ASEAN film week to be held in Vietnam
ASEAN film week to be held in Vietnam
HANOI (Agencies): An ASEAN film week will be held in Hanoi the
last week of November as the country prepares to host the ASEAN
summit the following month, local press reports said Thursday.
Each of the nine ASEAN member countries will send one film.
The film week is funded by the Vietnam-ASEAN Culture and
Information Cooperation Committee, the Investment newspaper said.
The annual ASEAN art show also will be shown in Hanoi and Ho
Chi Minh City next month, but has run into controversy, with
Indonesia trying to block the inclusion of a Singapore painting.
The work by Chiang Jing Ying, titled Victims of May, is about
the riots in Indonesia last spring and reportedly is graphic in
its depiction of the violence.
Indonesian officials in Hanoi have written to the Ministry of
Culture asking that it be barred from the show, saying it "runs
counter to the spirit of ASEAN."
The show, which is an annual event, has been sponsored by
Philip Morris for five years as part of its general arts-
sponsorship activities worldwide.
Five paintings will represent Indonesia in the ASEAN art show.
The pieces, winners of Indonesia Art Awards V 1998, are on
display at the National Gallery in Jakarta until Friday.
Nominated are works of Isa Perkasa, Handiwirman Saputra, Rudi
ST. Darma, Irman A. Rahman and Ugo Untoro, which were chosen from
1,075 paintings entered in the competition.
Sunaryo, a jury member for Indonesian Art Award V, conceded
there had been a general decline in both quality and quantity of
works entered in the competition.
"Many of the painters took the political and social turmoil as
the theme of their painting. It seems, however, the subject has
not settled within them," Sunaryo told reporters recently.
He added that this year's regulation to allow only one
painting per entrant may have caused the decline in the number of
entries.
Organized by The Indonesian Fine Arts Foundation, the theme of
this year's competition is contemporary life and dilemma in
Southeast Asia.
In Manila last year, Yuswantoro Adi became Indonesia's first
painter to win the ASEAN Art Award. He received a cash price of
US$10,000 and a grand prize trophy. (46)