Athena Cinema showing two Southeast Asian film showcases
Diving into the richness of Asian culture through film, Wednesday marks the first of two Southeast Asian Short Film showcases premiering at the Athena Cinema, 20 S. Court St., both with free admission.
The showcase is a project created in part by Hsin-Ning Chang, Athena Cinema projectionist and Ohio University interdisciplinary arts PhD student, who is originally from Taiwan. The series has been supported with funding from Arts for Ohio and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at OU.
“Although we’ve been helping out where we can — this is largely Chang’s effort, and I know it’s an important project to her both personally and professionally,” said Alex Kamody, Athena Cinema Director.
The series showing for Wednesday at 7 p.m. is named “Tropical Seasonings.” It is comprised of shorts taken from an experimental film festival that took place in Malaysia, with cinematic selections from various locations in Southeastern Asia. Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film Festival director Siew-wai Kok has curated the 12-film series, while Chang has acted as an intermediary between the curator and the Athena.
Chang has said that “Tropical Seasonings” mostly consists of city scenes and a few nature shorts. The films use special editing and overlapping techniques to create contemplative landscapes of various places in Southeast Asia.
“There are a few nature ones, but mostly it will be urban environments,” Chang said. “It is not necessarily animation, although they do utilize editing and manipulated images, taking sounds from the respective areas to make each piece its own individualized work.”
Chang said that every short for “Tropical Seasonings” is observant and meant to evoke different feelings and perceptions in each person who views it.
The next Southeast Asian showcase named “Letters from the South” will begin Nov. 2 and includes six different films. Chang says that it will contain more storyline and narrative-based films in comparison to the experimental emphasis of “Tropical Seasonings.”
“Letters” focuses on the topic of Oversea Chinese citizens in various places in Southeast Asia. Each piece emphasizes the filmmaker’s thoughts in regards to their homeland, as well as their experiences in Southeast Asia.
“I have to admit, I’m not extremely familiar with Asian or Southeast Asian cinematography,” said David Vazquez, a senior studying theater. “Which is why it’s pretty awesome that the Athena is showing foreign films like this instead of limiting themselves to American ones. They’re letting multiple cultures have their say, and I think that’s extremely important.”
sn002310@ohio.edu
