July 2026
This July, Asian Cinema Digest dissects the idea of an archive, exploring the many ways cinema is made, remembered, and reimagined. Discover experimental video essays from D-Normal/V-Essay, revisit Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s Celluloid Man (2012), a tribute to National Film Archive of India founder P.K. Nair, and uncover the hidden infrastructures of technology and mythology in the interdisciplinary practice of Riar Rizaldi.
Listen in on discussions of Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up (1990) and Tsai Ming-liang’s distinctive filmmaking practice. Continue with essays that examine artistic practice, personal archives, and archival restitution — from director Jia Zhangke’s reflections on the digital age and Tony Rayns’ writing on Edward Yang, to family VHS tapes as vessels of recollection and the archive as a living space for collective memory.
To See
D-Normal/V-Essay: Videotage Edition: Time-based Lanes: Blips on a Dark Sea
D-Normal/V-Essay, a video essay zine by Hong Kong-based Floating Projects Collective, returns for its seventh edition in collaboration with new media art organisation, Videotage.
Featuring five official selections comprising 21 video essays, the programme embraces the medium’s latent possibilities and reveals the diverse ways artists use sound and moving images to think through the contemporary world. Framed as a voyage across an ocean of information, it invites audiences to chart their own paths of discovery — from memory and identity, to the body and emotion — and to step beyond algorithmic recommendations to encounter the unfamiliar.
In addition to the online presentation, a physical showcase will be hosted at Videotage till 27 July. Check out the video essay zine here.
Cinelogue: Celluloid Man (2012, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur)
Curated under Cinelogue Picks, Celluloid Man (2012) is Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s documentary on P.K. Nair, the founder of the National Film Archive of India, whose lifelong dedication to collecting and preserving films helped shape India’s cinematic heritage.
Through archival history, personal memories, and reflections from filmmakers and former film students, the documentary traces Nair’s tireless efforts to rescue endangered films and build the archive. More than a portrait of an archivist, Celluloid Man is about the importance of film preservation and a tribute to those who dedicate their lives to safeguarding cinema for future generations. Catch Celluloid Man here.
Image still from Fossils (2023, Riar Rizaldi)CIFRA: Riar Rizaldi: Hack the Black Box
Digital art platform CIRFA presents the work of Indonesian interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker Riar Rizaldi, whose practice spans cinema, contemporary art, speculative fiction, documentary, and horror.
For Rizaldi, horror and science-fiction are not just cinematic genres but a way of understanding reality. His works reveal the hidden systems that underpin everyday life, tracing the entanglements between digital technologies, resource extraction, mythology, geology, and the infrastructures of power. Drawing on scientific inquiry and mystical philosophy, Rizaldi invites audiences to reconsider the ordinary — from smartphones to food packaging — as charged sites where the material and the invisible, the past and the future are always intertwined. Check out the playlist here.
Image still from Viet and Nam (2004, Trương Minh Quý)e-flux Screening Room: Leap of Faith
As part of e-flux Screening Room’s July programme, Leap of Faith is a four-part series bringing together artists’ films from Brazil, Belgium, Spain, Vietnam, Japan, and the United States. Examining modern life’s irrationality through encounters with memory, grief, faith, and the afterlife, the films explore experiences that transcend the limits of the physical world.
Highlights include Trương Minh Quý’s Viet and Nam (2024), paired with Lois Patiño’s The Sower of Stars (2022), alongside Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life (1998) and Coleman Collins’ Specular Fiction (2024). The programme runs till 28 July.
To Listen
Image still from Close-Up (1990, Abbas Kiarostami)Cinema Rex: 069 – Close-Up (ft. Tara Aghdashloo)
Hosts of the Cinema Rex podcast, Kaveh Mohebbi and Faran Moradi, are joined by filmmaker Tara Aghdashloo to discuss Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up (1990), one of the defining works of Iranian cinema. They explore how Close-Up transforms an act of deception into a meditation on cinema’s power to shape empathy, identity, and shared realities.
Beginning with the remarkable true story of Hossein Sabzian, who plays himself after impersonating filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the conversation explores Kiarostami’s re-enactment of the events with those involved, blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction. The discussion also examines Kiarostami’s multidisciplinary practice and how it informs the film, as well as its reflections on class disparity in post-revolutionary Iran.
Image still from Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003, Tsai Ming-liang)Deep Cut: A Film Podcast: 139. HKIFF50: Interview with Tsai Ming-liang
In the final episode of a series of filmmaker interviews for the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Deep Cut co-host Wilson Lai sits down with Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang. They discuss the state and future of filmmaking, methods of working with actors, and Tsai’s decades-long collaboration with actor Lee Kang-sheng. They also reflect on Tsai’s childhood in Malaysia and the experiences that shaped the auteur’s distinctive approach to cinema.
To Read
Image from Xiao Wu (1998, Jia Zhangke)e-flux Notes: The Age of Amateur Cinema Will Return
e-flux Notes republishes Jia Zhangke’s manifesto-like essay, first written in 1998 at the dawn of China’s transition to digital video.
Reflecting on amateur cinema as an ethical and creative practice, Jia argues for a filmmaking practice rooted in lived experience and artistic integrity. Despite his concerns over an increasingly homogenised media landscape, the essay is optimistic, championing the singularity of artistic expression and the enduring possibility of cinema that exists beyond the demands of the industry.
More than two decades later, the essay remains strikingly relevant, prompting renewed questions about the possibilities of film in an increasingly commercialised landscape.
Image still from A Brighter Summer Day (1991, Edward Yang)Sight & Sound: Lonesome tonight: Tony Rayns and Edward Yang on A Brighter Summer Day
Following the recent passing of legendary critic and programmer Tony Rayns, Sight & Sound republished his 1993 essay on Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day (1991). Drawing on memories of visiting the set and conversations with Yang, Rayns reflected on the film’s remarkable synthesis of gang rivalries, adolescent longing, and political paranoia in 1960s Taiwan, while celebrating the director’s extraordinary achievement and enduring place in world cinema.
A lifelong champion of Asian cinema, Rayns introduced generations of English-language readers to filmmakers across the region through criticism that is deeply knowledgeable, engaging, and refreshingly free of jargon.
Image still from Cameraman (2025, Arsalan Motavali)WePresent: Arsalan Motavali: A short film capturing the day-to-day of immigrant family life
For WePresent, writer Dalia Al-Dujaili speaks with Iranian-British filmmaker Arsalan Motavali about his debut short Cameraman, which were inspired by the VHS tapes his family exchanged between the UK and Iran after immigrating. Drawing from his own family’s experiences, Motavali reflects on portraying the overlooked realities of immigrant life — not through overt politics, but through the everyday negotiations of sacrifice and belonging. The conversation also explores the deeply personal origins of the film, its casting process, and the emotional experience of screening it for his parents for the first time.
Restitution and the Moving Image: Noli Me Tangere
Published by Routledge, Restitution and the Moving Image examines questions of film restitution and archival justice from the perspective of the Global Majority.
In the chapter “Noli Me Tangere”, filmmaker, curator, and Forum Lenteng Executive Director Luthfan Nur Rochman explores the intertwined histories of colonialism, censorship, and moving image cultures in Indonesia. Focusing on grassroots archival initiatives of Forum Lenteng and Otty Widasari, the chapter reimagines repatriation not as the physical return of film materials, but as the activation of archives as living spaces for collective memory and community.
To Submit
Call for Artists: The 7th VH Award
Presented by Hyundai Motor Group, the 7th VH AWARD, is open for submissions from emerging media artists whose practices engage with the contexts of Asia. Finalists will take part in an expanded online residency programme developed in partnership with Ars Electronica, featuring masterclasses and workshops to support their artistic development. The application guidelines can be found here, and submissions close on 21 July.
Call for Submissions: 21st Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival
Returning for its 21st edition from 28 November to 5 December 2026, the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival is one of Indonesia’s leading platforms for Asian cinema championing regional storytelling. The application guidelines can be found here, and the submission deadline is 31 July 2026.
Call for Submissions: 28th Bucheon International Animation Festival
Taking place from 23 to 27 October 2026, the Bucheon International Animation Festival celebrates the best of contemporary animation while nurturing the next generation of animators with its offerings of masterclasses, artist talks, and educational programmes featuring leading figures from the global animation industry. The application guidelines can be found here, and the submission deadline for feature films closes on 31 July 2026.
Call for Submissions: International Student Film and Video Festival
Since 2001, the International Student Film and Video Festival in Beijing brings together emerging filmmakers from around the globe, championing artistic experimentation and cross-cultural exchange through screenings, talks, and networking opportunities. The 25th edition will take place from 6 to 13 November 2026. The application guidelines can be found here, and submissions close on 15 August 2026.
This edition of the Asian Cinema Digest was compiled by Phyllis Chan. The Asian Cinema Digest is a monthly compilation of content taking place internationally involving Asian cinema and the moving image. Featured programmes are not representative of AFA’s views and are unaffiliated to the AFA unless otherwise stated.
