Recognising Talent in Fiction, Film and Art
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EMERGING VOICES RECOGNISING TALENT IN FICTION, FILM AND ART SUPPORTED BY: Emerging Voices 2015 Today we celebrate the voices of tomorrow. OppenheimerFunds and the Financial Times would like to congratulate the 2015 Emerging Voices Awards winners and say thank you to all the writers, filmmakers and artists in emerging markets who continue to inspire us every day. Art, Cristina Planas Fiction, Chigozie Obioma Film, Yuhang Ho For more information about the Emerging Voices Awards, visit emergingvoicesawards.com and join the conversation with #EmergingVoices. ©2015 OppenheimerFunds Distributor, Inc. FOREWORD ‘THESE AWARDSFULFILLED ALL THE ORD HOPESWEHAD WHENWESTARTED’ REW FO hy aset of awards for artists, Elif Shafak and Alaa Al Aswany, celebrated film-makers and writers from novelists from Turkey and Egypt respectively, emerging market countries? debating the nature of literature, we knew we When Justin Leverenz, director were privileged to be present. Wof emerging market equities at In the art category, the judges were most OppenheimerFunds, approached the Financial impressed by Lima-based Cristina Planas, Times with the idea, we were intrigued. whose work took in environmental, politicaland The FT has long been following the rise to religious themes. The tworunners-up, Fabiola prominence of those countries challenging the MenchelliTejeda, wholives in Mexico City, and financial, strategic and political dominance Pablo Mora Ortega, born in Medellín, Colombia, of the hitherto wealthyworld. What did their submitted strikingly different works. Menchelli artists have to teach us? This would be a Tejeda’s photographs showedthe interaction chance to find out. of light and shadow. Ortega’s installation, It would be disingenuous not to pointout sculptures and video showedwhat he called “the that there were financial motivations too. pain and injustice caused by the dysfunctionality OppenheimerFunds is activeinthese markets. and negligence of the Colombian justice system”. There would be substantial prizes for the The judges in the filmcategorywere winning artists, but there would be advertising entranced by the longlist of 10 short films —so revenues for the FT too. (Asalways, FT editors much so that they insisted on having ashortlist and writers have produced this magazine of four rather than the three they had been without anycommercialinterference.) askedfor.The winning film was Trespassed, There were some immediate problems. by the Malaysian director Yuhang Ho, about Would the awards be toobig to handle? And ayoung girl who, to her mother’sdistress, what exactly did we mean by “emerging appears possessed when her father goes markets”(aterm the FT itself has called missing. The runners-up were Kush,byIndian “imprecise”)? director,Shubhashish Bhutiani, about ateacher To manage the possible logistical difficulties, protecting aSikh pupil whowas returning from 1. we decided in this first year to divide the atrip after the assassination of Indira Gandhi; regions up, looking at art from Latin America and the Caribbean, short films from Asia-Pacific, 2. and novels, published in or translated into English, from Africa and the Middle East. We received 872 entries. As to howtodefine emerging market countries, we decided on those that had agross national income percapita of $12,746 or less, according to the World Bank’sAtlas methodof calculation. There wassome criticism that this wasan arbitraryway to select artists to takepartand that asking for submissions just from these countries waspatronising. But manymore people, including judges likeMiraNair,director of films such as Salaam Bombay! and Mississippi Masala,feltpassionately that the awards would giverecognition to artists whodeservedit. What is more, the awards would bring their work to a S far bigger audience than they might otherwise ICE have reached. VO What is said in the judging room stays in the ING judging room. So there will be no revealing RG here of whosaid what. (The other distinguished E judges are profiled on pages 56-58.)But when the EM rest of the judges in the fiction award watched 4 RESULTS FO FICTION REWORD Winner Chigozie Obioma The Fishermen — Nigeria Runners-up Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor Dust —Kenya Scholastique Mukasonga Our Lady of the Nile —Rwanda FILM Winner Yuhang Ho Trespassed —Malaysia Runners-up Shubhashish Bhutiani Kush — India Mont Tesprateep Endless,Nameless —Thailand HanTing The Sea —China ART Winner Cristina Planas Vultures, TableofNegotiations,Mass Grave, Coloured Christ —Peru 1. The fiction judges were equally excited 3. Michael Skapinker, by the qualityofthe work on the longlist. Runners-up Justin Leverenz and Alaa Al After extensivedebate, Chigozie Obioma’s Fabiola Menchelli Tejeda Aswany discuss The Fishermen,astoryofthe trials and Balancing Light, Archway, Curved, their lists adventures of four Nigerian brothers, emerged Section Cut —Mexico 2. as the winner.The runners-up were Yvonne The FT’s Lorien Kite,right, listens AdhiamboOwuor’s Dust —set amid Kenya’s Pablo Mora Ortega to Alaa Al Aswany 2007 electoral turmoil —Scholastique Cabinet, Folios,Abandonment, Records — 3. Mukasonga’s Our Lady of the Nile,which takes Colombia Turkish writer Elif place in aRwandan girls’boarding school on the Shafak eveofthe country’sgenocide. We have learnt ahuge amount from the The FT/OppenheimerFunds staging of these initial awards. There are some Emerging Voicesawards things we plan to do differently next year —for recognise the most inventive example, we will askall the artists to provide Endless, Nameless,directed by Mont Tesprateep, statements giving us greater context for their and creativefiction writers, about the lives of Thai conscripts and, more work. We will also re-examine howwedivide up film-makersand artists widely,the class divisions within Thai society; the art, film and fiction categories. from emerging market EMERGING and The Sea,bythe Chinese director Han Ting, But in almost everyway,these awards about an art teacher whogoestowork at a fulfilled all the hopes we hadfor them when we countriesinAfrica and the remote school at the end of his life. started. We hope FT readers will enjoythemas Middle East,Asia-Pacific While each of the four films comes from much as the judges did. VO SIE HALLAM RO and Latin America and the adifferent country, the judges asked us to ICES S: makeclear thiswas not deliberate —these were Michael Skapinker, TO Caribbean respectively. the best four entries. Chair of judgesand FT associate editor 5 PHO CONTENTS S fEaTurES 50 INTROduCTION Myanmar ONTENT 8 Globalisation has awakened western 38 Anew wave of social documentary C audiencestothe arts and cultures of the is thriving, even as statecontrols ‘global south’ remain tight and create uncertainty forfilm-makers AFRICAANd ThE MIddlE 16 EAST —FICTION lATIN AMERICAANd ThE Translation 46 CARIbbEAN —ART Without translators, publishing’s unsung brazil heroes, much of the English-speaking Anew generation of wealthycollectors world would be without exposure to the has arrived on the global scene and literatureofemerging market countries areplacing particular value on works from their owncontinent The Arab World 32 20 The region’s politicalcataclysms have haiti prompted arevival in the Arab novel— 49 Voodoo flags, icons designed to and amorepowerful style of fiction, enhance religious experiences,are as writersseek answers highly prized worksofart among international collectors Nuruddin Farah 22 The author talksabout histortured Argentina relationship with Somalia, his homeland, 50 While some artists have achieved and the death and corruption that rock-star status, manymust seek their have torn the countryapart fortune abroad or fight forspace ina small but competitivegallery scene Nigeria 24 While international awardsand festivals Mexico have raised writers’ profiles, the 52 AlternativespacesinMexico City are 36 publishing industryishoping adigital exhibiting work that challenges revolution can reviveits fortunes stereotypesabout thecountry’sart, oftenperpetuated by western galleries NooSaro-Wiwa 27 The novelist askswhether African literaturecan find its voice as long as it is COluMN subject to theaesthetics of 55 Jan Dalley, the FT’s arts editor,sets out apredominantly western genre four essential conditions forathriving creativescene ASIA-pACIFIC —FIlM ThE judGES 32 Thailand 56 Profilesofthe 15 eminent figures from Apichatpong Weerasethakul and others the worlds of fiction, film and artwho makefilms that take their audiencesinto decided on the winnersofthe inaugural magical, mystical realms, but beneath FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices these lurk much darker,political themes awards India 34 Traditional star-driven Bollywood fare 8 is as popular as ever,but studios are exploring edgier themestoattract the S urban multiplexcrowd ICE VO Indonesia 36 As film-makersstrivetoexplain the GING country’sdark history, theydo so in aclimate of censorship and EMER scarce funding 6 Editor C WINNErS Helen Barrett ONTENT production editor FICTION George Kyriakos 13 Chigozie Obioma Artdirector S The Fishermen’s mythic quality unpicks Jonathan Saunders the dysfunctions of Nigerian society — pictureeditors adebut novel, its author says, that is Michael Crabtree,Emily Lewis ‘a wake-upcall to adwindling nation’ Sub editors Philip Parrish, Ruth Lewis- Coste,Natalie Taylor FIlM Research 29 Yuhang ho Peter Hobbs, Charlie Mitchell 46 Taking in influencesfromBresson to Special reportseditor Tourneur, Trespassed is an intimatestory Leyla Boulton of atroubled girl that reveals much about Global salesand director Malaysian