Fumio Narashima

Head of International Program Development, NHK

Can you tell us about The Asian Pitch?
Asia is a region with various ethnic groups, religions, politics and other social backgrounds. When producing a program dealing with issues surrounding the Asian people, I think it is important that the director/producer shares the same value and same social perspective as the local people, which is why I came up with the idea of the Asian Pitch. It also serves our role as a public broadcaster in wanting to support independent Asian directors and production companies by offering them an opportunity to produce programs in HD, and assist promoting them to the international market. I am very grateful to our partner MediaCorp for sharing my thoughts and agreeing to co-organize this event.
Now in its fourth year, we have received over 500 proposals from around Asia, and 10 programs have been made under this initiative giving us an illustrative look on Asia. The past years have proven that there are fascinating untold stories and skillful new talent out there in Asia waiting to be discovered. We are very happy to offer local filmmakers a chance to tell their stories to the world.