Encircled by waters—the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and the South China and Philippine Seas—Southeast Asia is an archipelagic zone whose interconnecting islandic and aquatic aspects have steered and shaped the region’s histories and fortunes.

Using water as a metaphor, this programme presents a series of feature films and video works that unveil the region’s cultural, political, and historical diversity. Water in its many forms has encouraged displacement of populations, generated exchanges of folk cultures, and embodied the tropical climate and temperament in the region. The fluid and changing nature of this element captures the diversity of locales, while disrupting the settled notion of the Global South. Presented in three parts, ‘Disquieted Water of the South’ explores water’s innate ability to forge, mediate, and break connections, or to capture the mysterious and shamanistic ways of living in the Global South.