WHEN : Until 16th Nov
WHERE : MAAP SPACE, 111 Constance Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
In gallery 2, MAAP presents a selection of highlights from the 6th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (BEFF6).
The festival, titled Raiding the Archives, was first screened in Bangkok in January 2012. The program responds to Walter Benjamin’s idea that “articulating the past historically does not mean recognising it ‘the way it really was’. It means appropriating a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger”. Meditating on memory and nostalgia, the program lines up contemporary cinema against a number of works from the impressive Thai Film Archive, as well as archival features from across Asia, pointing to poignant overlaps in political and personal histories from Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand, for example.
BEFF highlights the expansive context of experimental film in Asia; it’s a smorgasbord of cinema ranging from political documentary, expanded cinema, video art, and amateur film. Since expanding its borders in 2001 to include film from Asia, Europe and North America, the festival has attracted many international curators and partners, including the UK’s LUX. Though foreign film has strong representation in the program, it is the local films that are the festival’s epicentre; it’s not a line-up of international blow-ins, but instead a carefully curated program that selects international work to extend the themes and issues generated by the local cultural and political context.
Curators: May Adadol Ingawanij, David Teh, Chalida Uabumrungjit, Mary Pansanga, Pathompong Manakitsombon, George Clark, Brigitte Paulowitz, Richard MacDonald, Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa
