ASIA

Small Business Owner Against the City Authorities in Pre-Epidemic Wuhan—‘City Dream’, dir. Weijun Chen, 2019

July 28th, 2020|Country: China|

A close look at the law enforcement systems in the Chinese city of Wuhan through the story of a street vendor who decides to battle gentrification in a very flamboyant fashion

Worker Exploitation and Misogyny: Where the Real Looting Happens in the Retail Industry—’Made in Bangladesh’, dir. Rubaiyat Hossain, 2019

July 13th, 2020|Country: Bangladesh, Denmark, France, Portugal|

A sizzling drama about a feminist uprising and union organizing at a garment factory in Dhaka puts the necessary spotlight on the exploitation of labor of which many consumers remain oblivious

Manga Bears, Latex Pigs and Tireless Activism in Japan’s Struggle for Equality and Queer Acceptance—‘Queer Japan’, dir. Graham Kolbeins, 2019

June 23rd, 2020|Country: Canada, Japan, USA|

A head-spinning tour of the many ways in which queerness manifests itself in Japan, from art-forms to infrastructure, from communities to mass media, made with affection for every featured voice

A Grieving Family, A Cryogenically Frozen Toddler and a Death, Postponed— ‘Hope Frozen’, dir. Pailin Wedel, 2018

June 21st, 2020|Country: Thailand, USA|

When a father’s attempts to stop his young daughter’s terminal cancer fail, he persuades the family to look into cryonics so that the girl could have another chance at life in the remote future

The Human Cost of Duterte’s Drug War—‘The Mortician of Manila’, dir. Leah Borromeo, 2019 + ‘The Nightcrawlers’, dir. Alexander A. Mora, 2019

June 15th, 2020|Country: Philippines, Qatar, United Kingdom|

Vigilante brigades committing extrajudicial murders to help the police, journalists trying to shed light on the atrocities, and an undertaker who takes care of the victims’ bodies

‘The Legal’ versus ‘The Moral’; The Plight of the Family in Contemporary Japan —’Shoplifters,’ dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2018

June 2nd, 2020|Country: Japan|

Facing crippling poverty, one family’s attempt to survive may be emblematic of wider societal problems plaguing a Japan that’s in a deep economic recession

Gasping at the Horrors of Past Internment Camps, as We Build More Prisons—‘Dead Souls’, dir. Wang Bing, 2018

May 31st, 2020|Country: China, France, Switzerland|

An exhaustive, gutting look at a Chinese internment camp allows us to learn from the survivors first hand. However, what exactly are we as a carceral society taking away from it?

Iron Horses, Flesh Elephants, and Human Survivors of Taiwan’s History—Wu Ming-yi, ’The Stolen Bicycle,’ 2015, trans. Darryl Sterk

May 12th, 2020|Country: Taiwan|

A highly imaginative novel rooted in the personal and historical comes together as a multi-faceted vision of Taiwan’s past and distills Taiwanese identity out of wars and calamities

Queerness, Gender Discrimination, and Cults on the Margins of the Chinese Dream—‘A Dog Barking at the Moon’, dir. Lisa Zi Xiang, 2019

April 7th, 2020|Country: China, Spain|

A taut, inventive drama dissects how preoccupation with gender fulfillment and marriage in the Chinese society can lead to alienation: an expectant mother rediscovers the misery in her childhood home

Meat, Lust and Madness Against the Bhutanese Greenery— ‘The Red Phallus’, dir. Tashi Gyeltshen, 2018

March 31st, 2020|Country: Bhutan, Germany, Nepal|

An emotionally intelligent, masterfully arranged film that explores the power-dynamics in Bhutanese society through the eyes of a traumatized, disaffected teenage girl

The Magnificent Pencil Pushers: The Planet’s Leading Miniature Carvers Working on the Sharp End, Part 2

March 30th, 2020|Country: Bashkortostan, India, Russia, Taiwan, Tamil Nadu, USA, Vietnam|

There is no topic that those micro sculptors with mad skills can't pencil in: from Baby Yoda to endangered species, from complex engineering to the taboo of menstruation.

The Many Facets of Kyrgyz Womanhood—‘Jamilia’, dir. Aminatou Echard, 2018

February 26th, 2020|Country: France, Kyrgyzstan|

Ethnography meets experimental film in a stunning, sprawling study of Kyrgyz femininity and its relationship to the culture's defining novella about a rebellious woman

The Past, Present, and Future of Dance in the Muslim World—‘When Arabs Danced’, dir. Jawad Rhalib, 2018

January 20th, 2020|Country: Algeria, Belgium, France, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco|

Trailblazing performers from Arabic countries and Iran, as well as glimpses from the pre-hardline cultural landscapes in this tantalizing primer on the role dance plays in Islam-adjacent cultures

The Sheltering Power of Art and Pedagogy in Occupied Palestine—‘Hurdle’, dir. Michael Rowley, 2019

January 19th, 2020|Country: Palestine, USA|

An intimate documentary about two men who seek freedom from Israeli occupation through creativity and kinship unfolds into an antidote to toxic masculinity

One Afghan Family’s Clandestine Perspective of the Contemporary Global Refugee Crisis in ‘Midnight Traveler’, dir. Hassan Fazili, 2019

January 14th, 2020|Country: Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey|

An urgent documentary about a family seeking asylum provides an intimate perspective of the way that countless people plea for state powers to recognize their humanity

Family Values, Fraud, Post-Colonialism, and Scary Healing Rituals in ‘Suleiman Mountain’, dir. Elizaveta Stishova, 2017

January 6th, 2020|Country: Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Russia|

A husband, his two wives, and estranged young son grapple with opportunities and morals in rural Kyrgyzstan—a powerful road-movie from a young Russian director

Film: Bhonsle, dir. Devashish Makhija, 2018

May 10th, 2019|Country: India|

A retired Marathi cop played by Manoj Bajpayee confronts xenophobia in his chwal

Film: House of Hummingbird, dir. Kim Bora, 2018

April 29th, 2019|Country: South Korea|

2019 Tribeca Film Festival International Narrative Competition winner: South Korean teenage girl in the 90s struggles to belong

Film: Noah Land, dir. Cenk Erturk, 2019

April 28th, 2019|Country: Turkey|

A man's father wants to be buried beneath a tree: but is it just a tree he planted in his youth or a relic of the Biblical flood?

Book: Jose Manuel Robledo and Marcial Toledano, Tebori, 2016-2018

April 20th, 2019|Country: Japan, Spain|

A tattoo artist finds himself amidst a Yakuza feud in this graphic novel

Book: Uk-Bae Lee, When Spring Comes to the DMZ, 2019

April 11th, 2019|Country: North Korea, South Korea|

A children’s book about the haunting demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, and its sad ecological aspect

Book: Jan-Philipp Sendker, Lorie Karnath and Jonathan Sendker, The Long Path to Wisdom, 2018

April 3rd, 2019|Country: Myanmar|

A collection of Burmese folk-tales as collected and retold by the acclaimed German novelist who spends much time in Myanmar

Abkhazia	Dagestan	Kashmir	Palestine	Tamil Nadu
Afghanistan	Eelam Tamil	Kazakhstan	Philippines	Tatarstan
Armenia	Egypt	Kurdistan	Qatar	Thailand
Azerbaijan	Georgia	Kyrgyzstan	Roma	Tibet
Bahrain	Golan Heights	Laos	Russia	Timor-Leste
Balochistan	Hong Kong	Lebanon	Saudi Arabia	Turkey
Bangladesh	India	Malaysia	Singapore	Turkmenistan
Bashkortostan	Indonesia	Myanmar	South Korea	Uyghur Nation
Bhutan	Iran	Nepal	South Ossetia	Uzbekistan
Brunei	Iraq	North Korea	Sri Lanka	Vietnam
Buryatia	Israel	North Ossetia	Syria	Yemen
Cambodia	Japan	Oman	Taiwan	Yöruk People
China	Jordan	Pakistan	Tajikistan

Abkhazia	Congo-Brazzaville	Indonesia	New Zealand	Spain
Afghanistan	Costa Rica	Iran	Nicaragua	Sri Lanka
Albania	Côte d’Ivoire	Iraq	Niger	Sudan
Algeria	Croatia	Ireland	Nigeria	Suriname
Andorra	Cuba	Israel	Niue	Sweden
Angola	Cyprus	Italy	North Korea	Switzerland
Antigua-and-Barbuda	Czech Republic	Iwaidja People	North Ossetia	Syria
Argentina	Dagestan	Jamaica	Norway	Taiwan
Armenia	Denmark	Japan	Oman	Tajikistan
Arrernte	Dominica	Jordan	Pakistan	Tamil Nadu
Aruba	Dominican Republic	Kanak People	Palestine	Tanzania
Australia	DR Congo	Karelia	Panama	Tatarstan
Austria	Dunghutti People	Kashmir	Papua New Guinea	Thailand
Azerbaijan	Ecuador	Kazakhstan	Paraguay	Tibet
Bahamas	Eelam Tamil	Kenya	Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians	Timor-Leste
Bahrain	Egypt	Kosovo	Peru	Tiwi Islands
Balochistan	El Salvador	Kurdistan	Philippines	Togo
Bangladesh	Estonia	Kyrgyzstan	Poland	Tonga
Barbados	Eswatini	Laos	Portugal	Torres Strait Islands
Bashkortostan	Ethiopia	Latvia	Puerto Rico	Transnistria
Belarus	Faroe Islands	Lebanon	Qatar	Trinidad and Tobago
Belgium	Fiji	Liberia	Rapa Nui	Tunisia
Belize	Finland	Libya	Reunion	Turkey
Benin	France	Lithuania	Roma	Turkmenistan
Bermuda	French Guiana	Luxembourg	Romania	Tuvalu
Bhutan	Gabon	Macedonia	Russia	Uganda
Biripi People	Gambia	Madagascar	Rwanda	Ukraine
Bolivia	Garifuna Nation	Malak Malak People	Saint Kitts and Nevis	United Kingdom
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Garrwa People	Malawi	Saint Lucia	Uruguay
Botswana	Georgia	Malaysia	Saint Vincent and The Grenadines	USA
Brazil	Germany	Mali	Samoa	Uyghur Nation
Brunei	Ghana	Malta	San Marino	Uzbekistan
Bulgaria	Golan Heights	Māori	Sao Tome and Principe	Vanuatu
Burkina Faso	Greece	Martinique	Saudi Arabia	Venezuela
Burundi	Greenland	Mauritania	Scotland	Vietnam
Buryatia	Grenada	Mauritius	Senegal	Wales
Cabo Verde	Guatemala	Mexico	Serbia	Wallis and Futuna
Cambodia	Guinea	Moldova	Sierra Leone	Water
Cameroon	Guyana	Monaco	Singapore	Yemen
Canada	Haida Gwaii	Morocco	Slovakia	Yöruk People
Central African Republic	Haiti	Mozambique	Slovenia	Zambia
Chad	Ho-Chunk Nation	Myanmar	Solomon Islands	Zimbabwe
Chile	Honduras	Namibia	Somalia
China	Hong Kong	Native American Tribes	South Africa
Chinook Nation	Hungary	Nepal	South Korea
Colombia	Iceland	Netherlands	South Ossetia
Comoros	India	New Caledonia	South Sudan

ASIA

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