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Re-envisioning Asia: Contestations and Struggles in the Visual Arts

To promote inter-disciplinary interactions, discussions, and critiques about the role of Southeast Asian and South Asian visual art in Asian Studies, the Association for Asian Studies is pleased to hold a virtual film festival and two AAS Digital Dialogues, with the support of the Asian Cultural Council (ACC).

The AAS-ACC South and Southeast Asian Virtual Film Festival, “Re-envisioning Asia: Contestations and Struggles in the Visual Arts” (September 20 – October 3, 2021), features the work of a selection of Southeast Asian and South Asian films, documentaries, and visual arts from Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Pakistan,and Sri Lanka. These contributions will give us a unique insight into the role of filmmaking in documenting the arsenal of resistance in the face of daily violence in places like Cambodia, Kashmir, or Myanmar.

The artists will join two AAS Digital Dialogues (September 24 and September 30) to discuss raising awareness on key social and political issues, engage with one another’s work, and reflect on their personal creative journeys. Our conversations will bring female film directors, activists, and actresses, whose works deconstruct stereotypes in their own countries so as to raise important issues of gender, sexuality, equality, and censorship in Bangladesh, Brunei, and India. These conversations will also shed light on the divide between traditionalism and secular modernity, the dramatic impact of COVID-19 on precarious lives, and the transhistorical perspective offered by the Asian diaspora from countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

For access to all films in the “Re-envisioning Asia: Contestations and Struggles in the Visual Arts” Virtual Film Festival. Films will be available for viewing online from September 20 to October 3, 2021.