News Filmmakers Events Screenings Press Releases    Photos
Events

Overview / Timeline

E: info@asianfilmarchive.org   T: +65 6777 3243  F: +65 6543 1643

Symposium on Southeast Asian Digital Cinema

Main | Registration | Programme | Description | Speakers | Call for Papers

Speakers

Alexis Tioseco is the founder and editor-in-chief of Criticine, an online journal devoted to pushing forth intelligent discourse on Southeast Asian cinema. As a film critic, his writing has appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the San Francisco Bay-Guardian, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Journal, SensesofCinema.com and catalogues for the Torino, Pesaro and Cinemanila International Film Festivals. He has served as programmer for .MOV Digital Film Festival in 2005, Seoul Film Festival in 2006 and the S-Express Philippines programme of short films for the Substation's Asian Film Symposium. He has also served on juries for International Film Festivals in Rotterdam, Oberhausen, Ljubljana, and Hawaii. He was selected to participate in the Berlinale Talent Press in 2005, and is a member of FIPRESCI – The International Federation of Film Critics. He has taught film to Humanities students for two years in the University of Asia and the Pacific.
 

Benjamin McKay has completed a PhD dissertation titled A Cinema of Possibilities: Malay Film Culture, 1947-1969. He currently lectures in Film Studies at Monash University Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur where he is developing a programme of study in independent cinema in Southeast Asia. Benjamin judges theatre for the Boh Cameronian Arts Awards in Kuala Lumpur and co-curates a series of indie film programmes, Nasi Bungkus Cinema at Monash University Malaysia. He writes film criticism for Kakiseni (Kuala Lumpur) and Criticine (Manila) and has published his research in academic journals. He is currently co-editing an anthology on independent cinema cultures in Southeast Asia due for publication in 2008 and has recently received a grant to research independent film communities in the Philippines.
 

Ben Slater is primarily a writer who specialises in cinema; his articles have been published internationally in catalogues, websites, books and magazines. This year (among other things) he was a guest editor for a Japanese-themed issue of leading UK film magazine Vertigo; produced podcasts covering the 2007 Singapore International Film Festival for Greencine Daily, wrote chapters on Singaporean film for two different books, and has been a script editor on two British feature films which are currently in post-production. His first book, Kinda Hot: The Making Of Saint Jack in Singapore, was published by Marshall Cavendish in 2006. He is based in Singapore.

 

 

Gertjan Zuilhof is a Dutchman from above the big rivers. In Holland this means you are quite likely touched by the Protestant tradition. On the other hand he is from a generation that was more than touched by Provo (typical Dutch version of sixties Dada). He was educated as a fine art master and finished his studies of Art History in Leiden (the town the young Rembrandt left for Amsterdam). For quite some time he wrote film criticism for the cinema monthly Skrien and the cultural-political weekly De Groene Amsterdammer. Now already for more than a decade he works as a programmer for the International Film Festival Rotterdam. He is making contributions to the general programme and develops also more special thematic programmes. Until recently his research territory included mainly European countries. The last few years he shifted his focus from Europe to Asia and more specially South East Asia. He is also part of the selection committee of the Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), a foundation that gives financial support to filmmakers from developing countries. On his initiative the HBF opened a special section for low budget digital productions.
 

Jacqueline Tan-Pereira is a Lecturer, and Manager of Alumni and Industry Relations, in the School of Film & Media Studies, Ngee Ann Polytechnic. She has taught both film studies and broadcast production modules in her 14 years in the school. She recently gained her MA in Cultural and Media Studies, specializing in Singapore films. Prior to pursuing her undergraduate studies in Mass Communication at Taylor University, Indiana, Jacqueline worked in then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation as an Assistant Producer. She also spent one semester in Hollywood working as an intern while studying film in the Los Angeles Film Studies Program. Besides teaching, she has produced and directed television, film, plays and corporate video productions. Her most recent works include Prime Candidate for Channel News Asia, University Forum for Arts Central, and a bio-documentary called The Lord Behind the Man about a church elder.
 

Karen Chan is an English and History major from the University of Western Australia who has been involved with the archiving of audiovisual materials and film for over six years. Formerly with the National Archives of Singapore, Karen has worked with the American Museum of Natural History in New York as part of an anthropological curatorial team and with the corporate communications team of Singapore’s National Arts Council. Karen is currently the Archivist in the Asian Film Archive (AFA) and oversees the acquisition, cataloguing, and dissemination of the archive’s collection. She is also involved in the education and outreach arm of the AFA and curates exhibitions, conducts heritage talks, and mentors students involved in film projects. She is committed to generating greater awareness amongst young filmmakers on the importance and need for the proper archiving and preservation of their films.
 

Khavn De La Cruz is considered by some as the father of digital filmmaking in the Philippines. He has made twenty features and more than sixty short films, several of which have received prizes. Retrospectives of his films have been presented in various international film festivals. He has served as a jury member in the Clermont-Ferrand, Jeonju, & Jihlava Film Festivals. Khavn is also an award-winning poet and fictionist whose books are published by the University of the Philippines and University of Santo Tomas presses. Bandleader of The Brockas, Khavn is an acclaimed composer, songwriter, singer and pianist who has scored several soundtracks of the new Philippine cinema.
 

Linus Tee is founder of movieXclusive.com. Perhaps being passively fed on a diet of Shaw classic martial-arts films, Hui Brothers’ comedies and Jackie Chans’ flicks might have instill the movie-goer’ instinct in Linus since the age of three. A fan of action and comedy genres, Linus works in the information technology line in the day and manages moviexclusive.com, a local movie site with his bunch of merry men in his spare time. In addition, he loves to read, travels, spends time with his loving fiancée and has been an avid fan of construction toy, Lego for years. Currently, he’s busy shuttling between reality and movie land but still, he’s just a cell phone away.

 

Mirabelle Ang is the director of Match Made. She graduated from California Institute of the Arts in May 2006 with an MFA in Film & Video. She is born in Singapore, with an inquisitive mind that has led her to explore various walks of life, a challenge she relishes. Currently based in Los Angeles, she is making plans for her next documentary.

 

 

 

Nicholas Chee is an award-winning photo artist/filmmaker who has been in the forefront of Digital Imaging and Video. Having being trained in both traditional and digital photography as well as graphic design, he is a graduate of Temasek Design School's Visual Communications program in Singapore. Nicholas Chee is one of the few digital filmmakers who has shot a feature length movie Becoming Royston, entirely on the High Definition workflow. Nicholas now provides consultation for photographers on digital darkroom and workflow conversion and implementation. He works with leading Digital Imaging and Video vendors to develop workflow solutions for the market. Nicholas also teaches both the Craft and Art of Photography and is a strong advocate of the need for visual literacy. Nicholas is currently pursuing his MA in Photography at the University of the Arts London - London College of Communication and is a founding partner of Originasian Pictures LLP and Sinema.SG.

 

 

Tan Bee Thiam leads and directs the Asian Film Archive as its founding executive director. He conducts and convenes workshops for educators to promote access to the archive resources for research, teaching and learning. As a film curator, he programmes films and facilitates discussions on thinking about them critically. He also produced the well-received Asian Film Archive Collection: Singapore Shorts and Royston’s Shorts DVD publications. At the Nanyang Technological University, he lectures on Asian Film History at the School of Art, Design and Media. He performed jury work for film festivals in Hawaii, Manila and United Nations Association. A filmmaker and photographer, he is winner of awards such as the Best Photo Essay at the US-ASEAN Film & Photography Festival. He is interested in memories and what people choose to remember or forget.

Tan Chui Mui is a Chinese Malaysian filmmaker based in Malaysia. She was born in 1978 in Sungai Ular, a small fishing village in Kuantan, Malaysia. After graduating with a Bachelor of Multimedia (Hons) in Film and Animation in 2002 from Multimedia University, Malaysia, Chui Mui had been actively involved in the Malaysia independent film scene, working as director, producer, editor, script writer and occasionally actress. In 2004, she set up Da Huang Pictures with fellow Malaysian filmmakers Amir Muhammad, James Lee and Liew Seng Tat. In 2005 her fictional autobiographical short film A Tree In Tanjung Malim won the Principal Award at the 51th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival. In 2007, she received the Tiger Award from the 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam with her debut feature film Love Conquers All. The film had previously won the New Currents Awards and FIPRESCI Award at the 11th Pusan International Film Festival in 2006.
 

Wong Lung Hsiang has a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, and is now an Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education. He picked up movie watching as a hobby a decade ago. He is now the Secretary of the Singapore Film Society and a freelance film reviewer of Lianhe Zaobao, "Good Morning, Singapore!" (the breakfast show of MediaCorp TV8) and FM95.8 Capitol Radio.