Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference set for Ho Chi Minh City

Scholars and film practitioners will gather for the sixth Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference from July 1 to 4 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

They'll present papers, hold panel discussions and even have film screenings.

It's a pretty intense four days showcasing the deep thoughts by deep thinkers who are given time to do nothing but think about Southeast Asian cinema.

Co-sponsored by the Southeast Asian Studies Program at University of California Riverside, the conference opens on July 1 with the keynote by Associate Professor Adam Knee from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He'll talk on In(Qualified) Defense of "Southeast Asian Cinema".

Benjamin McKay from Monash University (Malaysia) moderates The Representation of History in Cinema with presentations by Liew Kai Khiun from National University of Singapore on Coping with the Past: History in Contemporary Thai Films, Delfin Tolentino Jr. from the University of the Philippines (Baguio) on The Narrative of Nation as a Tale of Prolonged Sorrow: The Historical Films of Raya Martin and Dr. David Teh from NUS on Pale Moons: Hauntology and the Ethnographic Surreal 1 and J Paul Manzanilla from the University of Philippines (Manila) with Multo, Kaluluwa, Espiritu: The Specter in Philippine Cinema.

Films in Southeast Asian History> is moderated by Katinka Van Heeren with Ekky Imanjaya from Rumahfilm.org on Wayang Kulit Performance and History of Pre‐Cinema: Inquiring Archaeology of Projection, Nadi Tofighian from Stockholm University on From Circus to Cinema: Early Travelling Entertainments in Southeast Asia, Charles Leary of the Asia Research Institute, Singapore, with Cooperation and Containment: A Brief Account of the Federation of Motion Picture Producers in Southeast Asia, and Thomas Barker from NUS on Trash or Cultural Treasure? Indonesia’s International Co‐Productions of the 1980s.

There will be Conversations with Film Producers modereated by Paolo Bertolin and Merv Espina with producers Khue Nguyen (SK Films) and Irene Trinh (Ho Chi Minh City), Meiske Dede Taurisia (Indonesia) and others to be confirmed.

Cinema and the Southeast Asian Diaspora is moderated by Sophia Siddique Harvey from Vassar College with Cherish Aileen A. Brillon from Far Eastern University and Edgardo A. Brillon, Jr from the University of the Philippines (Diliman) on In the Service of the Filipino Worldwide: The Filipino Overseas Worker in the Transnational Cinematic Space, Katrina Ross A. Tan from the University of the Philippines (Los Baños) on Constructing Philippine Modernity: An Analysis of Mainstream Diaspora Films and Emily Bullock, Macquarie University, Emotional Cartographies: Vietnam‐Australia Cinematic Journeys.

Alternative Pathways: Digital Screens and Cinephilia moderated by Christina Schwenkel from UC-Riverside has Jasmine Nadua Trice of Indiana University with Paths of Cinephilia in Philippine Cinema, Richard Lowell MacDonald from Goldsmiths, University of London, on Reflections of a Cursed Land: Screening Lav Diaz in Thailand, Eloisa May P. Hernandez, University of the Philippines (Diliman), The Role of ICT on Digital Cinema in the Philippines 3, and Davide Cazzaro, Goldsmiths, University of London, with From city to city, from screen to screen: toward a “self‐circulating cinema”? Kuala Lumpur alternative screen culture beyond Kuala Lumpur.

The Subjects of New Media: Revisioning Thailand, Cambodia, and Viet Nam is moderated by Mariam B. Lam of UC-Riverside. Catherine H. Nguyen from UCLA has Framing Portraitures: Tran An Hung’s Vietnamese Cinematic Subjectivity, Dredge Byung'chu Käng of Emory University and Nguyn Tan Hoang at Bryn Mawr College present Surfing the Korean Wave: Wonder Gay as Thai National Pride / Thai National Shame, Lan Duong from UC-Riverside with A Forgotten Cinema: Star Power and the Films from Pre‐1975 Sài Gòn, and Viet Lê from the University of Southern California on What Remains: Returns, Confrontations, Representation, and Traumatic Memory in S‐21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine and Refugee.

Genre and Theory moderated by Thu‐Huong Nguyen‐Vo from UCLA has Tito ImandaBinus International, Binus Business School, with Kiddie Cinema in Indonesia: Profit, Entertainment, and Pedagogy, Felizer Louie M. Lazada,
University of the Philippines, on The Temporal Turn: Deleuze and Asian Horror 4 (Visayas) and Katarzyna Ancuta of Assumption University (Bangkok)
with Global Spectrologies: Contemporary Thai Horror Film and the Globalization of the Supernatural.

Sexuality and Gender in Southeast Asian Cinema, moderated by Rolando Tolentino of the University of Philippines has Brett Farmer from Chulalongkorn University on Loves of Siam: Contemporary Thai Cinema and Vernacular Queerness, Laura Coppens from the University of Zurich with Queer Epistemologies in Indonesia: The (re)presentation of Queer Knowledge and Experience in Films, Ferdinand M. Lopez, University of Santo Tomas‐Manila on Decadent Desire and Darkness: Mapping Gay Manila of the 70s in Ishmael Bernal’s City After Dark, Sheryl Rose M. Andes from the University of the Philippines on A Peak at the Winners of the Most Gender Sensitive Film Award of the Metro Manila Film Festival.

Film Practices and the Law with moderator Hung Thai of Pomona College
has Wan Aida Wan Yahay of Monash University, Australia, on The Representation of Women in Southeast Asian Historical Films Reflecting Feudal Times, Intan Paramaditha, New York University, Protectors and Provocateurs: Reading the New Film Law as Cultural Performance in Indonesia 5, Andrew Ng, Nanyang Technological University, The Culture of Self‐Censorship in Singapore Films and Ramon Lobato, Swinburne University of Technology, Geographies of Film Piracy in the Asia‐Pacific Region,

Jack Yaeger from Louisiana State University takes a look at Religion with Hatib Abdul Kadir from teh Center for Religion and Cross Cultural Studies on Filming the Indonesian Muslim Piety after Post The New Order Regime, Eva F. Amrullah, Department of Anthropology, Australian National University, The Impact of the Representation of Face‐veiled Woman in Indonesian Ayat Ayat Cinta, Lito B. Zulueta, University of Santo Tomas‐Manila, Third Cinema and Brown Theophany: Criss Crossings between Contemporary Philippine Cinema and Contemporary Catholic Theology, Erin Cabanawan, University of the Philippines (Diliman), Dios Ina, Inang Pilipinas: Women and Nation in Filipino Religion‐themed Films.

Professor John A. Lent from Temple University moderates Filmic Perceptions of Southeast Asia with Daniel C. Tsang, University of California (Irvine), Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese Depictions in Colonial Hong Kong Cinema and Jennifer Verraes, University Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle, Remapping Admixtures: the Barbarian and the Neighbour, who is the Other (with)in Contemporary Southeast Asian Cinemas?

Space, Globalisation, and Nation moderated by Wan Zawawi, UiTM,
has Badrul Hassan of Monash University with Malaysian Cinema and the Public Sphere: A Vantage View, Natalie Boehler, University of Zurich, On Theorizing Thai Cinema, Veronika Kusumaryati, Jakarta Arts Institute, A New Urban Geography: The Case of OK Video Festival, William M. Owens independent scholar, Projecting Thailand: Strategies of Interpretation in the Films of Pen‐ek Ratanaruang.

And: Time, Space and the Works of Apichatpong Weeresethakul, moderated by May A. Ingawanij, University of Westminster, with Philippa Lovatt, University of Glasgow, Here Lies Memory: the Haunted Landscape of Nabua in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Primitive, Dianne Daley, RMIT University, Melbourne, An Empathetic Analysis of Time and Space in Films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul 7, Tony Day, Wesleyan University, Time and Freedom in Asian Film, and Ray Langenbach & Azmyl Md. Yusof, Sunway University College, Cinematic Vagrancy.

Finally there's Conversations with Filmmakers moderated by Tan Bee Thiam of the Asian Film Archive and Chuong‐Dai Vo, University of California, San Diego, with Sherman Ong, Pepe Diokno and others to be confirmed.

The venue for all this is IDECAF in Ho Chi Minh City. The full program and other details can be found on the SEACC website.