To promote inter-disciplinary interactions, discussions, and critiques about the role of Southeast Asian and South Asian visual art in Asian Studies, the Association for Asian Studies is pleased to hold a virtual film festival and two AAS Digital Dialogues, with the support of the Asian Cultural Council (ACC).
The AAS-ACC South and Southeast Asian Virtual Film Festival, “Re-envisioning Asia: Contestations and Struggles in the Visual Arts” (September 20 – October 3, 2021), features the work of a selection of Southeast Asian and South Asian films, documentaries, and visual arts from Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Pakistan,and Sri Lanka. These contributions will give us a unique insight into the role of filmmaking in documenting the arsenal of resistance in the face of daily violence in places like Cambodia, Kashmir, or Myanmar.
The artists will join two AAS Digital Dialogues (September 24 and September 30) to discuss raising awareness on key social and political issues, engage with one another’s work, and reflect on their personal creative journeys. Our conversations will bring female film directors, activists, and actresses, whose works deconstruct stereotypes in their own countries so as to raise important issues of gender, sexuality, equality, and censorship in Bangladesh, Brunei, and India. These conversations will also shed light on the divide between traditionalism and secular modernity, the dramatic impact of COVID-19 on precarious lives, and the transhistorical perspective offered by the Asian diaspora from countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Registration is free and includes access to all 17 films featured in the festival for the period between September 20 and October 3. You will be asked to log in or create a free AAS online account to register.
For more information and to register for these online events, please visit the AAS website links below.
“Re-envisioning Asia: Contestations and Struggles in the Visual Arts” Virtual Film Festival: https://bit.ly/AASFilmFest
“Unruly Subjects, Disruptive Mobilities: On Telling Stories of Everyday Struggles for Justice,” AAS Digital Dialogue (September 24, 11:00am-12:30pm Eastern Time): https://bit.ly/UnrulySubjects
“The Exclusionary Violence of the Modern Nation-State: Stories from South and Southeast Asia,” AAS Digital Dialogue (September 30, 11:00am-12:30pm Eastern Time): https://bit.ly/ExclusionaryViolence
Please note: Due to the sensitive nature of topics to be discussed in these roundtables, the webinars will not be recorded.
