BLIND PIG WHO WANTS TO FLY
Preceded by The Golden Pin

FEATURE PRESENTATION | SUN NOV 15 | 3:30 PM | INNIS TOWN HALL
Dir. Edwin, Indonesia 2008, 77:00, DigiBeta, Bahasa Indonesia with English subtitles,
Rated: 14A, Toronto Premiere, Producers: Edwin, Meiske Taurisia, Sidi Saleh

FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize – 2009 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)
FIPRESCI/NETPAC Award, Special Mention – 2009 Singapore International Film Festival

Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly presents a series of bizarre vignettes about eight eccentric characters all yearning to be someone else. Linda is a fourth-generation Chinese Indonesian who eats firecrackers to expel ghosts. Her childhood friend, Cahyono, is a Japanese Indonesian who wears a baseball uniform so people don’t think he’s Chinese. Her mother, Verawati is a former national badminton champion. Her father, Halim is a blind dentist who will do anything to become more Indonesian, including eye surgery, a religious conversion, and whatever else it will take to win the hand of his Javanese dental assistant Salma who wants to be a Planet Idol pop star. Family friends Romi and Yahya too are happy to help out—if they’re given a little help themselves.

Shot in short portraits of past and present, Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly reflects on the impact of the 1998 riots in Indonesia, when food shortages and widespread unemployment triggered violent attacks on the ethnic Chinese minority. Hundreds of people were killed, women were raped and local businesses were destroyed, and the aftermath left Chinese Indonesians anxious and alienated.

Director Edwin brings out the absurdity in racist concepts of national identity, while creating a stunning film that is beautiful and poetic. Noteworthy is the common—and rather odd—thread running through the film: Stevie Wonder’s hit song “I Just Called to Say I Love You.”

–Heather Keung

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Edwin was born in Surabaya, in eastern Indonesia, and studied film at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts. He is considered one of the most promising short-film makers in the country, and his works have been showcased at international film festivals in Rotterdam, Cannes and Hamburg. Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly is Edwin’s debut feature.

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Meiske Taurisia, PT. Cipta Citra Indonesia
+62 812 940 5664
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THE GOLDEN PIN

This modern drama is centred on a young Vietnamese-Canadian swimmer who finds himself torn between the expectations of his family and the demands of his heart.

Saigon-born Cuong Ngo received his BFA from the Cinema and Theatre University of Ho Chi Minh City and graduated in film production at York University. He has worked on numerous productions as an actor, production assistant, casting director and director. The Golden Pin won Best Canadian Short Film at the 2009 Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

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CFMDC
416 588 0725
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www.cfmdc.org