Independent filmmakers in Southeast Asia face numerous obstacles, but a burgeoning network of support — such as film fund Purin Pictures — is fuelling growth and ambition.
東南亞的獨立電影製作人現在正面臨許多困難。比如世界對東南亞電影的忽視，缺乏支持，缺乏資金等等，也從未有任何基金會或者政府機構會專門對東南亞電影提供幫助和扶持，但現在情況看似有所改變——如電影基金Purin Pictures——一個正在快速成長的專門為服務於東南亞獨立電影而建立的電影基金。
Speaking at the Purin Pictures Round table industry event in Bangkok in July, Monster Jimenez, a producer from the Philippines, outlined some of the obstacles facing Southeast Asian independent cinema. She said that when it comes to accessing funding or distribution, films from Southeast Asia are often lumped together as a genre, forced to compete for the same limited resources, despite the diversity of content emerging from around 10 film-producing nations across the region.
今年7月，來自菲律賓的製片人Monster Jimenez在曼谷舉行的Purin電影圓桌會議上發表講話，介紹了東南亞獨立電影發展正在面臨的一些障礙。
她說，在獲得資金或發行方面，儘管來自東南亞地域範圍內約10多個國家的電影內容多種多樣。但是來自東南亞的電影往往被歸為同一種流派，儘管資源非常有限，他們卻還要為此競爭的頭破血流。
「I』ve had a hard time convincing sales agents that my film was a hip-hop film, not a Southeast Asian film,」said Jimenez, who produced Treb Monteras’s Respeto, about the friendship between a young rapper and an older poet.「My hope is that five years from now, every film we make can stand alongside those from Japan, Korea and France and get the same crack at the funding. It feels like we’re competing with the rest of the world but we’re always at a disadvantage.」
"我很難說服代理公司，我的電影是嘻哈電影，而不是東南亞電影，"，一部關於講述年輕說唱歌手和一位老詩人故事的電影《菲律賓有嘻哈》的製片人希門尼斯如是說，"我希望五年後，我們拍攝的每部電影都能與日本、韓國和法國的影片在獲得資金支持上有同等的競爭機會。現在我們在與世界其他地區影片的競爭中，總是處於劣勢。
（菲律賓有嘻哈）
That’s a challenge Bangkok-based Purin Pictures is keen to tackle. Launched in 2017 as a film fund, it provides grants to around 10 film a year from the region, along with supporting film-related events such as Vietnam’s Autumn Meeting and SeaShorts Film Festival in Malaysia. Round Table was launched this year in partnership with Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival to explore the issues facing the industry through panels, workshops and spotlights.
對總部設在曼谷的Purin電影來說這是一個巨大的挑戰，該組織於2017年作為電影基金啟動，每年為該地區約10部電影提供資助，同時支持其他的與電影相關的活動，如越南秋季會議（每年在河內或峴港進行的競賽性質的電影節，2018年已經是第六屆）和馬來西亞的SeaShorts電影節。今年的圓桌會議將與曼谷東協電影節合作推出，通過工作坊、研討會，論壇等探索如今電影業面臨的問題。
（越南秋季會議/Vietnam’s Autumn Meeting）
「We’re modelled after non-profit funds like [Rotterdam’s] Hubert Bals and [Busan’s] Asian Cinema Fund (ACF), which started out as film festivals and created a fund later,」 explains Aditya Assarat, who manages the fund with fellow Thai filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong. 「So after two years, we felt we needed a tentpole event in Bangkok to have more of a physical presence and let people know who we are.」
"我們仿照了非盈利基金會，如鹿特丹的休伯特·巴爾斯基金（以基金會創辦人休伯特·巴爾斯命名的基金，為發展中國家的電影拍攝提供幫助）和釜山的亞洲電影基金（ACF），這兩個基金最初都是以電影節面向公眾，後來都創立了非盈利性質的基金會，Purin電影的阿迪婭·阿薩拉特解釋道，他與泰國電影製作人阿諾查·蘇威查科恩蓬"一起管理著該基金。兩年後，我們覺得在曼谷需要舉辦一場活動，並且還要多舉辦一些線下活動，讓更多的人了解我們。
從左到右——維斯拉·維希特-瓦達漢、阿諾查·蘇維奇·科恩蓬、阿迪亞
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: PURIN PICTURES』 VISRA VICHIT-VADAKAN, ANOCHA SUWICHAKORNPONG, ADITYA ASSARAT
On the funding side, Purin Pictures hands out 10 grants in two funding rounds per year, split between production grants of $30,000 and post-production grants of $50,000 in services provided by Bangkok-based White Light Post. It has supported award-winning film such as Marlina The Murderer In Four Acts, directed by Indonesia’s Mouly Surya, which premiered in Directors』 Fortnight at Cannes in 2017 and won the grand prize at Tokyo Filmex, and Manta Ray, from Thailand’s Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, which won best film in Venice Horizons last year.
在提供基金方面，Purin電影每年分兩輪發放10筆款項，總共提供3萬美元的製作基金，另一部分款項是由總部位於曼谷的White Light Post提供的5萬美元用於後期製作。基金曾資助過由印度尼西亞導演蘇裡亞執導的獲獎影片「瑪琳娜的殺戮四段式」，這部電影於2017年坎城電影節上首映，並在東京電影展上獲得大獎；還有由Phuttiphong Aroonpheng指導的泰國電影《蝠鱝》，該片去年在威尼斯地平線單元獲得最佳影片獎。
《瑪琳娜的殺戮四段式》
More recently, it funded Kavich Neang’s Last Night I Saw You Smiling, a documentary from Cambodia’s burgeoning filmmaking scene,which won the Netpac award in Rotterdam, while upcoming titles include Wong Chen-hsi’s City Of Small Blessings (Singapore),Jacky Yeap’s Sometime, Sometime (Malaysia) and Martika Escobar’s Return Of The Owl (Philippines).
最近，Purin電影資助了柬埔寨導演Kavich Neang的紀錄片《昨夜看見你在笑》，該片在鹿特丹電影節獲得了Netpac獎，還有幾部即將完成的影片影片包括王晨曦的《City Of Small Blessings 》（新加坡）。傑基·耶普的《Sometime, Sometime》（馬來西亞）和瑪蒂卡·埃斯科瓦爾的《Return Of The Owl 》（菲律賓）
《昨夜看見你在笑》
Purin Pictures is not aiming to support films that are a sure bet on the festival circuit, but to discover and nurture new talent in Southeast Asian indie cinema. The fund is an initiative of the Purin Foundation, a Thailand-based private foundation headed by Visra Vichit-Vadakan, the granddaughter of playwright and politician Luang Wichitwathakan, and herself a filmmaker with credits including 2013 docudrama Karaoke Girl.
Purin電影並不專注於在各大電影節中已經受到關注的影片，而是要發現和培養東南亞獨立電影的新人才。該基金會由劇作家和政治家盧昂·維希特瓦塔甘(Luang Wichitwathakan)的孫女維舍(Visra Vichit-Vadakan)發起，同時她也是一名電影製作人，她本人也參與製作2013年的紀錄片《卡拉OK女孩》(Karaoke Girl)。
《卡拉OK女孩》
Initially, the foundation focused on educational and social development projects, but Visra decided to take it into cinema and brought in Anocha and Aditya to manage the fund. 「I felt we needed to create a space for storytelling in this region, and support these young voices
so they can present their own perspective,」 says Visra, who splits her time between the US and Bangkok. 「We’re not a huge fund, but we thought it would be too narrow to only think nationally, so we decided to open it up to the whole of Southeast Asia.」
最初，該基金會將重點放在教育和社會發展項目，但Visra決定將其帶入電影界，並請Anocha和Aditya管理該基金。「我覺得，我們需要在這個地區（東南亞）創造一個講故事的空間，支持這些年輕的聲音，讓他們能夠表達自己的觀點，」維薩拉說，她在美國和曼谷兩地工作。「算然我們不是一個大的基金會，但是如果只是因為這個原因就讓目光停留於個別國家這樣會太狹隘，所以我們決定放眼關注整個東南亞地區。」
「There’s a lot of creativity in the region, but not much government funding,」 adds Anocha.「Some of the funding for art film is coming from patrons of the visual arts, but that kind of support is still quite small.」
「這個地區的電影人有很強的創造力，但政府所能提供的資金並不多，」阿諾查補充說。「一些藝術機構會提供一些資金給藝術電影用於創作，但依舊杯水車薪。」
Before Purin Pictures was launched, Southeast Asian filmmakers would mainly apply to Hubert Bals and ACF.「But those funds are handling the entire world or all Asia,」 says Aditya, 「so it’s very competitive and very few new talents were getting funded.」Adding an extra dimension to the support of under-represented voices in the region, Purin Pictures earmarks at least one grant per funding round for a first or second-time female filmmaker.
在Purin電影公司成立之前，東南亞電影製片人主要向休伯特·巴爾斯基金和亞洲電影基金（ACF）申請資金。「但這些基金的發放對象面對世界或整個亞洲，」阿迪蒂亞說，「所以它的競爭很激烈，很少有新人可以獲得資金支持。」為支持該東南亞地區電影人創作日益增長的需求和資源不足的情況，Purin電影公司每年至少撥出一筆撥款為首次或第二次進行創作的女性電影人提供資金。
Government support 政府支持
It’s certainly true that, with the exception of Singapore, Southeast Asia is not exactly awash with either private or government funding, and the subsidy programmes that do exist change format frequently, and in some years don’t provide any funding at all.
毫無疑問，除了新加坡，東南亞地區的資金提供寥寥無幾，甚至根本提供不了任何資金。
Singapore has the most comprehensive government support system in the region, managed by the Singapore Film Commission (SFC), which provides funding at all stages of a filmmaker’s career from film school and short film to first features and beyond. The results can be seen through a string of recent awards for Singaporean films such as Kirsten Tan’s Pop Aye, Boo Jun-feng’s Apprentice and Yeo Siew Hua’s Locarno 2018 Golden Leopard winner A Land Imagined.
新加坡擁有在東南亞地區最完善的政府資助體系，由新加坡電影委員會（SFC）管理；它在電影人職業生涯的所有階段都會提供資助，包括從電影學校開始，到短片的創作，再到第一部長片以及未來的項目都會有資助。從近期一系列獲獎的新加坡電影中就可以看到這些資金扶持的成果，比如：陳敬音的《大笨象/Pop Aye》、巫俊峰的《監獄學警/Apprentice 》和2018年洛加諾電影節金豹獎得主楊修華的《幻土/A Land Imagined》。
SFC is now looking further afield by launching a co-production grant for filmmakers from across the region, which will offer up to $184,000 (s$250,000) per project. Qualifying projects must involve a Singaporean producer and half the grant must be spent in Singapore. The Korean Film Council (Kofic) is also currently exploring the establishment of a pan-regional initiative that would support Southeast Asian cinema. But until those programmes are up and running, there’s not much else out there in the region at a government level.
現在，新加坡電影委員會正在整個東南亞範圍內啟動一些新項目，計劃提供每部影片25萬美元的資助，參與項目的影片必須有一名新加坡籍的製片人參與其中，並且贊助款項的一半必須花費在新加坡境內。韓國電影理事會目前也在探討建立一個泛區域倡議，以支持東南亞電影。在這些項目啟動並運行之前，東南亞地區在政府級別上並沒有多少其他的資助項目。
Another initiative of Purin Pictures is a long-term research project, SEAStudy, which aims to compile data year to year and present a comprehensive picture of the health of the Southeast Asian independent film industry. The first edition of the report, based on films that world premiered in 2016, reveals how dependent the industry currently is on Europe for both distribution and funding.
Purin電影同時還有另外一個研究項目，SEAStudy，其目標是每年彙編數據，並提交一個東南亞獨立電影現狀的綜合報告。根據第一階段的研究顯示，從2016年全球獨立電影首映的情況看來，無論史發行還是投資，獨立電影行業的重心都傾向於歐洲。
Among the 122 Southeast Asian indie films made during this period, around one third were international co-productions, mostly with France, Germany and Qatar (reflecting the work of Doha Film Institute). Around 62% of these films were funded with so money from local sources, with 12% gaining support from international film funds. When it came to international distribution, Europe was by far the biggest export market, accounting for 35% of sales by territory, followed by Asia and the Middle East.
在這一時期拍攝的122部東南亞獨立電影中，約有三分之一是與法國，德國和卡達(根據多哈電影學院的調查）合作製作的國際合拍片。大約62%的電影資金來自影片當地製片國家和地區，獲得國際電影基金的支持的影片佔12%。在國際發行方面，歐洲是目前最大的出口市場，佔銷售額的35%，其次是亞洲和中東。
The report also found that while 76% of these films received a local theatrical release, roughly 60% were only released in one to 10 cinemas.「For us filmmakers in Thailand, a theatrical release is more for the heart than for revenue – our market is Europe with other bits here and there,」Adita says.
報告還發現，儘管其中76%的影片在當地上映，但大約60%的影片只在1到10家影院上映。「對於我們泰國的電影製作者來說，影片發行更多的是象徵意義大於經濟效益，我們的主要市場在歐洲，除此之外還有一點點散布在其他國家。」阿迪塔說。
While the economies and, in some cases, the box office of Southeast Asian nations are growing, this is a situation that isn’t likely to change any time soon. With the exception of Indonesia and Vietnam, which are growing from a very low base, box office across most of the region is relatively flat and the space for films that are not mainstream local or Hollywood titles remains a tiny sliver.
通常來說，隨著國家的經濟增長，理應票房也會隨之增長。但在東南亞卻並不是這樣。除了印度尼西亞和越南外，東南亞大部分地區的票房增長都是增長緩慢，那些不屬於本地主流或好萊塢電影的空間仍然很小。
「It’s a tough business, not only within your own country, but also due to changes happening at a globle al level,」 says Aditya. 「Thailand’s box office is not doing great — we have 70 million people, but purchasing power is not high, and only 2 million can afford to buy tickets. On top of that, there’s this global shift to streaming that’s also affecting us. It’s diffcult to say whether this is a local or global issue, or perhaps both.」
「這是一個不賺錢的買賣，不僅是在你自己的國家，世界上其他國家也差不多都是這樣，」阿迪蒂亞說。「泰國的票房並不是很好——我們有7000萬人，但是購買力不高，只有200萬觀眾能買得起電影票。最重要的是，我們也受國際大環境的影響。所以很難說這是一個地區問題還是全球性的問題，也許兩者都有影響。
（2018年泰國票房榜，前88名基本均為好萊塢影片，無一泰國本土電影）
A growing network 不斷擴大的產業鏈
The next step for filmmakers could be to explore streaming platforms. Netflix is competing with several regional services, including iflix, Viu and HOOQ, who are all investing in local-language content. But it remains to be seen where that leaves Southeast Asian arthouse cinema.
According to SEAStudy, indie films from the region are being made on an average budget of $330,000, but only earning around $32,000 per film from SVoD platforms.
電影製作人下一步可能會繼續往流媒體平臺探索新的途徑。Netflix正在與包括iflix，Viu還有HOOQ等在內的幾家地區性流媒體平臺展開競爭，他們都在投資當地語言為主的產品。但投資的內容已經逐漸拋棄了藝術電影。據SEAStudy報導，該地區製作的獨立電影的平均預算是33萬美元但是每部影片在SVoD平臺的利潤僅為32000美元。
While a regional market is yet to emerge, what is changing is a growing network of Southeast Asian labs and workshops and a community of filmmakers who are working across borders. 「We have people like Lee Chatametikool, an editor who is working across the whole of Asia and beyond, and Thai DoP Chananun Chotrungroj, who worked on [Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair’s] The Third Wife,」 says Anocha.
雖然這個地區性的市場目前還沒有形成，但是這些正在發展中的組織和項目的出現正在改變東南亞電影的現狀，尤其對參與跨國合作的電影工作者來說。「我們現在有像編劇利·查泰米提古（來自泰國的剪輯，導演，編劇。參與過王小帥的《地久天長》，阿彼察邦的《能召回前世的布米叔叔》等），攝影師Chananun Chotrungroj（參與過《別從月回來》，《大笨象》等）
This is happening despite the huge cultural, economic and linguistic differences between countries, and the fact the region’s star systems remain distinct — there are very few Thai stars, for instance, that would draw an audience even in neighbouring Malaysia.
儘管各國之間存在巨大的文化、經濟和語言差異，以及該地區不同的明星效應。——例如，即使在鄰國馬來西亞，就很少有泰國明星能夠吸引觀眾
「It’s been great to see on our panels that there is already a network of people — and events like this are just fuelling it, it’s not likewe』ve had to build it ourselves,」 says Visra. 「There’s a camaraderie in the region that already exists.」
但是很感恩，在我們組織的這些活動中，大家打成一片，已經建立了同志般的情誼，至少我們不用再專門為每個人牽線搭橋了。Visra如是說。
文章翻譯自:
ScreenDaily
https://www.screendaily.com/features/how-independent-filmmakers-in-southeast-asia-are-on-the-rise/5142223.article
引用 reference
https://www.purinpictures.org.
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