In the Tiger Talk: Through Cinema We Shall Rise!, three researchers and a filmmaker trace the Afro-Asian Film Festival’s history, explore the various articulations of the ‘Bandung Spirit’ and put the programme’s films into a larger historical context of filmmaking in the Global South.
2025 marks the 70th anniversary of the historic Afro-Asian Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, where 29 nations gathered to discuss economic and political unity, igniting the concept of what is now known as the Global South. The event also inspired the Afro-Asian Film Festival, held three times: in Tashkent (1958), Cairo (1960) and Jakarta (1964), which laid the groundwork for a film culture of resistance and reform. Tiger Talk: Through Cinema We Shall Rise! traces the festival’s development, exploring not only the various, yet distinct articulations of the ‘Bandung Spirit’, but also placing the films into a larger historical context of filmmaking in the Global South.
A panel discussion featuring researchers Bunga Siagian (Jakarta), Ahmed Refaat Bahgat (Cairo) and Enoka Ayemba (Cameroon), all experts on filmmaking in the Global South in general and the Afro-Asian Film Festivals in particular, and famous Uzbek filmmaker Ali Khamraev who witnessed the Tashkent edition as a young film student, moderated by media historian Elena Razlogova (Montréal).
