Avant-garde from Asia

The Port by Gavin Hipkins, to be screened at the symposium

As with any art form pushing the envelope, experimental cinema thrives largely on the efforts of a close-knit community. It is especially true for art film practitioners from countries in Asia, where there is little financial support from the state. “What binds experimental films from India, Vietnam or Malaysia is that all emerge out of a similar social-economic situation,” says Shai Heredia, Founder, Experimenta, a Bangalore-based artist-run platform that encourages experimentation with the moving image.

Experimenta, with a host of partners, is organising a first-time symposium on experimental films in Asia. “We usually meet at film festivals or at art conventions in the West, and never end up going to an Asian country because there is little money to organise such events. With this conference we hope to start a dialogue between Asian countries,” says Heredia. The event will be held in Bangalore on December 18 and 19.

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Among the academics, curators, artists, festival directors and researchers of experimental and avant garde film, are renowned international speakers including Trinh Thi Nguyen, Founder and Director of Hanoi Doclab, a centre for documentary filmmaking and video art in Vietnam and Shanay Jhaveri, curator of film programmes at the TATE Modern. Heredia says the event will facilitate more exchange programmes within the participating countries. “We also have plans for an online portal where people can watch films. Through that we want to commission writings around films that will help develop a discourse on experimental cinema,”adds Heredia.