Friday, January 27, 2006

Asian gallery braces for a sad ending

The Asia-Pacific Documentary Film Festival will probably be the last exhibition to be held at Gallery 4a due to lack of funding,says gallery curator Binghui Huangfu.

"A collaboration between the centre and the Performance Space, the Asia-Pacific Documentary Film Festival includes documentary and video works by 25 artists from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Huangfu emphasises that the works are by artists, not filmmakers."

"The difference between filmmakers making documentaries and artists making documentaries is that there is a different point of view," she says. "For an artist, the subject matter is more undefined, along less clear lines. The filmmaker always has a very clear direction and clear message. Artists give the audience more room to reinterpret their work."

The exhibition includes works such as the Filipino artist Avic Ilagan's video about the repatriation of Filipino domestic workers from Hong Kong; the Sydney artist Robert Nery's 90-minute video about Catholicism in the Philippines including a nails-and-all re-enactment of the crucifixion; and Wang Jianwei's documentary about Chinese living in half-finished luxury apartments abandoned by developers. Jobless and forced off their rural land, one squatter family runs a pig farm inside the building. Another resident uses his space as a place to stow stolen goods."

W: http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/asian-gallery-braces-for-a-sad-ending/2006/01/26/1138066922183.html