Anoushka Shankar performing live for the 1928 Indian silent film – Shiraz: A romance of Indian at the Barbican
 
I saw 8 engrossing films and documentaries in total at the Raindance and BFI film festivals this year, and I feel that the overall standard of the films I saw this year is exceptionally [...]

The Chinese human rights activist Ye Haiyan
 
Last week I attended the opening night of the Human Rights watch film festival to watch a new documentary called 'Hooligan Sparrow' by young Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang.
The filmmaker originally wanted to make a film about the abuse of sex workers in China, but ended up [...]

While in Hong Kong, two major culture festivals were taking place, so I took the opportunity to attend the Hong Kong Arts Festival, where I saw a China and Hong Kong collaborative play 'The Crowd' and listened to traditional Korean music reinterpreted by contemporary groups Jeong Ga Ak Hoe & Su:m.
However, as [...]

 
A while back I wrote about the Japanese soft power on the world, but within the last decade, the world has witnessed how South Korea managed to conquer the world through technology, design, cosmetics (including surgeries) and pop culture in a relatively short period of time. The transformation is staggering because South [...]

I am not sure how other film buffs pick their choices at the BFI London Film Festival, but usually by the time I finish 'studying' the brochure, all the films that I intend to see would sell out!
Like always, I would pick the less popular films or films that are less unlikely [...]

The 38th Hong Kong's International film festival took place from 24th March to 7th April, and I was able to see some films that are yet to be released or may not even get general releases.
As always, with so many films and limited time, it was hard to narrow the selection down [...]

October is a month full of cultural activities in London, not only there is a dozen or so art fairs for art lovers, but there is also the London film festival for film lovers. With so many films to choose from, it was almost impossible to choose just a handful... after spending [...]

With so many film festivals taking place in London all the time, it's hard to keep up with all of them. I recently found out about the Terracotta Far East Film Festival despite it is already in its 5th year.
The festival showcases a range of current films from different parts of Asia [...]

I am a huge fan of world cinema and documentaries, but it's never easy to pick just a few from the long list at the London film festival. I usually would pick out the ones that are 'least' likely to get distributed here, hence I never pick the popular choices.
It is always [...]