Letter from the Cinevolution

No Man Is An Island

Two years ago I bumped into a Finnish documentary, No Man Is An Island. This title struck me as deeply as the film. A Google search led me to the origin of the words, a poem by the English poet John Donne of the 16th century:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main……

Then last year, I came across a Japanese documentary puujee and the story of Yoshihara Sekino, an extraordinary explorer who has been involved in a ten-year journey across continents traveling back to the origins of the human race. “Our lives are transformed, becoming more profound and diverse, through our encounters with others” ⎯ this first sentence from puujee resonates so loudly with John Donne’s poem, and so strongly with our experience as newcomers in a new land.

Thus comes the 2nd New Asia Film Festival. It is our wish that this event will bring to the local audience a sense of belonging, not only to a specific culture, but to a larger world. We hope these films will stimulate or re-awaken the excitement when we encounter our diversity.

Through this lens to view the programming for this year’s film festival, besides puujee, there is Mongolia, 30 Years Later by Canadian filmmaker Francois Laliberte, a crossing—time journey with the Richmond resident Dan Zhang, who goes back to the Inner Mongolia where she spent 10 years of her youth during the Cultural Revolution.

There is A State of Mind, UK filmmaker Daniel’s rare documentary about the life of two teenage girls in North Korea. The film reveals more of North Korea than anything that’s ever been seen: the genuine hope and human dignity of its ordinary people.

There are A Warrior’s Religion by the local filmmaker Mani Amar about Vancouver’s gang violence, and Who Killed Our Children by the Chinese filmmaker Pan Jianlin about the Sichuan earthquake. Both films take an unflinching look at the tragedies happening to the younger generation and have been criticized as airing dirty laundry. But I am sure you will find out what they are really about.

3XFTM, the first documentary about the life of transgenders in South Korea will challenge our traditional conception of diverse sexuality; and Indian master Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s unique cinematic style, through the voice of the Four Women, tries to speak to the universal truth of human nature.

The last day of this year’s festival happens to be on Mother’s Day. We will show the award-winning drama Flower In the Pocket as a tribute to families. We hope this lovely film will give you a new understanding of Malaysian cinema.

CNEX Foundation has been a long time supporter of our activities. This year, we will put the spotlight on this first Chinese non-profit organization dedicated to documentary production. We are also thrilled by the inauguration of DocuAsia Forum co-presented with the David Lam Centre of SFU, and a new partnership with explorASIAN and DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver, as only through collaboration can we have a broader reach.

No festival experience would be complete without direct interaction with the filmmakers themselves. This year our invited filmmakers and guests are: Ben Tsiang, the founder and CEO of CNEX from China, Kazuya Yamada and his wife Chikae Honjo, the director and producer of puujee from Japan, director Mani Amar and Francois Laliberte from Canada, and Dr. Dan Zhang from Richmond.

Last, but not least, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the constant support from the City of Richmond, the Richmond Cultural Centre and particularly Kirsten Schrader. This festival could not be possible without her faith and trust. I also want to pay my deepest respects to my colleagues who are always striving for excellence with very limited resources; to the countless volunteers who have devoted their time and talent; and to everyone whose contributions have helped to make this year’s film festival a success.

I would like to end with a quotation from Kazuya, when he pointed out my omission of capitalizing the first “p” of the film’s title. He said: “The documentary is indeed a story about a girl named Puujee, but I did not want it to end up being just a story about an individual. It was for this reason that I used lower case letters, to give it a sense of abstraction and universality.”

So come out to the New Asia Film Festival!

Ying Wang
Chair
Cinevolution Media Arts Society