Direction: Leonardo Cinieri Lombroso
Photography: Leonardo Cinieri Lombroso, Roszali Bin Samad, Ian Marasigan
Editing: Valeria Biclungo
Production: Blue Film, M’GO Film
Italy-Singapore, 2014, 80’, English, Tagalog, Indonesian and Thai with English and Italian subtitles

Southeast Asian Cinema – When the Rooster Crows is a voice of diversity reaching for change. Brillante Mendoza, Eric Khoo, Garin Nugroho, Pen Ek Ratanaruang give voice to a region rich with traditions, ethnic groups, languages, politics, and religions. It is cinema, at its purest form, fighting for freedom of expression, documenting real lives of ordinary people, giving voice to the underdogs and the outcasts. The amalgamation of these aspects gives birth to an ultra-neo-realistic cinema language currently unique to films from this region.
Through their words, each director candidly shared their experience working and producing independently, all of them, breaking barriers and challenging norms. They discuss the issue of censorship, both state and self-imposed and how to navigate through it. Largest part of their work is both a reflection and a critique toward today’s society in their country, from culture preservation, fundamentalism, society induced malaise, ethnic favouritism. They ponder on the future of the region and the prospect of working together.