February 6, 2006

Criticine. 2.

Criticine "No political films please, we're Singaporeans" is the name of a blog associated with Martyn See's short film Singapore Rebel (evidently viewable online, but not, as far as I can tell, outside the US, or at least not in Germany). "This is the film Singapore's censorship board doesn't want people to see," reads the description at Google Video, which is pretty straightforward: "It's the story of opposition politician Chee Soon Juan, who has been imprisoned twice for championing democratic change in the city state." The censors pulled it from the Singapore International Film Festival in April and See, now under investigation, will not be attending screenings at the New Zealand Human Rights Film Festival and the Amnesty International Film Festival.

For Vinita Ramani, writing in Criticine, the situation is a little more complex: "Interestingly, and with the greatest respect to See, it appears that the Film has itself, consciously or subconsciously, undergone some self-censorship."

Critic After Dark "Cinema Regained: Noel Vera" is a special section of this year's just-wrapped International Film Festival Rotterdam based on Vera's book, Critic After Dark: A Review of Philippine Cinema, and here, Vera (blog) writes about the programming experience.

One of the films is Jesus the Revolutionary; Criticine editor Alexis A Tioseco interviews the director, Lav Diaz.

Tioseco's other new interview is with Ato Bautista, whose first feature, My Awakening From Consciousness is "shocking, not just for its imagery, themes or potent filmmaking, but for announcing - seemingly out of nowhere - the arrival of a young voice with both talent and a message."

Also:

  • "Are there indeed possibilities for new ways of writing about Southeast Asian cinema?" asks Benjamin McKay.

  • Paul Augusta: "Indonesian cinema saw an eventful year in 2005, with more than fifty titles either being released or produced this year, making it the most prolific year in Indonesia's film history in almost a decade."

  • The second entry in Raya Martin's journal, kept as part of the Résidence du Festival de Cannes.

And the new reviews:

Singapore Shorts



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Posted by dwhudson at February 6, 2006 5:20 AM

Comments

Yet again, Dave, you remind me of why logging into the Greencine Daily has become one of my favorite on-line activities. You constantly amaze me with the rich resources you share with other cinephiles. Over the last few years I have become enamored with Southeast Asian cinema and Criticine is right up my alley!! Thank you for alerting me to this informative website.

Last year when it was announced that the SF International Film Festival was going to have a focus and symposium on Malaysian film, I was excited and shared my excitement in the appropriate topic on The WELL. Jon Carroll, a local columnist, made fun of my interest. I'm sure he meant no harm, knowing no better, and the exposure to Malaysian film at the festival was truly rewarding, especially getting to interact with Amir Muhammad. Imagine my delight then, when I read the Criticine interview with Amir, wherein he quipped:

"I don’t know if column writing is necessarily anything I could go back to, because column writing is not really writing and not really journalism; it is neither here nor there. You get the illusion that you are writing and people call you a writer, but it is not like writing a book."

Not that I exactly agree, but, it made me feel vindicated somewhat. Thanks.

Posted by: Michael Guillen at February 6, 2006 5:35 PM

Great story, Michael. I used to haunt the WELL, too, years ago and I know it's no place to go wandering without every last one of your wits - and an asbestos suit. Thanks for the kind words.

Posted by: David Hudson at February 7, 2006 4:06 PM

Funny!! And too true. You're certainly welcome. I appreciate having a place where I can actually indulge the esoteric wealth of film! Greencine's whole philosophy about teaching film by watching film has me won over, hands down.

Posted by: Michael Guillen at February 7, 2006 4:45 PM