YIDFF 2017 New Asian Currents

Jurors

Teddy Co (THE PHILIPPINES / Film historian, archivist)／Shiozaki Toshiko (JAPAN / Filmmaker)

Bamseom Pirates, Seoul Inferno　Director: Jung Yoon-suk / KOREA / 2017 / 119 min

Through their music, grindcore duo Bamseom Pirates puts the spotlight on South Korea’s social issues, giving a voice to the angst felt by the young people in South Korean society today. But one day in 2012, their close friend and producer is arrested on suspicion of violating the National Security Law . . . .

 

 

Caro Mio Ben (My Dear Beloved)　Directors: Su Qing, Mina / CHINA, SINGAPORE / 2017 / 118 min

Directors Su Qing and Mina (White Tower, YIDFF 2005 New Asian Currents) capture the vacillating and evolving emotions of girls reaching adolescence, as they go about their daily routines at a school for students with hearing and vision disabilities.

 

 

City of Jade　Director: Midi Z / TAIWAN, MYANMAR / 2016 / 99 min

The filmmaker’s brother and his friends mine for jade as the conflict between the government’s armed forces and the Kachin Independence Army continues. The director’s monologue reveals the relationship between him and his parents, as the camera closes in on what is happening at the mining site.

 

 

Droga!　Director: Miko Revereza / USA, THE PHILIPPINES / 2014 / 8 min

A mix of American culture and the Tagalog language, this film is one proof of the existence of Filipinos living in the U.S. We look into the director’s mind, etched onto Super 8 film.

 

 

Disintegration 93-96　Director: Miko Revereza / USA, THE PHILIPPINES / 2017 / 6 min

Home videos taken in the 1990s, when the director and his family emigrated from the Philippines to Los Angeles, that ooze with unease and longing for home—and now. The “un-integrated” U.S.—on film, full speed ahead.

 

 

The Beginning of Creation: Abduction / A Child　Director: Yamashiro Chikako / JAPAN / 2015 / 18 min

Dancer Kawaguchi Takao reenacts a legendary performance by the late dancer, Ohno Kazuo. The filmmaker’s gaze clings to the exposed body, looming larger than life itself.

 

 

A Woman of the Butcher Shop　Director: Yamashiro Chikako / JAPAN / 2016 / 27 min

A woman chops up blocks of meat that have washed up on a shore that has been spared development because of the presence of a U.S. military base. Men flock to the meat she sells. The film—which switches back and forth between reality and fiction—portrays the state of Okinawa today.

 

 

In Memory of the Chinatown　Director: Chen Chun-Tien / TAIWAN / 2016 / 30 min

Tainan City’s so-called “Chinatown,” once a bustling residential and commercial complex, is about to be torn down to make way for redevelopment. The breath of the now deserted facility can be felt resonating with the memories of its former residents.

 

 

The Slice Room　Director: Song Yun-hyeok / KOREA / 2016 / 69 min

Redevelopment threatens the survival of the low-income housing projects known as jjok bang. Living in a jjok bang himself, the director reveals the shortcomings and hypocrisy of the South Korean welfare system.

 

 

On to the Next Step: Lives After 3.11　Director: Tashiro Yoko / JAPAN / 2015 / 180 min

For two years after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, this film painstakingly follows Yamada Farm in the Hokkaido town of Onuma, a bakery on the banks of the Toya Lake, and a fishing community in Oma, Aomori—a town on the shore opposite Onuma—all beleaguered by anxiety and fear over a nuclear power plant under construction nearby.

 

 

Nokas　Director: Manuel Alberto Maia / INDONESIA / 2016 / 76 min

In Kupang, West Timor, dowries and other traditions threaten to interfere with a marriage between Nokas and his beloved. But with the support of his strong older sister and mother, he is inspired to go forward with his plans to marry.

 

 

Of Cats, Dogs, Farm Animals and Sashimi　Director: Perry Dizon / THE PHILIPPINES / 2015 / 78 min

The camera captures the life of Dondon, a boy who agonizes over his family and his future, as he grows up transient, moving from one rubber plantation to another.

 

 

Rubber Coated Steel　Director: Lawrence Abu Hamdan / LEBANON, GERMANY / 2017 / 19 min

It is 2014, and two unarmed Palestinian youth are shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. What emerges from records of the trial—which hinged on the kind of bullets used, and audio analysis of the gunshots—is silence.

 

 

Hurrahh!　Director: Jung Jae-hoon / KOREA / 2011 / 75 min

The individual nature of any given human body erodes little by little, even while simultaneously seeking the right moment to overflow. This film portrays one man’s life as he goes back and forth between home and work: a certain uneasiness infiltrates everything, and somewhere, we hear the echoes of a scream.

 

 

Self Portrait: Birth in 47 KM　Director: Zhang Mengqi / CHINA / 2016 / 102 min

Directed by Zhang Mengqi (Self-Portrait with Three Women, YIDFF 2011 New Asian Currents), this work incorporates performance, and features two women: one elderly and hunchbacked, veteran of a difficult life; and the other, her granddaughter.

 

 

Starless Dreams　Director: Mehrdad Oskouei / IRAN / 2016 / 76 min

What does the outside world look like to girls greeting the New Year at a rehabilitation facility for youth who have committed crimes? Directed by Mehrdad Oskouei (My Mother’s Home, Lagoon, YIDFF 2001 New Asian Currents).

 

 

This Little Father Obsession　Director: Selim Mourad / LEBANON / 2016 / 103 min

Using beauty and humor, director Selim Mourad (A Trip to the Barbershop, YIDFF 2011 New Asian Currents)—as a gay person who cannot sustain the family line—challenges the patriarchal tradition, and the views held by his father and his family.

 

 

Those Who Remain　Director: Eliane Raheb / LEBANON, UAE / 2016 / 95 min

From Eliane Raheb of This is Lebanon (YIDFF 2009 New Asian Currents), comes a story about a man running a restaurant in a village in northern Lebanon by the border with Syria, remaining, as the world changes around him.

 

 

Up Down & Sideways　Directors: Anushka Meenakshi, Iswar Srikumar / INDIA / 2017 / 83 min

Songs ring out across the valley, sung by villagers at work together in Nagaland, India, near the border with Myanmar. The fields, love, friendship, and even bitter memories . . . they have always been accompanied by music.

 

 

A Yangtze Landscape　Director: Xu Xin / CHINA / 2017 / 156 min

The camera travels the Yangtze River upstream from Shanghai to Yibin. As titles narrate the incidents that take place along the way, the lives of people living along the river are portrayed at a slow, cinematic pace against a changing landscape.

 

 

Yellowing　Director: Chan Tze-Woon / HONG KONG / 2016 / 128 min

Taken from the viewpoint of the young people who participated in the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, the film offers access to their happiness, anger, sadness, and joy—through their everyday conversations amid clashes with police.

 

 

New Asian Currents Special Invitation Films

A Filmless Festival　Director: Wang Wo / CHINA / 2015 / 80 min

The 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival, scheduled to take place in the Beijing suburb of Songzhuang in August 2014, was shut down by authorities the day before it was to begin. A record of the incident was put together using footage shot by directors and participants.

 

Cuts　Director: Chairun Nissa / INDONESIA / 2016 / 70 min

The film follows a director (Edwin) and producer submitting their film Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly to the Censorship Board as required by the Indonesian law, documenting what is meant to be a closed-door process.