Electric Shadows Festival 2022

In eleven film programs over four days, from 29 September to 2 October, Electric Shadows Asian Film Festival invites curious cinephiles to discover a diverse selection of wilful films from Asia. The festival opens with a restored classic: Kummatty by Govindan Aravindan, a key figure of Parallel Cinema in India. Together with Thamp, another Aravindan gem, it gives new insights into the legacy of Indian cinema. “Kummatty like Thamp creates a playful choreography of gazes”, says film historian Amrit Gangar in a conversation with G. Avindan’s favorite cinematographer Shaji N. Karun. The closing film of the festival will be The New Old Play by Chinese artist and filmmaker Qiu Jiongjiong, who explores how artistic independence and shifting political powers intertwine in Chinese history. 

In between opening and closing film, Electric Shadows serves an abundance of surprising perspectives on what film, and Asian cinema, can be. The focus lies on little screened house-hold names such as Tsai Ming-liang and Nguyen Trinh Thi as well as on up-and-coming cineastes. Tsai Ming-liang’s recent film The Night (2021), which offers a look at street life in Hong Kong after the sun has set and the frenzy of the city Tsai calls the Pearl of the East has subsided, also features in the program.  

You can find the entire program here.