As part of his PhD research at Sint Lucas Antwerpen — KdG and ARIA — Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (University of Antwerp),Việt Vũ (Phạm Quang Trung), invites you to this hybrid (also via zoom) one-day seminar bringing together international filmmakers, authors, artists, and scholars working across complex socio-political contexts in Asia and beyond:

Research and Creation amid Asian Socio-Political Sensitivity: Methods and Reflections

Across geographies including China, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Iran, speakers share concrete methodologies and reflect on creative strategies for producing research and audiovisual work in environments shaped by censorship and socio-political constraints.

Most contributors work directly on film censorship, while others engage with forms of structural, institutional, or normative censorship encountered through their own research and artistic practices. The seminar focuses on the challenges faced by researchers, authors, and filmmakers working under such conditions, and on the strategies developed to navigate, negotiate, or exceed these limitations.

At stake is a broader question central to contemporary artistic research: how to sustain creative and scholarly inquiry when political systems, moral regimes, or market logics restrict what can be represented or made visible. The seminar aims to equip emerging researchers and artists with methodological and conceptual tools to transform constraint into critical inquiry and creative potential.

Guests

Amir Muhammad (Malaysian filmmaker, writer, publisher working on censorship and independent media) · Hajar Mehrani (Iranian animation director based in Brussels, focusing on women, freedom, and metaphorical storytelling) · Matthew Hunt (researcher and author on Thai cinema censorship and political filmmaking) · Trương Minh Quý (Vietnamese filmmaker working between documentary and fiction, known for experimental cinema) · Professor Sabrina Qiong Yu (Professor of Film and Chinese Studies, director of the Chinese Independent Film Archive at Newcastle University).

Programme

09:30–10:00 — Introduction (Phạm Quang Trung)
Framing socio-political constraint as both limitation and generative research condition.

10:00–11:00 — Matthew Hunt (online)
Film censorship and political history in Thailand.

11:00–12:00 — Amir Muhammad (online)
Censorship, independent publishing, and filmmaking in Malaysia.

12:15–13:15 — Professor Sabrina Qiong Yu
Archiving as research method: Chinese Independent Film Archive (CIFA).

14:15–15:15 — Hajar Mehrani
Animation, metaphor, and artistic engagement with social realities in Iran.

15:15–16:15 — Trương Minh Quý
Experimental cinema, minimal production contexts, and 16mm practice in Vietnam.

16:15–17:00 — Discussion & closing remarks

17:00–17:30 — Informal networking drink

Language

English

Registration

Please register here.

Hybrid format (on-site + online)

The Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA)
Room S.209, Lange Sint-Annastraat 7, 2000 Antwerp
Online via Zoom