Arts and Culture

"It was a great experience for me. The audience in Barcelona was very enthusiastic about the festival. I had a useful Q&A during the screening of the film 'The Rainmaker'. This Q&A and the discussion of the DVD, gave me a glimpse of how the audience, and if may I generalise -- Europeans -- perceive Asian films. I also met other directors and producers from Korea, China, Malaysia, and Vietnam. We often had informal discussions regarding the cinema situation in each of our countries." - Ravi Bharwani, Indonesia.

OVERVIEW

The ASEF provided Cultural Grants to five filmmakers to support their participation in the Barcelona Asian Film Festival 2005:

- Yang Chao, director of "Passages," Korea

- Ravi Bharwani, director of "The Rainmaker," Indonesia

- Gen Sekiguchi, director of "Survive Style 5," Japan

- Lorna Tee, producer of "My Beautiful Washing Machine," Malaysia

- Lim Charn-sarng, director of "The President's Barber," Korea

Apart from presenting their respective films, the filmmakers took part in roundtables to share their perspectives on ways to promote the distribution of Asian films in Europe, and provide an Asian perspective on DVD penetration into the audiovisual market.