Singapore, 15 December 2008 – One of the first Asian Pitch winning documentaries – Supermen of Malegaon won the City of Rome award for Best Documentary 2008 at the 9th Asiaticafilmmediale Festival held in Rome on November 23.
Asiaticafilmmediale Festival was created with the idea of building a bridge between Italy and the Asian continent. It chooses cinema, a medium sensitive to change, as the best tool for renewing the dialogue between East and West. This edition of the festival once again featured a splendid panorama of recent Asian films and documentaries from countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Philippines, Japan, Jordon, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, Syria, Sri Lanka, and Turkey. All the entries are Italian premiers.
The Asian Pitch was created in 2007 by an NHK-MediaCorp-KBS collaboration to find original stories about Asia to present Asian viewpoints, production styles and values to Western markets. It's about a new wave of story–telling of Asian issues and concerns that will make an impact in Asia and the international market. In 2007, three out of 120 proposals were awarded full funding to produce the documentaries in high-definition. Supermen of Malegaon, produced and directed by Ms Faiza Ahmed Khan, from India was one of the three winners.
Mr Junichi Katayama, Senior Producer of NHK’s International Co-productions, and executive producer of the program expresses his excitement, “we were thrilled to hear the wonderful news. The whole process of working with new talent in Asia was interesting, we were pleased with the outcome of the program, and this is definitely icing on the cake. We hope this will be a start of a line-up of new Asian stories being recognized in the world."
“The Asian Pitch was conceived to bring out original stories from Asia produced by new Asian documentary makers and we are more than delighted that our gut instincts were proven right by Supermen of Malegaon. We are more convinced than ever that there are plenty more ‘supermen’ stories to be told out of Asia that will make an impressive foray into the global markets“ says Ms Ong Hee Yah, Managing Director of MediaCorp’s Caldecott Productions International.
"There is no dearth of stories in Asia-stories that need to be told. Unfortunately sometimes we lack the means with which to tell them. Luckily The Asian Pitch recognized this need and I am very happy that not only have I been able to tell this extraordinary story but that it has been appreciated on an international platform" states Ms Faiza Ahmed Khan, winner of the first Asian Pitch.
Supermen of Malegaon is a documentary about the making of the movie "Malegaon ka Superman'. It is a fascinating story of a motley crew of Malegaons for whom filmmaking is a labor of love and not an enterprise in commercial interests. Juxtaposing the frenzied production activities against a stark socio-economic backdrop of Malegaon, the documentary reveals the cathartic and spellbinding importance of the 'magic of movies' on the people. Ironically, all this is not a sustained effort to rise above their exploitative milieu but merely a temporary escape into the fantastical world of films.
Issued by MediaCorp Pte Ltd
For more information, please contact:
Shialey Tan
Assistant Vice-President, International Business
Caldecott Productions International
Tel: (65) 6350 3212
Fax: (65) 6259 2062
E-mail: shialeytan@mediacorp.com.sg
About Caldecott Productions International
Caldecott Productions International’s key focus is in producing and distributing high quality HD Asian documentaries for an international market. Our specialty is in producing original stories from the ground, championing the lives of the common people because their stories are worth telling. Our main subject matter is centred on social issues and human interest with respect to the environment, wildlife, unique cultures and the arts.
We work with some of the most creative independent directors in Asia for the authenticity and local perspectives. If the aim of the novel is to teach the heart to know itself, we hope that our documentaries will do likewise. Passion also drives action and we hope to make our physical and social environment a better one through our content.
Caldecott Productions International is MediaCorp’s Production Service. MediaCorp is ’s leading media company with the most complete range of platforms, spanning television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies and digital media. MediaCorp has over 50 products and brands in four languages (English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil), including online classifieds, Internet TV-on-demand and High Definition TV broadcast. Winner of numerous international awards and accolades including Asia Television's Broadcaster of the Year, MediaCorp’s vision is to become ’s top media company, delivering valued content to the world. AsiaSingapore
For more information, please visit www.caldecottproductions.com and www.mediacorp.com.sg
About NHK
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is Japan’s sole public broadcaster. Funded entirely by receiving fees from Japanese households, it has a reputation for impartial, high-quality programming. Through its five nationwide TV channels (two terrestrial and three satellite, one of which is HD), NHK reaches about 47 million households. It holds a network of 54 stations across Japan and 29 locations around the world and produces 80–90% of its programs in-house. Reflecting long experience with HDTV, it makes 90% of its major programs in HDTV. Most of NHK’s programs are made available internationally through its affiliate MICO (Media International Corporation).
www.nhk.or.jp/english/