Daniel Hui, Martika Ramirez Escobar Films Receive Cash

Purin Pictures, a non-profit film fund supporting independent cinema in Southeast Asia, has unveiled $170,000 of grants in its autumn funding round.

Its reading committee chose three fiction and two documentary projects for production support and one fiction project for post-production support.

The fiction films are “Daughters of the Sea,” a story of three intertwined lives, to be directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar (“Leonor Will Never Die”) and produced by Monster Jimenez and Rajiv Idnani, through Philippines company Arkeo Films; writer-director and editor Daniel Hui’s “Other People’s Dreams,” about two runaways who become invisible thieves in Singapore, produced by Tan Si En at Momo Film; and “Sitora,” by Diffan Sina Norman, a drama about the oldest member of a village community which is about to be consumed by the urban sprawl. The project is to be produced by Tara Ansley, Armen Aghaeian, Zurina Ramli through Malaysian firm Rangka Pictures.

The two documentaries receiving production support of $15,000 each are “Black River,” directed by Tran Phuong Thao, and “When a Poet Goes to War,” by Myanmar’s Aung Naing Soe.

With production by Swann Dubus through Varan Vietnam, “Black River” follows merchants who use old boats to set up temporary markets in the territories of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities. In “Poet Goes to War” a Burmese poet and his allies take up arms to fight against the military junta after peaceful protests fail to sway the country’s dictator. Production is by Han Yan Yuen through 101fps Production (Myanmar, Thailand, Hong Kong).

Purin Pictures also provided $50,000 of post-production funding for “Finding Ramblle,” the debut feature by veteran TV and stage directors Megat Sharizal. The film depicts a struggling impersonator of P. Ramlee, Malaysia’s most famous film director, who lives a life of deceit while trying to pay off debts and save his sister’s life. Production is by Syahid Johan through Playground Film.

Grants and soft money schemes are becoming increasingly important in the funding mix for Asia’s independent filmmaking sector.

“We received a higher than usual number of projects from Malaysia and ended up funding two. Curiously, both films pay tribute to P. Ramlee, the country’s most iconic filmmaker. One is billed as a ‘daylight horror’ about a half-man, half-tiger rampaging in the shadows of Kuala Lumpur’s towering expansion. [The other] is a 1970s-set dramedy about an impersonator and his run-in with local gangsters,” said Purin Pictures co-director Anocha Suwichakornpong.

Speaking of “When a Poet Goes to war, Suwichakornpong said, “This was a project with great urgency and the reading committee agreed it needed funds right away.”