Helen's Blog /

One of the most, if not the most ubiquitous photojournalists covering the 12th edition of Fareast Udine Film Festival is without a doubt, Frederic Ambroisine.

Referring to himself as an expert on Asian Cinema and acquisitions consultant, you can count on seeing Frederic on a daily basis, early in the morning, wherever the action is, at the Cinema Giovani, Visionario, and at all the press conferences. Usually stationed in the front row, center, at the Press Calls, behind his tripod, Fred, over the years has aquired an amazing collection of footage of live interviews with anyone who counts in Asian cinema, both vintage and present-day. He does not content himself with filming targeted events in Europe, such as Vesoul Asian Film Festival, in France, about which he recently produced a documentary, but travels to Asia, like recently Hong Kong, where he interviewed local stars such as Nancy Sit and Patrick Tse, featured at this year's vintage cinema section.

Born in Istres (France), Frederic Ambroisine studied mathematics, then filmmaking, in Paris in his twenties. At the same time, he was also trained as a stuntman by the Figlarz Action crew (Scorpion, 36, Babylon A.D., Largo Winch etc.). He started as a filmcritic in 2000 on the website dvdrama.

Since 2002, he also wrote in several French magazines specialized in Asian Cinema, including Kumite, Asia Pulp, Mad Asia and Score Asia. At the end of 2003, Frederic started to work as a documentary director on the Shaw Brothers French dvd collection distributed by Wild Side films. He interviewed hundreds of Hong Kong artists and did more than 60 short documentaries between 2004 and 2006 related to Shaw Brothers kung-fu classics, inlcluding The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin, The One-Armed Swordsman, Come Drink With Me, Killer Clans, King Boxer, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter etc.

He also directed a few dozen short documentaries about recent Hong Kong movies including the Infernal Affairs trilogy, One Nite In Mongkok, P.T.U., Dumplings, S.P.L., Dog Bite Dog... In 2006, he directed Inside Ho Yuk, his first 52-minute documentary (the other ones were 26 minutes or less). He's now preparing his first musical documentary, Rock 'N' Roll Girls.