Paths Untold: Sketches of South-East Asian filmmaking careers

Abstract

Research Background Paths Untold is a creative investigation on how emerging South-East Asian filmmakers establish and sustain their careers in today’s digital age. The project consists of 27 interviews with independent filmmakers in all ten South-East Asian countries, presented as micro-documentaries and brought together on the project website.

Research Contribution Film is the art-form of the 21st century. For the first 100 years of its history, cinema was dominated by a few, mostly western, production centres. Digital technologies are democratising access to global media markets. Economic growth, affordable production equipment and new distribution and exhibition channels help establish new production centers and allow formerly marginalised voices to reach global audiences. Paths Untold celebrates creative careers and lives in South-East Asia. Interviews with 29 filmmakers – from Camera d’Or winners to first-time short film creators – provide a deep insight into the life and work of creative entrepreneurs in the ten South-East Asian capital cities. Paths Untold brings to light creative entrepreneurship and the new urban realities in one of the world’s most vibrant filmmaking regions. What makes a filmmaker outside of the highly specialised global film production centres in today’s digital age? Through Paths Untold, I argue that the resourceful filmmaker in the 21st century, especially outside of global production centres, is a multi-skilled writer-director-producer (and often more) that takes advantage of opportunities, networks and technologies to make films, reach audiences, build their brand and, ultimately, “direct” their careers.

Research Significance Paths Untold has been exhibited as part of George Town Festival in Penang, Malaysia in August 2018. George Town Festival is one of the leading cultural festivals in South-East Asia.