The First Asian Freedom Film Festival Kicked Off with a Full House

PRESS RELEASE

11 DEC 2006

The first Asian Freedom Film Fest kicked off with a full house!

The continuous rain and the scare of storm did not stop audience trickling in to the venue of Asian Freedom Film Fest (AFFF) at the University of Cebu Banilad Campus yesterday. By 7pm, the hall was packed and the volunteers had to put out additional chairs at the back. Around 150 audiences were entranced by Major Mary On’s spirit, the Karen freedom fighter in Burma that was featured in the opening film ‘Don’t fence me in’.

Last night theme revolved around refugees, with the Burmese struggles being centre of attention. The audiences that range from foreign civil societies’ delegates from a nearby conference to students and a few public walk-ins also shared their stories. Some testimonials that stood out are from an activist from Mindanao and also an ex-child soldier from Indonesia; both exclaimed how they could really relate to the films and hope to see Asean unite in our struggles. The panelist consisting of Congressman Mario Joyo Aguja, Debbie Stothard of Altsean-Burma and Charm Tong helped to further clarify the situation of Burma and also concurred with the sentiments of the crowd.

The 3 days event that started last night will end tomorrow on the 12^th Dec with an award giving ceremony at 6pm followed by cocktails. The award ceremony is to celebrate the 3 winning films of the AFFF competition. ‘Kun Yang’ by Vivian Limpin from the Philippines, documents the alienation, distance, movement, dreams, and aspirations of women migrant workers from the Philippines; ‘House of Despair, Part of Hope’ from Hong Kong, talks about how Indonesian women migrant domestic workers survive the hardships of working in Hong Kong despite issues such as abuse and underpayment from their employers and finally, ‘Suicide Jumpers’ by Herbert Docena showed that around 30,000 to 50,000 Filipino migrant workers – most of them female domestic helpers – were subjected to “collective punishment” in August 2006 in Israel because of the Lebanon bombing and how they fared. The 3 films are premiering at the film fest today and will also be screened again tomorrow morning at 11am, followed by other films from around the region.

The screenings and awards ceremony is free and open to public! So if you missed out last night and today, do not fret, you still have one last chance to catch some amazing films tomorrow!

This event sees filmmakers and civil societies from around the region coming together for screenings of exciting films and more exciting discussions that focuses on women and migration. It is organized by Migrant Forum in Asia - an organization that is dedicated to advocate rights of migrants in the region, together with Pusat Komas - a centre that promotes popular communication tools in working with the communities. It is also brought to you in cooperation with Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) Cebu and University of Cebu-Banilad Campus, supported by the South East Asian Committee for Advocacy (SEACA). This film fest aims to mainstream issues of migrant workers at the regional level and to utilize the power of images and films to bring about greater awareness on migrants’ human rights issues.

For more details, please contact: TATCEE MACABUAG, Migrant Forum in Asia; Mobile #: 0917-5267171 or visit the website www.mfasia.org for the full film schedule.