The Asian Pitch

The NHK-MediaCorp collaboration was created for independent directors who live and work in Asia, to tell original stories about their country and culture.

Early last week Singapore’s MediaCorp and Japan’s NHK announced their selection of projects to commission after a fourth run of the regional pitching event The Asian Pitch (TAP). The winners will receive full funding in producing their projects and the programs will be aired in Japan and Singapore. An executive producer from either NHK or MediaCorp will be assigned to each program to give their input in order to fit their slots.

This year’s winners are Angels of Troubled Paradise, from Raja Shabir Khan of India; Street Teachers, from Pitchapuk Malone of Thailand; The Rest of My Life is for Sale, from Liu Shuo of China; and Living for the Dead, from Vikram Mishra of India.

"They were all interesting original stories," says Fumio Narashima, the head of program development at NHK, about the selected works. "The past four years have proven that there are fascinating untold stories and skillful new talent out there in Asia waiting to be discovered. And as long as it is a project that has a compelling documentary story on Asia that will be interesting for an audience around the world, anybody has a chance of being selected."

The budgets for these projects will be negotiated, but production is slated to start in the fall this year, for completion some time next summer. After airing in Japan and Singapore, MediaCorp distributes the programs internationally. The two broadcasters also submit them to international festivals in order to appeal to a wider audience.

"The Asian Pitch is also making an effort to support those that have succeeded in their first proposal," Narashima explains. "For example, Indian director/producer Faiza Amhad Khan, whose Supermen of Malegaon, which was a winner for the first TAP event, won various international awards and sold worldwide. NHK and MediaCorp have commissioned her second program, The Great Indian Arranged Marriage, which is now in production." He adds, "NHK and MediaCorp are keen to continue supporting new talent as they strive into the international market."

TAP has been instrumental in presenting Asian culture to the world at large. Narashima says that it’s important to showcase works about Asia from the Asian people themselves. "Asia is a region with various ethnic groups, religions, politics and other social backgrounds," he notes. "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. That’s why the TAP event is limited to directors/producers living in Asia. I believe that through these programs produced with an Asian (local) consciousness, we will be able to convey an Asian perspective and enable the world to understand Asia more."

The projects coming out of TAP also help NHK serve its goals as Japan’s public broadcaster, says Narashima. "As the role of the public broadcaster, we want 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." He adds, "We wanted to produce documentaries and current affairs programs with an original and unique perspective of the locally-based director/producers to offer our Japanese viewers a more diverse aspect of Asia."

Sharing a similar sentiment, MediaCorp came on board to partner on the initiative. "I had thought that Asian stories should be told by Asian local directors for quite some time, and came up with the idea," Narashima explains. "I proposed to it MediaCorp’s Lucas Chow (chairman) and Ong Hee-Yah (senior VP, Caldecott Productions). They immediately shared my vision and agreed to co-organize the event, and I am very grateful to them as they really helped push the event through. We are very happy to be able to work with MediaCorp to offer the local filmmakers a chance to tell their stories to the world."

As the event is now in its fourth year, TAP has seen its participation grow to include new countries from across the Asian region. This year saw the first proposals from Azerbaijan and one of the winning programs was selected from Thailand, a first for TAP. Since its start in 2007, TAP has received more than 600 proposals, coming from territories as far reaching as Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam. "As we do want to have diverse aspects and styles, TAP is making an effort to invite more producers from various countries," Narashima notes.