Old ties, new friends at the ‘reborn’ Asian Film Symposium1 min read

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About 6-7 years ago, in the Guiness Theatre at the Substation, a little memorial service was held for Alexis Tioseco, film critic, editor of Criticine and regular face at the annual Asian Film Symposium. Alexis was killed in a burglary in his home in the Philippines. Being one of the most prominent voices then, a little bit of the Asian Film Symposium went away with him when left us. The Asian Film Symposium was then an important platform for independent filmmakers from the region to come together to compare notes and learn about the trends and movements in filmmaking in each of our countries. The works screened were always raw and edgy, something you would hardly be able to catch in any other mainstream cinema. And there was a sense of brotherhood among the curators and filmmakers who created a regional filmmaking ecosystem and created more opportunities for filmmakers in the region.
In the absence of the Asian Film Symposium over the years, the Singapore film scene has taken off quite a bit with the success found in both commercial and independent films. While the scene had become more exciting in a different way, nothing could quite substitute the ‘cross-polinatory’ camaraderie that the Asian Film Symposium achieved.

Indeed, the Asian Film Symposium (AFS), organized by Objectifs and The Substation, returned this year to a spectrum of expectations. The old-timers would be yearning for the huddling with old friends again. New fans of independent films in Singapore would be eagerly looking forward to the opportunity of sampling a smorgasbord of cinema from different countries.

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