Mixmag Asia curates Pulse/Drift film programme with Asian Film Archive

Mixmag Asia teams up with Asian Film Archive (AFA) this November for Pulse/Drift: Sonic and Visual Currents in Asian Cinema; a month-long film programme running from November 1-30, 2025.

Coinciding with the Singapore Biennale, the showcase brings together 25 films that explore how sound and electronic music shape stories across Asia.

The programme opens on November 1 with a triple screening of Budots: The Craze (2019), COSMOS Embassy: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2023), and BASS BOSS (2025).

These three films move through the region’s underground scenes, tracing Davao’s dance music phenomenon, Saigon’s experimental collectives, and Bengal’s bass-heavy street battles.

The main feature line-up includes Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Millennium Mambo (2001), Raving Iran (2016), Solo, Solitude (2016), Made in Hong Kong (1997), and Park Syeyoung’s The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra (2022).

One of the programme’s highlights is the Southeast Asian premiere of Gakuryu Ishii’s Mirrored Mind (2005), presented with an online Q&A with the director, paired with Dozens of Norths (2021) in a special Japanese double feature on November 22.

The mid-length and short film sections expand the theme with works from Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and more, all exploring how sound connects identity, memory, and movement.

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For Asian Film Archive, founded in 2005 to preserve and promote the region’s cinematic heritage, the Pulse/Drift programming reflects its ongoing commitment to connecting audiences with the evolving intersections of sound, moving image, and cultural expression.

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Together with Mixmag Asia, the collaboration offers a rare cinematic deep dive into Asia’s aural imagination, mapping the spaces where music, film, and lived experience converge.

On November 15, a special Mixmag Asia x AFA x Pureblue listening event will take place at RASA, presented as a side event to the Pulse/Drift programme; details will be announced soon.

See full programming for Pulse/Drift here.

Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.

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