The Asian Pitch Funds Five New Documentaries

SINGAPORE, September 24:
More than $250,000 in funding was awarded at this year’s The Asian Pitch
competition, organized by Japan’s NHK and Singapore’s MediaCorp, with five
documentaries selected as winners.

In its second year, The
Asian Pitch was held from July 10-11. Receiving funding are India’s Dead Man
Walking, directed by Sanjeev
Sivan; For the Love of Shakespeare,
a Chinese film from Zhu Chun Guang; A Weaver’s Tale, from the Philippines, directed by Sheron Dayoc;
China’s A Farmer’s Struggle,
from director Zhao Liang; and The Icemen of Angadias, an Indian film from Arun Kumar.

Narashima Fumio, the
deputy director of NHK’s programming department, commented, “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. I believe that through these programs produced
with an Asian consciousness, we will be able to convey an Asian perspective and
enable the world to understand Asia more.”

NHK’s senior producer,
Junichi Katayama, who was one of the jury members and the executive producer of
two of the programs, added, ”We are happy that we have winners from China and
the Philippines, who were not present in last year’s winners. The five new
programs, together with last year’s three, will give us an illustrative look on
Asia.”

MediaCorp’s Caldecott
Productions International’s managing director, Ong Hee Yah, said, “With the
increase in submissions this year, we are confident that The Asian Pitch will
continue to produce stories that have not been told before.”

The five programs will be
available internationally following their debut at MIPTV in April.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski