About Project
In 2012, the Visual Documentary Project (VDP) began as part of a large-scale project to promote exchanges with young filmmakers in to capture the reality of diversity, hybridity, and dynamism of Southeast Asia.
The main objectives of the VDP are to provide a platform for those who are engaged in Southeast Asian studies and filmmakers from Southeast Asia; bring the documentaries that reflect the realities they experience to a wider audience – the research community and public in Japan and overseas; and address the various current issues they face.
Over the past decade, this program has developed a lively and insightful exchange. In 2014-19, co-sponsorship in partnership with the Japan Foundation Asia Center (JFAC) has further developed this program, raising its visibility and deepening exchanges in Japan and abroad. These achievements have allowed us to open new lines of academic inquiry on Southeast Asia and to build bridges between filmmakers and scholars working in the region.
Each year we have held thematic calls for short documentary films. Films are selected by a committee comprising scholars, filmmakers, and film critics deeply intimate with documentary filmmaking in the region. To date we have received nearly 850 submissions from Japan and the Southeast Asia region, representing works on Southeast Asia. Selected films are subtitled in Japanese, then screened at international events that are open and accessible both in Japan and Southeast Asia often in collaboration with documentary film festivals and other academic institutions. Today, documentary films increasingly provide an opportunity to draw our attention to different social issues in Southeast Asia. A lot of effort goes in to maintaining the VDP platform, but this is rewarded by the interest of many people, both at a local and international level.
As of 2023, the VDP site has been renewed and opened as a digital archive to stimulate further discussion. We have organized selected materials by year and theme, and we hope that more people will avail themselves of these. We also encourage educators and researchers to make use of these works as teaching materials (available upon application).
As a platform, the VDP will continue to grow and deepen its ties with film schools and other partners across and beyond regions. Post-corona, we will continue to expand this initiative over time with Japanese and Southeast Asian filmmakers, regional scholars, and other partners.
Mario Lopez
VDP Secretariat Head
Open Call Themes for each year
2020 – LOVE –
2019 – Justice –
2018 – Popular Culture in Southeast Asia –
2017 – Urban Life in Southeast Asia –
2016 – Politics in Everyday Life in Southeast Asia –
2015 – Human Flows –
2014 – People and Nature in Southeast Asia –
2013 – Plural Co-existence in Southeast Asia –
2012 – “Care”in Southeast Asia: Every Day and into the Future –
Visual Documentary Project Film Archive 2012-2021 (PDF)
