NEW ASIA & PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED
LAUNCHING IN LONDON ON JUNE 29; TOURING THE UK IN SUMMER/AUTUMN 2018
Click here for more information about the event.
Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival is a new UK-wide film festival dedicated to screening some of the boldest, most daring, challenging, and striking films from Asia and the Pacific. Focusing particularly on underrepresented cinemas, from Azerbaijan to Vanuatu and everything in between, the festival aims to open windows on worlds whose landscapes and peoples remain largely absent from UK screens. Aperture is the only festival in the UK currently with a remit that specifically covers the whole of Asia and the Pacific.
For this first edition of the festival, key areas of focus include films from Central Asia, the Himalayas, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands. The programme comprises 12 features, including four UK premieres and four London premieres, and 17 short films.
Key themes within the festival programme include migration and displaced peoples, social justice, and female empowerment. Over half of the festival programme comprises films made by women including shorts programme “Women in the Frame” and the first film by a female filmmaker in the post-Taliban era A Letter to the President.
The festival is co-founded by Sonali Joshi and Jasper Sharp and directed by Sonali Joshi. Presented in partnership with CREAM, University of Westminster, the festival is supported by Purin Pictures.
Aperture/London Part 1 runs from 29 June-8 July at Close-Up Cinema, The Cinema Museum, The Lexi Cinema and The Horse Hospital.
Click here for more information about the event.
Aperture/London Part 2 will take place in the second half of September, comprising a Southeast Asian focus and a one-day symposium hosted by CREAM, University of Westminster.
Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival returns to London in September with the second part of this year’s programme with a focus on Southeast Asia (15-27 Sep), kindly supported by Purin Pictures, and a focus on New Zealand (29-30 Sep), kindly supported by the New Zealand High Commission.
The festival is supported by CREAM, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, University of Westminster.
Forthcoming screenings:
15 Sep: IN TIME TO COME, King’s College London (Lucas Theatre)
17 Sep: DIAMOND ISLAND, Close-Up Cinema
18 Sep: Asia Through the Aperture workshop, University of Westminster (Regent Campus, Room UG05)
24 Sep: PEOPLE POWER BOMBSHELL: THE DIARY OF VIETNAM ROSE, Close-Up Cinema
27 Sep: THE ISLAND FUNERAL, Close-Up Cinema
Related non-festival events happening in September include joint UK premiere of next day for night* title NERVOUS TRANSLATION by Shireen Seno at Tate Modern and Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, and YEARS WHEN I WAS A CHILD OUTSIDE by John Torres hosted by Close-Up Cinema.
More announcements on special events and NZ focus coming very shortly!
Aperture is jointly presenting some events with other festivals, including Masala Festival in Newcastle at Tyneside Cinema on 21 July, and Chinese Visual Festival in September.