscription of RM15.90 for 8 new films per month. Each episode of the SEA Director Focus will be followed by an award-winning film from each director.
“Astro A-List is committed to elevating emerging talents in Asia and we believe that international cinematic talents from Asian shores should be given the opportunity to shine for their internationally recognised accomplishments. The five directors taking part in the fourth installment of SEA Director Focus represents an eclectic mix of talents from across Southeast Asia. We are honoured to have such an award-winning group of directors to be part of this series and to provide an invaluable learning experience to our audience from the directors themselves,” said Teng Lee Yein, Head of Astro A-List.
TSAI MING LIANG
Tsai Ming Liang or Tsai as he is popularly known was born in Malaysia where he spent his first 20 years of his life in Kuching, Sarawak, before moving to Taipei, Taiwan. At 24, Tsai graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Culture University of Taiwan in 1982 and worked as a theatrical producer, screenwriter and television director in Hong Kong.
His first feature, Rebels of the Neon God (1992) was about troubled youth in Taipei. How did it do? If awards were anything to go by, Tsai did well as the film won Golden Horse Awards for Best Original Score, Prize of the City of Torino for Best Film at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema, and the Bronze Award at Tokyo International Film Festival.
His second feature, Vive L'Amour (1994) about three people who unknowingly share an apartment, took his success further. Despite the film’s slow-paced and very little dialogue, which later became his trademarks, Vive L'Amour made waves and won the Golden Horse Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. It also helped establish a place for him in the world of international film.
In 2009, Face, a movie about a Taiwanese director who travels to France to shoot a film made history by becoming the first film to be included in the collection of the Paris Louvre Museum’s “Le Louvre s'offre aux cineastes.” It has since become the benchmark for films venturing into the world of art galleries.
His full-length feature, Stray Dogs (2013) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 70th Venice Film Festival. In 2014, he presented the critically acclaimed theatre work The Monk from Tang Dynasty in arts festivals in Brussels, Vienna and Taipei. That same year, Tsai made history by bringing his movie Stray Dogs at the Museum at MoNTUE, the Museum of National Taipei University of Education.
BRILLANTE MENDOZA
Mendoza is to the Philippines’ film industry what Pia Wurtzbach (Miss Universe 2015) is to its world of beauty. A national hero!
One of the most prominent and important filmmakers in the Philippines today, Mendoza put the Philippines on the world map of the film circuit when he became the first Filipino to compete and won in 3 major international film festivals.
His debut film, Masahista (The Masseur) won the Golden Leopard Award in the 2005 Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and paved the way for the rise of Alternative Cinema in the Philippines.
His other work, Captive, competed in Berlin International Film Festival in 2012, while Tirador (Slingshot) won the Caligari Film Award in 2007. Thy Womb bagged the La Navicella Venezia Cinema Award in the Venice Film Festival in 2012, while Lola was nominated for the Golden Lion in 2009.
However, his most notable achievement has to be when he won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for the film, Kinatay in 2009. It prompted film director Quentin Tarantino who was a fan of the film to commend Mendoza in a personal letter where he wrote, “Your decision to never dramatize the murder, never indulge in movie suspense .... was bold, daring, and to me, the whole point of making the movie in the first place.” Now, who needs validation when you already have it from Tarantino!
BRADLEY LIEW
Dubbed as one of the fastest-rising film personalities in the Asian region, Bradley Liew is a 27-year-old Malaysian-born Manila-based filmmaker who wears many hats. He is a director, writer, cinematographer and producer in both Malaysia and the Philippines. Interestingly, he never went to a film school. Still, he is a business graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Commerce, majoring in Economics and International Business with a minor in Management.
As a producer, he is currently working on Lav Diaz's When The Waves Are Gone which bagged the Paris Co-Production Village Award at the Hong Kong Film Financing Forum.
In 2012, he was accepted into the Asian Film Academy of the Busan International Film Festival where he won the Lumos Award for Outstanding Performance from celebrated Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke. He is also an alumnus of the NAFF Fantastic Film School, Berlinale Talents, Locarno Filmmakers Academy and EAVE Ties That Bind.
His first feature film, a Malaysian-Philippine co-production entitled Singing in Graveyards, was the recipient of the Visions Sud Est Production Support Fund and the Southeast Asian Film Lab’s Most Promising Project Award. In 2016, it made its world premiere in competition at the Venice International Film Critics’ Week and went on to compete in festivals such as Thessaloniki, Mostra Sao Paulo, Busan, Hawaii, Minsk, Singapore and won best film at the Kolkata International Film Festival.
PIMPAKA TOWIRA
Just google her name and her latest movie The Island Funeral, and you will see that Pimpaka Towira is certainly a name to be reckoned with. It then begs the question, why haven’t you come across her works earlier?
The Island Funeral which revolves around three young Bangkok residents searching for a long-lost relative in the nation’s troubled South, was awarded the Asian Future Film prize at the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival 2015. It then travelled the world for appearances at Rotterdam, Goteborg, Helsinki, Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong, just to name a few. It was primed for a lengthy stint on the fest circuit.
Towira’s passion for the movies brought her to Thammasat University, Bangkok to study film. After graduating, she worked at a film production, but “found it disappointing and dropped out”. She later landed a job as a film critic and writer for The Nation newspaper in Bangkok, and was programming director for 2001 Bangkok Film Festival, which was sponsored by The Nation.
Her works include a number of experimental short films, mostly depicting women's issues including, Mae Nak, a deconstruction of the popular Thai ghost story Mae Nak Phra Kanong. Produced in 1997, Mae Nak, went on to win a Special Jury Prize at the Image Forum Festival in 1998. Since then, there was no looking back.
Her debut feature, One Night Husband, an ambitious attempt to combine an experimental style with an accessible narrative was premiered in the International Forum of New Cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival 2003 and travelled around in festival circuits. The success of the movie led to a collaborative project with a major film studio GMM Pictures.
DAVY CHOU
It is easy to see why Davy Chou makes Paris and Phnom Penh his base. After all, the 33-year-old filmmaker and producer is French-Cambodian.
Chou was only 26 when in 2009, he created the French production company Vycky Films with Jacky Goldberg and Sylvain Decouvelaere and established a filmmaking workshop in Cambodia. His participation in the film industry in Cambodia is known for starting the interest from a younger Cambodian generation of filmmakers and filmgoers.
As a filmmaker, Chou gained attention with Golden Slumbers (2011, Berlinale Forum & Busan International Film Festival), a feature length documentary about the birth of Cambodian cinema in the 60’s, and its destruction by the Khmer Rouge.
His success continued with his first feature film, Diamond Island where it was selected at Cannes’ Critics’ Week 2016 and won the SACD award. Produced by Aurora Films and co-produced by Anti-Archive and Vycky Films, it has been shown in many festivals around the world and won several awards, among which the Golden Gateway Award (Mumbai) and the Bayard for Best First Feature (Namur). Diamond Island looks at the growing divide between the rich and the poor and life in the city and the country in contemporary Cambodia.
Southeast Asia (SEA) Director Focus will air every Wednesday at 10pm from April onwards coupled with an award-winning film from each director. Some of the movies featured include: Island Funeral by Pimpaka; Singing in Graveyards by Bradley; Ma’ Rosa by Brillante; Diamond Island by Davy; and, Stray Dogs by Tsai.
For more information regarding Astro A-List, log on to www.astro.com.my
