Singapore, 13 July 2009: MediaCorp, Singapore's leading media company, and NHK, Japan's
public broadcaster, announced on Friday 10 July that they are extending their partnership on The Asian Pitch competition for a further three years.
The relationship between MediaCorp and NHK was started in 2007 to provide independent
filmmakers across Asia funding to turn their ideas into world-class high-definition documentaries.
In the wake of this year's pitching event and signing ceremony, Mr Fumio Narashima, Head of
NHK's International Program Development, said: "The past two years have proven that there are fascinating untold stories and skilful new talent out there in Asia waiting to be discovered. We are very happy to be able to work with MediaCorp to offer the local filmmakers a chance to tell their stories to the world."
MediaCorp's Caldecott Productions International managing director, Ms Ong Hee Yah, said: "This has been a most fruitful and meaningful co-production relationship with NHK as it has created a much-needed space in the documentary market for Asian film-makers to emerge. We are glad that The Asian Pitch has benefitted the winners and given them the exposure to a global audience. We are most happy to extend the partnership so that more documentary film-makers can come on board."
Previous winners of The Asian Pitch have gained a slew of international awards, including the
recent US International Film and Video Festival's Grand Prix for Documentary Productions. This distinction belongs to Supermen of Malegaon (India), from the first batch of The Asian Pitch films.
Mediacorp and NHK today also awarded fresh funding to produce two new documentaries.
The Asian Pitch 2009 selected directors and projects are:
1. Transmission: Listening to the Mountain's Message, Shohei Shibata, Japan
2. Red Box, Yang Li-chou, Taiwan
public broadcaster, announced on Friday 10 July that they are extending their partnership on The Asian Pitch competition for a further three years.
The relationship between MediaCorp and NHK was started in 2007 to provide independent
filmmakers across Asia funding to turn their ideas into world-class high-definition documentaries.
In the wake of this year's pitching event and signing ceremony, Mr Fumio Narashima, Head of
NHK's International Program Development, said: "The past two years have proven that there are fascinating untold stories and skilful new talent out there in Asia waiting to be discovered. We are very happy to be able to work with MediaCorp to offer the local filmmakers a chance to tell their stories to the world."
MediaCorp's Caldecott Productions International managing director, Ms Ong Hee Yah, said: "This has been a most fruitful and meaningful co-production relationship with NHK as it has created a much-needed space in the documentary market for Asian film-makers to emerge. We are glad that The Asian Pitch has benefitted the winners and given them the exposure to a global audience. We are most happy to extend the partnership so that more documentary film-makers can come on board."
Previous winners of The Asian Pitch have gained a slew of international awards, including the
recent US International Film and Video Festival's Grand Prix for Documentary Productions. This distinction belongs to Supermen of Malegaon (India), from the first batch of The Asian Pitch films.
Mediacorp and NHK today also awarded fresh funding to produce two new documentaries.
The Asian Pitch 2009 selected directors and projects are:
1. Transmission: Listening to the Mountain's Message, Shohei Shibata, Japan
2. Red Box, Yang Li-chou, Taiwan
Synopses for the Projects:
1) Transmission: Listening to the Mountain's Message, Shohei Shibata, Japan
How can important memories be conveyed to the next generation? In Japan, a country of forests
and mountains, work methods that have long been at the heart of mountain life - like tree cutting,
slash and burn agriculture, and roof thatching - are quietly disappearing in the course of
modernisation. Recently, some Japanese high school students have gone up to the mountains to
see the people who live there and possess these skills, asking them about their craft and about life
itself... writing down what they hear, word for word, unchanged, just as it was spoken. This
documentary takes a close look at the lives of four such masters of life in the mountains and the
four high school students who learnt from them, capturing the moments when, by listening and
recording, memories were transmitted from one to the other.
2) Red Box, Yang Li-chou, Taiwan
This is a documentary on Chen Xihuang, the eldest son of the renowned Budaixi puppet master, Li
Tianlu. Budaixi is a traditional art form of Chinese opera using hand puppets. Chen began his
training in puppetry with the family troupe at an early age, but for complicated reasons, did not
inherit the troupe when his father passed away. Now aged 67, Chen then joined another theatre
company as the principal puppeteer. Witness how his efforts to revive a fading traditional art have
successfully brought Taiwanese glove puppetry to an international stage.
1) Transmission: Listening to the Mountain's Message, Shohei Shibata, Japan
How can important memories be conveyed to the next generation? In Japan, a country of forests
and mountains, work methods that have long been at the heart of mountain life - like tree cutting,
slash and burn agriculture, and roof thatching - are quietly disappearing in the course of
modernisation. Recently, some Japanese high school students have gone up to the mountains to
see the people who live there and possess these skills, asking them about their craft and about life
itself... writing down what they hear, word for word, unchanged, just as it was spoken. This
documentary takes a close look at the lives of four such masters of life in the mountains and the
four high school students who learnt from them, capturing the moments when, by listening and
recording, memories were transmitted from one to the other.
2) Red Box, Yang Li-chou, Taiwan
This is a documentary on Chen Xihuang, the eldest son of the renowned Budaixi puppet master, Li
Tianlu. Budaixi is a traditional art form of Chinese opera using hand puppets. Chen began his
training in puppetry with the family troupe at an early age, but for complicated reasons, did not
inherit the troupe when his father passed away. Now aged 67, Chen then joined another theatre
company as the principal puppeteer. Witness how his efforts to revive a fading traditional art have
successfully brought Taiwanese glove puppetry to an international stage.
