Daniel Hui and Martica Ramirez Escobar Films get paid

Purin Pictures, a nonprofit film fund supporting independent film in Southeast Asia, awarded $170,000 in grants in its fall funding round.

Its reading committee selected three feature and two documentary projects to support production and one feature project to support post-production.

Feature Films: “Daughters of the Sea,” a story of three intertwined lives, directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar (“Leonor Never Dies”) and produced by Monster Jimenez and Rajeev Idnani through Philippines-based Arkeo Films; “Other People’s Dreams” by writer, director and editor Daniel Hui about two fugitives who become invisible thieves in Singapore, produced by Tan See En at Momo Film; and Diffan Sina Norman’s Sitora, a drama about the oldest member of a village community about to be swallowed up by urban sprawl. The project will be produced by Tara Ansley, Armen Aghayan and Zurina Ramli through the Malaysian company Rangka Pictures.

The two documentaries that received production support of US$15,000 each were Black River, directed by Tran Phuong Thao, and When the Poet Goes to War, directed by Aung Naing Soe from Myanmar.

Black River, produced by Swann Dubus via Varan, Vietnam, is about traders who use old boats to create temporary markets in Vietnam’s ethnic minority territories. In A Poet Goes to War, a Burmese poet and his allies take up arms to fight the military junta after peaceful protests fail to sway the country’s dictator. Produced by Han Yan Yuen at 101 fps (Myanmar, Thailand, Hong Kong).

Purin Pictures also provided $50,000 for post-production on Finding Rumble, the debut feature film from veteran television director Megat Charizal. The film features a struggling impersonator of P. Ramlee, Malaysia’s most famous film director, who lives a life of deceit in an attempt to pay off his debts and save his sister’s life. It is produced by Syahid Yohan through Playground Film.

Grants and concessional financing programs are becoming increasingly important in the funding structure for independent film production in Asia.

“We received a higher than usual number of projects from Malaysia and ended up funding two. Interestingly, both the films pay tribute to P Ramlee, the country’s most iconic director. One is advertised as a “daylight horror” about a half-man, half-tiger rampaging in the shadows of towering Kuala Lumpur. “The Other is a 1970s drama about an impostor and his run-in with local gangsters,” said Purin Pictures co-director Anocha Suwichakornpong.

Speaking about the theme “When a Poet Goes to War”, Suwichakornpong said: “This project was very urgent and the reading committee agreed that it urgently needed funds.”