Hosts/Moderators: Dr Kiu-wai Chu, Dr Soh Kai Ruo
This online symposium centres on the Reframe series – “The (In)hospitable World”, based on both the selected films and texts that address ecological, environmental, and public health issues represented in cinema of Asia. The three panels will cover:
With this new geological epoch, which we call the Anthropocene, and the current pandemic outbreak, our Earth is reaching a new level of inhospitality.
So how are film production, distribution, exhibition and film studies, affected by both the environmental crises and pandemic situation? How are filmmakers, festival curators, spectators and researchers, adapting to these changes? Can we still explore new possibilities, maintain optimism, and find hope, in a (post-)catastrophic world?
Please download the full programme/schedule including speakers’ abstracts & bios here.
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Opening
9:50am – 10am (SGT/UTC+8)
Kiu-wai Chu and Soh Kai Ruo
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Session One: Theorizing Asian Cinema in the (In)hospitable World
10am – 11:45am (SGT/UTC+8)
In a world defined by intensifying ecological inhospitality, and a pandemic that unleashes mimetic rivalry and scapegoating mechanisms, how is Asian cinema offering us a glimpse of hope in a (post-)catastrophic world full of possibilities?
In this panel, Jennifer Fay explores how Tsai Ming Liang’s films guide us out of the post-apocalyptic despair, showing us an alternative, viral hospitality through human intimacy. While Chia-ju Chang discusses how cinema functions as a “technology of compassion” that brings possible redemption to the ethnic scapegoating.
Panel Speakers:
Moderators:
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Session Two: Conversation with Filmmakers: Making Films in a Time of Crises
2pm – 3:30pm (SGT/UTC+8)
A conversation between film scholars and filmmakers, join us discuss stories of inhospitality in selected films shown in this series. Listen and ask questions about the filmmakers’ experiences of producing and making films in this new world of growing inhospitality, and glimpses of hopes for a better future.
Panel Speakers:
Moderators:
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Session 3: Distribution, Exhibition and Spectatorship of Asian Films in Pandemic Time
4pm – 5:30pm (SGT/UTC+8)
How has film production, distribution, exhibition and spectatorship been affected by the inhospitable conditions of our present world, especially when made worse by the global environmental crises and more recently the coronavirus pandemic? Join world-leading film scholars and the Director of Udine Far East Film Festival as they discuss how local film scenes in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and elsewhere are responding to changes respectively. Can online film experience replace cinemas, festivals and conventional modes of spectatorships?
Panel speakers:
Guest Speaker:
Moderator:
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Closing
5:30pm – 5:35pm (SGT/UTC+8)
Kiu-wai Chu and Soh Kai Ruo
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Schedule is subject to change. Register interest in the Peatix form to receive all the latest updates including speakers’ bios and abstracts.