Members of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) have set up an English-language streaming website of award-winning films at AsiaPacificFilms.com.
The site offers an extensive library of Asia Pacific films for individual and package subscriptions – bringing the films to isolated users and letting filmmakers take advantage of “long tail” niche markets.
All AsiaPacficFilms.com curators and company president Jeannette Hereniko are NETPAC members and credit the organisation with playing an instrumental role in forming and developing the site.
Hereniko said: “AsiaPacificFilms.com is a premier collection of independent Asia and Pacific films that entertains, educates and inspires people to think beyond boundaries.”
APF’s digitised selections include films from Azerbaijan, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Each film was reviewed for inclusion by veteran film curators and most have garnered international recognition and awards.
With additional films to be added frequently, the site’s initial offerings currently include 41 Iranian films such as The Pear Tree and 17 other films by iconic director Dariush Mehrjui, 25 Chinese films including Little Moth directed by Tao Peng, and more than two dozen South Korean films led by Park Ki-yong’s Motel Cactus.
It also has the 1961 Thai film Black Silk from director Ratana Pestonji which was shot in cinemascope and is noted for its visual superiority.
Previously director of the Hawaii International Film Festival, Hereniko was recently awarded the Korean Cinema Award at the Pusan International Film Festival for her efforts to introduce Korean cinema in the US through festival programming as well as traveling retrospectives and symposiums.
