Images Festival is opening this week and we’re excited to share our picks of this year’s line-up! Now in its 28th year, Images Festival celebrates the best in contemporary and experimental film, media and art from April 9-18, 2015. Apart from Reel Asian’s co-presentations (which you can read about here), there are plenty Asian and Asian diaspora artists showcasing their work. Read more below!
Reel Asian is excited to be co-presenting two film programmes this year at Images Festival. This Friday April 10 is the screening of The Kalampag Tracking Agency, a collective of experimental films from the Philippines and its diaspora programmed by Shireen Seno and Merv Espino. Featuring some of the most striking films and videos from the Philippines and its diaspora, this initiative continues to navigate the uncharted topographies of Filipino alternative and experimental moving image practice from the past 30 years. Buy tickets here.
Our second co-presentation is from internationally-acclaimed Filipino filmmaker, Lav Diaz. Storm Children: Book One (Mga anak ng unos) documents the aftermath of Hurricane Yolanda in 2013 through the children affected by the disaster. Diaz follows the children as they play in the storm-flooded streets, dig in the refuse and rubble of a sun-scorched beach or meander past the hulls of beached ships and makeshift housing along the shore. Buy tickets here.
Other Asian selections in this year’s programme include:
- The Influence of Anxiety. Programmed by Paulette Philips and Robert Lee.
- Canadian Artist Spotlight: Iris Ng. Iris Ng had her directorial debut at Reel Asian in 2008 with the World Premiere of her film, Point of Departure in the “Recollections” programme.
- Peeling Back The Layers. Directed by Ekkaphob Sumsiripong, Andrew Kim and Leslie Tai.
- All Around Us. Directed by Danaya Chulphuthiphong.
- Li Wen at East Lake (Li Wen Man You Dong Hu). Director Luo Li is the partner of filmmaker Lesley Loksi Chan (whose work Reel Asian has also screened in the past). We co-presented his film Rivers and My Father, Images Opening film from 2011. Reel Asian screened his early works at our festival, including Birds in 2004. It went on to win the Wallace Local Artist Award.
- Field Notes. Directed by South Asian filmmaker, Udita Bhargava.
- Chinatown Happenings. From Asian Canadian Artist Casey Wei, with assistance from former Reel Asian Special Projects curator Siya Chen and including a free screening of The Silkroad of Pop (dirs Sameer Farooq, Ursula Engel), a film that had its Canadian Premiere at Reel Asian in 2013.
- Action Replay: Closing Night Awards Ceremony + Screenings + Performances. One of the artists in the programme is Stephanie Comilang, who participated in our Empty Orchestra karaoke project in Reel Asian 2008.
- Projects by Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen and Krista Bell Stewart. Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen was Reel Asian’s 2014 Canadian Spotlight Artist.
- Spectres of the Future. From Asian Canadian artist Sook Jung.