Cambodia

Casino Cambodia (1995)
(Derry, NH: Chip Taylor Communications, 105 min/2 pts.)

A personal perspective on the history and social conditions of Cambodia as seen through the eyes of a Thai woman who once worked in a Cambodian refugee camp. Program includes interviews with tourists concerning their impressions of Cambodia, interviews with physicians who were relief workers during the Cambodian conflicts, interviews with Cambodian citizens, soldiers, and the actor, Haing Ngor (recently deceased) who played in the movie The Killing Fields. Follows a team of French de-miners through a minefield and examines the atrocities prpetrated by the Khmer Rouge during the Pol Pot regime and looks at the rout causes of war and the obstructions to peace in the area.
--available at UCB, (4061).

House of the Spirit: Perspectives on Cambodian Health Care (1985)
(American Friends Service Committee, 42 min).

This program examines the Cambodian perceptions of health and well being, and those natural and supernatural forces held responsible for illness and mental disorder and explores many of the tensions and misunderstandings faced by western health practicioners when treating Cambodian patients who are unfamiliar with western procedures and treatments. A Cambodian midwife, a shaman, an herbalist, and a Buddhist monk explain the Cambodian world view, and the health practices used by Cambodian people for centuries.
--available at University Film & Video, Minnesota.

Samsara (1990)
(Ellen Bruno, dir., 30 min).

Documents the suffering, loss, and rebirth of the Cambodian people in the aftermath of the takeover of Cambodia by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge revolutionary forces and the subsequent invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam.
--available at UCB

The Survival of Sontheary Sou (c1984)
(53 mins).

This program presents the personal story of one Cambodian refugee's experiences in Southeast Asia after the fall of Phnom Penh and in America as she struggles to establish a new home and fit into a new culture. (53 min.)
---available at University Film & Video, Minnesota.

The Tenth Dancer (1993)
(Singing Nomads, BBC, by Sally Ingleton 52 min.)

The Tenth Dancer provides a fascinating and rare window on women's lives in Cambodia...Under Pol Pot, over 90% of Cambodia's artists were killed, including most of the classical dancers of the Royal Court Ballet. Only one in ten survived. This poignant portrait is the story of the tenth dancer and her relationship with one pupil.
--available at UCB (3346); distributed by Women Make Movies

Indonesia

Bali: Mask of Rangda (date?)
(30 min.)

An authentic picture of a culture that uses drama to promote community action. It shows Balinese ceremonies involving trance states.
--available at the Cornell Southeast Asia program.

Budak Nafsu , Slave of Desire (1983)
(PT Soraya Intercine Films, Sjuman Djaya, dir., English Subtitles, 118 min.)

The story of a young woman who becomes a concubine during the Japanese occupation in 1942, and her separation from her family.
--available at the University of Wisconsin

But I'll Always Continue to Write (1990)
(Series: The Human Face of Indonesia, 27 min.)

Debra Yatim, Jakarta Post Journalist emphasizes the human aspects of Jakarta, interviewing people in various occupations and presenting problems of city life. Her home life and family background salary, and problems with censorship on the job are discussed.
--available at UCB (3076) and at Cornell Southeast Asia Program.

Coming of Age
(Strangers Abroad: Pioneers of Social Anthropology; 1)

Chronicle of the life of Margaret Mead.
--available at UCB (3855)

Di Balik Kelambu (1985)
(Sukma Putra Films, Teguh Karya, dir., English subtitles, 94 min.)

"A Family Drama."
--available at the University of Wisconsin

Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy (1996)
(David Munro and John Pilger, 76 min.)

Provides current and historical information regarding the Indonesian invasion, genocide, and continued terror in East Timor. Discusses the campaign to sterilize East Timorese women and teenagers, among other causes of women's suffering.
--available at UCB (4593)

Girl of Indonesia (date?)
(Gibson Film Productions, Ltd., New Zealand. 26 min., 16 mm.)

Profiles Lies, a young primary schyool teacher in Bandung.
--available at Journal Films, Evanston Il. [Library of Congress]

Indonesia: Islands on Fire (1996)
(Mario Luisa Mendonca and Medea Benjamin, dir., 25 min.)

This video documents the appalling human rights abuses in Indonesia and East Timor stemming from the July 1996 government crackdown, the worst in three decades of Suharto's military dictatorship. It highlights the courageous efforts of the opposition movement to bring democratic change to Indonesia and East Timor. The documentary also exposes how U.S. companies--in particular the U.S.-owned Nike corporation--exploit Indonesian labor. Scenes inside the factory and inside a typical factory workers' hovel are contrasted with towering skyscrapers and multinational businesses. The film is composed of interviews with key pro-democracy and labor leaders, including megawati Sukarnoputri, an opposition leader who has galvanized popular support, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, an internationally known writer, and others.
--available from Global Exchange

Karba's First Years: A Study of Balinese Childhood (1952)
(20 min).

Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson's study of the life of a Balinese child, beginning with a seventh-month birthday ceremonial, shoing the child's relationships to parents, aunts, uncles, child nurse, and other children as he is scukled, taught to walk and dance, teased, titillated. Demonstrates the process by which a Balinese child's responsiveness is muted as parents stimulate and themselves fail to respond.
--available at UCB (3412)

Mastri: A Balinese Woman (date?)
(John Morris, Producer, Film Australia, 18 min., 16 mm.)

Explores the life of a Balinese Couple in their village.
--Library of Congress

Ma'bugi, Trance of the Toraja (1971)
(21 min.)

Shows selected highlights of the Ma'bugi dance and ritual in a village in Central Celebes. The Toraja ritual is a rite of invigoration and renewal. This film was taken in October 1971 in the Rantekasimpo village of the Makale district, a region renowned for its spectacular elaborations of Ma'bugi ritual.
--available at the Cornell Southeast Asia program

Perhaps Women are More Economical (1983)
(30 min.)

A look at women batik workers on Java and their problems. Discusses the justification of paying low wages to women.
--available at the Cornell Southeast Asia program.

Sanctuary of the Earth Goddess (1986)
(40 min)

Depicts the legend of the Goddess as it influences the lives of villagers in the land of the Minangkabau.
--available at the Cornell Southeast Asia Program

Slow boat from Surabaya: Through South East Asia with Jack Pizzey (1992)
(Falls Church, Virginia, Landmark Films, 55 mins.)

This is a six-part documnentary series on Southeast Asia that presents a fascinating portrait of a region rich in cultural diversity and socio-economic diversity.
--available at the University of Hawaii, Sinclair Library Wong Audiovisual Center

Song of Survival (1986)
(Wombat Film and Video. 57 min.)

Story of women in a Japanese WW II camp in Sumatra who sang orchestral and piano music written down and arranged for a women's vocal orchestra.
--available from Veneration Films Production. [Library of Congress]

Three Generations of Javanese Women (1980)
(Martha Stuart Productions, 29 min., 3/4 in.)

A group of rural Javanese women talk about sex roles, family life, village society, and family planning.
--available from Martha Stuart Productions [Library of Congress]

Trance and Dance in Bali (19..)
Margaret Mead's black and white footage of a performance of the Calon Arang in Bali (22 min).
--available at UCB (2958)

Transmigrasi, Journey to a New Life: A Story of Transmigration (date?)
(Series: Human Face of Indonesia, 30 min.)

Follows Pak Sannarto, a poor peasant from java, and his family as they are being moved from their former home in Java to a new home on the island of Kalimantan in the hope of a better life and opportunities for them.
--available at UCB (3078)

Hmong

A Wedding (c1993)
Tells the story of Pajyeeb Xiong, an eighteen-year-old Hmong girl whose parents force her to marry a thirty-year-old doctor. Through a traditional Hmong marriage ceremony the two clans bond and Pajyeeb surrenders her dreams. Created by Southeast Asian high school students in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (31 min.)
--available at University Film & Video, Minnesota.

Paj Ntaub--Textile Techniques of the Hmong (1991)
(Hmong-Lao Unity Association, 40 min)

Paj Ntaub are the Hmong words used to describe the techniques Hmong women use to make and decorate cloth. "Paj" means "flower" and "Ntaub" means "cloth." Four Hmong women artists prseent their traditional techniques of embroidery, batik, reverse applique, and "story cloth" stitchery in detail.
--available at University Film & Video, Minnesota.

Threads of Life: Hemp and Gender in a Hmong Village (1993)
(28 mins).

Portrays the complementary nature of Hmong gender roles in a Thailand Village. Illustrates the year-long process of hemp production as they relate to gender roles. Women transform the raw hemp fiber into cloth for its multiple uses in life-cycle rituals and men perform healing ceremonies, settle marriages agreements, and conduct funeral rites.
--available at University Film & Video, Minnesota.

Threads of Survival (1991)
(Kathryn Vander, 25 mins).

Story of Hmong in the US, textile traditions.
--available at the University of Hawaii, Sinclair Library Wong Audiovisual Center

Malaysia

Latah: A Culture-Specific Elaboration of the Startle Reflex (1982).
(38 min, color)

Focuses on the phenomenon of latah, a hypersensitivity to being startled which induces repetitive movements and normally tabood behavior among the Malays.
--available at the Cornell Southeast Asia Program

Philippines

Asian Heart (c1987)
(38 min.)

This documentary follows Danish men as they meet and marry the Philippine girls of their fantasies. Their courtship has been entirely by mail. How would these women fare, half way across the world in an alien climate? Some of the marriages work and some don't, but once the woman takes the risk of marrying a foreigner, there is no return. She has no citizenship in her new land and cannot return to her native country as a divorced woman. (38 min.)
--available at University Film & Video, Minnesota.

Bulaklak Ng. City Jail (1985?)
(Cerubim Films, Mario O'Hara, dir., English subtitles, 111 min.)

Angela is accused of murder and sent to the city jail.
--available at the University of Wisconsin.

Burlesk Queen (1979?).
(IAN Film Production, 118 min.)

Story of an innocent girl who is seduced by the world.
--available at the University of Wisconsin

Child of the Philippines (date?)
(14 min, color)

Eleven-year old Cynthia Cena is the oldest of four children who live with their parents in a hilly jungle region of the Philippines. The family is poor and Cynthia's responsibilities include many hours of heavy work around her home and a full school day. She has little time for the basic priveleges of childhood: the right to enjoy adequate rest and recreation.
--available at the Cornell Southeast Asia Program

Corazon Aquino at the Greek Theater (1986) [3/4]
(29 min.)
--available at UCB (C916)

Dreaming Filipinos (1990)
(Cross Current media, Manny Reyes, director. 52 min.)

--available at UCB (2457)

Gabriela: A Film (1988)
(Trix Betlam, Holland/Philippines, subtitled, 67 min.)

This extrodinary documentary looks at the work of Gabriela, a mass organization of diverse women's groups in the Philippines. Founded in 1984 in honor of Gabriela Silans, a Filipina nationalist who fought against the Spanish occupation, it has brought nuns, students, farm and factory workers, artists, prostitutes and housewives together to gain a voice in national politics. This voice was particularly important in the overthrow of the Marcos regime--and continues to be so in light of the current government's actions. An empowering documentary on the contemporary role and history of women in the Philippines as well as strategies for global feminism,
--available at UCSC, distributed by Women Make Movies

The Global Assembly Line (1986)
(Lorraine Grey, producer, Educational TV and Film Center, 58 min)

This film exposes the tremendous impact on women of transnational corporations and the global economy. Young women are often the first choice for untrained, underpaid, and exploitative work the world over, The serious effects on their health, their family's livlihood, their lack of alternatives, and the pollution of the environment are carefully documented...The film reports on large layoffs of U.S. workers when operations were moved and highlights two incidents in which workers in Mexico and the Philippines attempted to organize for better wages and working conditions and were met with stern reactions from their government and its military forces.
--available at UCB (1580)

Holding Our Ground (1989)
(International Film Bureau, 51 mins.)

Tells the story of a group of Filipino women who have organized to pressure the government for land reform, shelters for street children, and their own money lending system.
--available at the University of Hawaii, Sinclair Library Wong Audiovisual Center

Is Your Gender an Issue? (date?)
(Ellen Ongkeko, dir., Tagalong and English, 37 min)

A documentary on the status of Filipino women and the social factors which determine their place in society.
--available at the University of Wisconsin

Kababaihan: Filipina Portraits (1989)
(Marie Boti and Malcome Guy, 40 min.)

Profiles of women activists in the Philippines, from grassroots community organizers to the heads of the national women's association, Gabriela.
--available at the University of Wisconsin

Karnal (1983?)
(Cine Suerta, Inc., Marilaw Diaz-Abaya, dir., English subtitles, 123 min.)

Family conflict: A son comes back home from the city with his wife and conflicts in values arise.
--available at the University of Wisconsin

Lucia (1992)
(A Manila Inter film Production for BBC Television, In English, Tagalog, and Spanish with English subtitles. 90 min.)

A dramatization based on factual conditions in which a Filipino woman and her family leave their fishing village after an oil spill and move to the ghettos outside Manila. There the woman struggles to keep her family together amidst terrorism, crime and corruption, and attempts to prevent her children from falling prey to the dangerous lures of the city's night life. Based on the story by Lino Brocka.
--available at UCB (3865)

Migrante: Filipina Maids in Hongkong (1988)
(Asia Visions Media Foundation, 33 min)

Features migrant Filipina domestic workers in Hongkong and discusses the hardship they face.
--available at the University of Hawaii, Sinclair Library Wong Audiovisual Center

Pussycat III (1990)
(28 min)

Discusses exploitation of young Filipina women who are attracted to Olongapo, Philippines to work as "hospitality women" who cater to American servicemen at the US Subic Naval base.
--available at the University of Hawaii, Sinclair Library Wong Audiovisual Center

Sin City Diary (1992)
(Rachel Rivera, United States, subtitled, 29 min.)

This film explores the lives of women who work as prostitutes around the US Navy base at Subic Bay in the Philippines. The program takes the form of a diary to incorporate Rachel Rivera's own experience as a Filipina American. The decision to shut down the base marks the end of nearly a century of American presence in that country. Sin City raises important questions about America's responsibility to its former colony, while celebrating the humanity and resilience of a community living out the legacy of its country's colonial past.
--available at UCSC, distributed by Women Make Movies

Women in Politics [Corazon Aquino] (1989)
(BBC, Lionheart TV, 40 min).

The Women in Politics series features profiles of six women who run the gamut of political involvement--from those who were thrown into politics by historical circumstances and dynastic succession to those carrer politicians who appear to fit easily into traditional codes of behavior, those who were in positions of power briefly to those who still are--all raise important qustions about women and power and what it means to enter the world of male-dominated political institutions. In the film on Corazon Aquino, this political female talks warmly about her life in and out of politics as well as the major challenges she faced in leading this underdeveloped country.
--available at UCB (3374) , distributed by Women Make Movies

Ynang-bayan: to be a woman is to live at a time of war (1991)
(Quezon City: Goethe Institute, Mowelfunf Film Institute, 60 mins.)

Look at Filipino women whose country's history and politics are rooted in colonialism. This film investigates the patriarchal ethos governing their lives and the lives of their people by examining the women's struggle.
--available at the University of Hawaii, Sinclair Library Wong Audiovisual Center

Thailand

Dying for Sex (1993)
(BBC Documentary, 47 min).

This BBC documentary inquires what is the relationship between poverty, prostitution, AIDS and drug abuse in Asia. The film portrays the heartbreaking result of Thailand's prostitution and sex tourism that destroys the lives of millions of Asian women and girls whose human rights are trampled from an early age onward. The film has some limitations: it does not address how sexual explotiation and violence against women are perpetuated in society.

Miao Year (c. 1971)
(61 min)

An intimate look into the life of the Miao community in the forested hills of northern Thailand. Unusually varied scense include a ritual involving a pig sacrifice, a medium in a trance, the many phases of poppy growing, and trading in a Chinese boutique. Provides a detailed glimpse into the lives of women in an upland community, rituals and traditions surrounding marriage and the formation of group identity through women's clothing.
--available at University Film & Video, Minnesota (BB'1S1847,VH).

Midwife of Kudpeng (1964)
(United Nations, New York, 27 min.)

Portrays Nanda, a village midwife in the province of Ubol, Thailand, who functions as the village's only health officer, teaching nutrition and gardening. Describes Nanda's quiet struggle to persuade her amiable, easygoing neighbors to abandon ancient practices which have kept them prey to disease and malnutrition.
--available at the University of Hawaii, Sinclair Library Wong Audiovisual Center

Overviews of Thai NGOs: Health, Children, Rural Development, Slums, Human Rights (1991)
(Bangkok Thai Development and Support Committee, English voiceover, 117 min.)

Work of NGOs in Development tasks.
--available at the University of Wisconsin

Vietnam

A Dance from my Homeland, Vietnam (1990)
(Refugee Arts, 36 min).
--available at UCI, University of California at Irvine

Ao Dai (date?)
(Spain, Australia, 13 min).

This film considers the visibility of the ao dai, the traditional Vietnamese tunic dress, as a gauge of Vietnam's prosperity.
--available at UCB, (3045)

As the Mirror Burns (1990)
(by Cristina Pozzan, Australia, 58 min.)

Most represenations of the Vietnam War show women as innocent bystanders who sometimes became caught up in the conflict but who were otherwise uninvolved. [This film] redresses these misconceptions. The Women's Museum in Ho Chi Minh City estimates that over 70% of the guerilla forces in the war were women: women who lived in the underground tunnel systems and raised their children while their land was being bombed and defoliated above their heads; women who were not victims but who were active participants in the struggle against foreign domination. [The film] shows how the war still shapes the life of the women of Vietnam as they continue their work in the fields and factories, on the roads and in the home, to restore peace to their land (from Women Make Movies).
--available at UCB (3410), distributed by Women Make Movies

Dai Hoi Thong Nhat Phat Giao Viet Nam Tai Hoa Ky: From Hollywood to Hanoi (1994)
(Tiana Friendship Bridge, 80 min)

Tiana (Du Thi Thanh Nga) was born in Saigon, Vietnam where her father was Minister of Information for South Vietnam. In 1966 he moved his family to the US and told Tiana she would never see Vietnam again. Against the wishes of many of her family, she did go back. The video is an account of her journey home and what she discovered in Vietnam.
--available at UCB (4200)

Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (1989)
(by Trinh Minh-ha, United States, 108 min.)

Using dance, printed texts, folk poetry and the words and experiences of Vietnamese women in Vietnam--from both North and South--and the US, Trinh's film challenges official culture with the voices of women. A theoretically and formally complex work, [the film] explores the difficulty of translation, and themes of dislocation and exile, critiquing both traditional scoceity and life since the world.
--available at UCB (2322), distributed by Women Make Movies

The Way of the Willow (c 1982)
(Beacon Films, 29 mins)

A dramatization of the problems faced by a family of Vietnamese boat people as they first settle in Canada. The Tran family, sponored by a Montreal church group, experiences the impersonal, and at times frightening, red tape of the reception center. The family's struggles to fit into their new culture are followed through a crisis with their young son. It is in the closing scene that we learn of the mother's former occupation as a piano teacher. This establishes a place for her in the new country, and a method of communication with those who want to be her friends.
----available at University Film & Video, Minnesota.

Women at Risk (1990)
(Filmakers Library, Incorporated, 56 mins).

Profiles three refugees as they cope with being uprooted. Includes Mai-Lien, a 13-year old Vietnamese who travelled with her 10-year old brother to Malaysia and other women refugees from Zambia and El Salvador.
----available at University Film & Video, Minnesota.

Locations of Films