Culture

OVERVIEW

What previously unknown aspects of the histories of Southeast Asia can be excavated from the audio-visual archives of the region? Where else are the fragments of the region’s histories hiding? The 6th edition of the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, Raiding the Archives, aims to find answers to these questions. It will take place in January 2012.

A team of international experts researched the audio-visual archives in China, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, The Netherlands and Vietnam, looking for surprising historical footage and revelatory amateur films. The team included archivists, academics and curators from both regions.

They created series of programmes that captured history at the margins, which will encourage viewers to look anew at history and discover fresh details. The team also experimented with using the same historical footage across differently themed programmes, in order to demonstrate the importance of creative curatorial framing in engaging the public with archival materials.