Cinema : Sydney
“Asian cinema is well represented this year right across the program. Many festival directors I have spoken to over the last year believe this is one of the strongest years for Asian films in recent history.â€? That’s a quote from director Gayle Lake’s introductory notes to the 47th Sydney Film Festival held in 2000. It suggests the festival-goer that year would see a variety of exciting and challenging films, documentaries and shorts from the huge region collectively known as Asia. So how many Asian films were featured in 2000? Of the 166 items programmed that year a total of eight originated from Asia. Eight. And how many films in that same year originated from the United States of America? 41. Yes, 41. Yet Lake makes no mention of this nation as being well-represented in the Festival, no mention of the USA as a place which caused a buzz of excitement for festival directors around the world. The presence of North American and British films in huge numbers at the Sydney Film Festival is simply a given.

Jump forward to early June 2003. In recognition of its 50th festival, the SFF held a 2-day symposium with a variety of guest speakers discussing the role of the Festival today. One session was devoted to Asian cinema and the “enormously significant roleâ€? it has played in the history of the SFF. “It is impossible for one session to do justice to the diversity of national cinemas that deserve attention under the umbrella Asian cinema,â€? gushed the introductory abstract. Here was the SFF patting itself on the back for its championing of Asian cinema, secure in its belief that it is indeed representing the region in a significant way. But it isn’t. And while it would be too strong a criticism to suggest the Festival is ignoring its Asian neighbours, it is certainly true that the region comes at the tail end of a field dominated by European and American cinema.

One of the highlights of last year’s SFF was the Critic’s Forum chaired by ABC film critic Julie Rigg, which canvassed responses from both professional critics and the general audience to Kim Ki-duk’s feature film Bad Guy (2001). Kim had already established a dramatic presence internationally with his five earlier films, including the extremely controversial feature The Isle (2001). None of these played at the SFF. His most recent film The Coast Guard (2002), which features topical subject matter – a marine stationed near the Korean DMZ – opened the Pusan Film Festival in 2002 but did not make it to the SFF this year. Here we have a high-profile, controversial Korean director and, as a film festival audience, Sydneysiders have had the chance to see only one of his films. None of Kim’s work is likely to receive theatrical release in Australia and television sales, restricted inevitably to SBS, involve a bout with the censor’s scissors before screening. The natural home for films like these is the festival circuit.