Too young for dilemmas and million dollar questions, just shoot!

Singapore filmmaker Liao Jiekai left me with a quote at the 13 Little Pictures talk. ‘Creativity starts when you turn your back to your audience.’ – taken from Taiwanese writer Zhu Tianwen. That quote spoke to me because I was going through a writer’s block, finding it difficult to see beyond the customary when I pick up the pen or the camera. Should Mary Tan finally find her true love and end the story with song and dance or should she realize that her love was in fact a transgender man whom she connected with more than anyone else? Neither is right or wrong. It’s a question many filmmakers must ask themselves every now and then. But a million dollar question because it decides whether your film gets screened at one or ten cinema screens.

Indeed, it is a tough question. In fact, Singapore films are at an interesting crossroads. There isn’t exactly a current ‘style’ at the moment. It is partly driven by who is the scene, who is coming in and going out. Today, new batches of film students are graduating each year adding to the expanse of local filmography. Award-wining short filmmakers are giving their best shot at their first feature films. TV actors, sick of being directed, are taking on the director’s chair themselves. Google Li Nanxing and Michelle Chong. Finally, Seasoned filmmakers like Royston Tan and Sun Koh are taking time out to find new voices within themselves.

Different backgrounds aside, it can be observed that many of the newer filmmakers seem united in one characteristic – they know the business better than the art and they really know to throw a mean red carpet gala. Not that their films are bad, it’s just driving the film machine on a different engine, and a machine, it really is. This also means that the Singapore policymakers have succeeded in nurturing ‘film-preneurs’ – filmmakers who will know how to give their investors the bang for the bucks. Even student films now have trailers and opening titles that speak louder than the films themselves.

But while the brass of show-business gets louder, the voice of artistic honesty becomes softer. Filmmakers who are sticking to their guns and making our minds work harder as an audience will feel the pressure when a peer makes one that gets the media talking and the general populace queuing. What’s happened to the voice of independent filmmaking? For sure, it has not died. It is still alive in pockets. The better question is - will we see it regain its voice in a big way? With money doing the talking, will we ever see a Singapore New Wave like the Taiwanese, and even Malaysian?



For inspiration, I look three years back. The year 2008 could be described as a golden year for Singapore films by the burst of films that were strident in the way they redefined the collective persona of the Singapore film. Lucky Seven pulled seven of the brightest minds in local films together in a sort of organized rebellion to deconstruct traditional narratives. Some of the them of gone on to make award-winning features like Boo Junfeng and Ho Tzu Nyen. A dozen new directors bravely stepped up to the game giving us films like Kallang Roar, Mad about English and the unforgettable 18 Grams of Love. Each film was a honest and conscientious attempt to tell a story devoid of clichés and recognizable stripes of commercial cinema - like off-tangent jokes put out just to milk a laugh. I guess we were at the point of an awakening (before the recession came) and there was nothing to lose in being bold and honest.

This actually reminds me of the irony of privilege. In Jack Neo’s ‘Homerun’, which I honestly thought was a good attempt even though it as a ‘cover’, Jie Kun the brother and Siao Fang the little sister’s joy of getting new clean shoes was short-lived when a long of mud crossed their route home. The narrator adds that when we have nothing, we fight like things can’t get any worse. But when we’ve finally gotten it, we take a step back, worry about losing our prize and lose sight of the bigger fights.

In pragmatic Singapore, this argument is only as good as it sounds in words. Almost every filmmaker has a dream to one day make a film on 35mm and screen it the same highly expensive format. The road there is long and arduous unless you’ve got beginner’s luck. You start making films on accessible digital formats and you make an extra effort to be different to make up for the lack of rich, textured visuals that actual film can give you. But when you win an award and finally get your hands on some cash to make a real ‘film’ film, you lose your bite.

In a similar fashion, when money reaches the table before the ideas and the individuality, money does the talking. Do not get me wrong, I am not against money for even honest pieces of art need money for it to materialize. It’s the order of it that makes a difference. There is something in common among the director who’s been given money to make his sequel, the Mediacorp actor who has easy access to funds (due to fame) to make a movie and the film student who has free access to cranes and green screens. The sequel director gets trapped into a game of playing to his audience. The actor, who would predictable also appear in his own film knows too well how to bend over backwards for a laugh or a tear. Finally, for a student, the crane and green screen are too hard to give a miss.

I do not complain about the funding schemes of the government. I feel Singapore filmmakers are actually one of the luckiest in the world especially when they are starting out thanks to the government grants. Our neighbours up north shoot in cheaper digital formats and have made award-winners out of the digital outputs. A friend of mine told me how Spike Lee made Malcolm X out of film scraps when he ran out of money. All this means is there is now no excuse to get stumped at the writer’s block or a director’s dilemma, if you’ve found your real voice. That is the voice that will make the journey in filmmaking a less bumpy one. No more million dollar questions and dilemmas. No more getting stumped at money issues even if you genuinely think you’ve got a good story. It may not be a perfect journey but there will be no better time. It is when Mary Tan realises that there are no such things as happy-ever-afters, so she decides to go back to being a free-spirited single.



Written by Jeremy Sing, for Raffles Alumni, find the link here.

Production Talk: 2359 by Gilbert Chan

In this segment of Production Talk, SINdie speaks to Gilbert Chan on his latest film, 2359. Set in an offshore training island, the film tells the chilling tale of a platoon of army boys and the ghastly, paranormal experiences of Tan, a new army recruit. Rumour has it that a mad woman who used to live on island died a long time ago at exactly 2359hrs, and is now back to haunt soldiers at exactly the same time.

S: Can you share with us the inspiration for this film? Was it drawn from any real life experiences?

G: The story was originally based on an actual incident that happened on Tekong island in 1983. But I've seen changed some details to make for better story-telling, better development of characters, more suspense and essentially more horror. The characters in the movie are based on many people I have met in the army and also during reservist.

S: I saw the trailer for the film and think that it's beautifully shot. Are there any larger intents behind the film apart from telling a good horror/thriller story?

G: Thanks for the compliment and I think the DOP and his team did a fantastic job to create the mood in the film. I've always stressed that it's easy to shock in horror but it's much more difficult to scare and to create suspense.

As with any good story, I felt it was important to create a strong emotional core in the story and make the story as realistic as possible. The ending is not that straight forward and I hope it gets the audience thinking as well.

S: Are your cast mainly professional or non-professional? How has that influenced the outcome and feel of the film?

G: It's a mixture of experience and first-timers. Working with this group of actors has been a tremendous blessing. They are professional, extremely talented and very fun to work with. They bring so much more to the roles they play and most importantly, they make the characters real, believable and likeable.


S: Could you share with us more about your challenges making this film? How was it like working with the government agencies and getting permission to shoot on location?

G: The shoot for 2359 has been one of the most challenging I have ever done. We shot many nights in the forest. It was pitch dark, raining for most of the nights, and we were attacked by mosquitoes and even leeches. We even had a wild boar in the forest shoot. On top of that, special effects make up, and rain scenes. And it was a miracle that we shot only 18 days! Simply unbelievable.

Even though it was a tough shoot, it was also one of the most enjoyable shoots I have ever done. The crew and cast and the production team worked so well together that it really didn't feel like work. I looked forward to going for shoot every day and it was so fun!

S: Did any paranormal stuff happen during or after production? What were some of the precautions you guys took to guard against these?

G: There was a particular toilet inside the camp that we shot in (at Dengkil in Malaysia) that several crew reported hearing strange sounds. One of the Malay crew who supposedly could see 'things' went in and dashed out in about five seconds. When we asked him what he saw, he kept quiet and just told us not to use the toilet anymore!


S: Any last words?

G: I think every movie that is made in Singapore is a miracle. From concept, to scripting, to getting funding, shooting, and post production. Every step is extremely challenging and even more so in a small country like Singapore. This story was first conceptualized ten years ago and it's like a dream come true to finally make this movie ten years later.

ShoutOUT! : A Design Film Festival returns to Singapore

A DESIGN FILM FESTIVAL 2011 (Opening Titles) from Sebastian Lange on Vimeo.

This November, Singapore will once again be the launch pad for the 2nd edition of A Design Film Festival, featuring a brand new line-up, expanded programme and new collaborations.

Launched at Old School, Singapore last January as the first film festival in Asia dedicated to design, the festival successfully toured to Berlin, Taipei, Kaohsiung and Bangkok in 2010.
With 10 Asian premieres and 5 Singapore premieres, the festival is an annual celebration of films dedicated to design, architecture, fashion, technology and its subculture.

From the highly anticipated documentary, Yohji Yamamoto: This Is My Dream, an exclusive, intimate film on the notoriously private Japanese fashion design icon, Yohji Yamamoto; to Design The New Business, an intriguing documentary on how design thinking is making big steps in providing solutions to the problems of tomorrow - the Official Selection of 15 films hail from around the world.

Curated by art director and recent winner of the Art Directors Club New York Young Guns 9 award, Felix Ng - the festival is the third collaboration between design think tank, Anonymous and Old School.

A Design Film Festival will run from 03 - 20 November 2011, with 28 screenings of 15 films. It will be held at Sinema, Old School located at 11B Mount Sophia, B1-12, Singapore 228466. On 10 December 2011, the festival partners with entertainment legend, Zouk to present a live screening of R.fm Cinema at ZoukOut 2011.

Ticket prices range from S$8 - S$12 with no booking fees this year. Tickets can be purchased through the festival's official website or at the office of Anonymous Pte Ltd.

For more information on A Design Film Festival 2011, visit the official website here at this link for a full schedule of the films.

Trailer of 'Yohji Yamamoto: This Is My Dream'

ShoutOUT! : Singapore Fashion Film Festival

Fashion captured on film from 21 Oct to 5 Nov at Sinema Old School.




The Singapore Fashion Film Festival is the first festival to bring the world of Haute Couture, ateliers, fashion and designers creative process to Singaporean screens.


With 10 documentaries premiering in Singapore, SFFF brings you into the exclusive and exhilarating world of fashion weeks front rows, with celebrities, backstage passes and catwalk moments. Be the guest of some of the world's renowned ateliers in Paris, Milan, London and New York, and discover the exquisite mastery of the world's finest craftsmen.


SFFF will offer a wide selection of 52 mn to 98 mn full length documentaries picturing the world's most acclaimed designers who have shaped fashion over the last three decades and today's new talents in contemporary fashion.


*****


Films screened include 


'The Day Before' - a ten-part documentary series by Loic Prigent. It essentially chronicles the final 36 hours prior to crucial seasonal runway shows featuring creations by some of the fashion world's leading designers like Donatella Versace and Marc Jacobs. 


'Paul Smith: Gentleman Designer' - documentary by Carrel Stephane on Paul Smith's empire of 400 shops and outlets in 35 countries, 12 clothing lines, 400 million euros in yearly revenues.


'The Secret World of Haute Couture' - documentary by Mary Kingmoth which takes you into the world of millionaire customers and world famous designers 


'Picture Me: A Model’s Diary' - documentary by Ole Schell & Sara Ziff in which Ole a filmmaker documents the rise of his model girlfriend Sara.

Review: Echoing Love

Filmmakers must be thankful for the fact that love is a many splendoured thing, or there may just be a shortage of movies to produce. Just think about it - how many of the shows you’ve caught in your lifetime is about that thing called love? This reviewer, for one, is a sucker for all things lovey dovey. He shudders to picture a world without love. And that is why, when this columnist heard about this local production featuring six short films revolving around the theme of love, he had high hopes for it.

Turned out that his expectations were a little too high.

An initiative spearheaded by local artiste Edmund Chen (you may remember him as Chun-Li’s father in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, or more prominently, as the resident good looker in countless local TV dramas), Mission Easy transforms 30 normal Singaporeans (yes, these fellow countrymen are the ones you and I see on the streets every other day) into first-time filmmakers. Help came in the form of local personalities like Xiang Yun, Vincent Ng and Ericia Lee, who took on the roles of consultant directors on set. The result is a 90-minute omnibus aptly titled “Echoing Love”.

Films like “Paris Je T’aime” (2006) and “New York, I Love You” (2009) come to mind, and it is not surprising that there are segments here which worked, and some which didn’t. Adding some spice to the production are filler scenes “hosted” by recognised local celebrities who dish some wise words about love. The viewing experience isn’t what you’d call spectacular, but there are occasional affecting moments worth commending.

The standout piece is the second segment which tells the story of a grandmother who enjoys her first day of retirement taking care of her two grandchildren. Starring the veteran Kwan Sek Mui and project director Chen’s own children, this is a loveable piece about the simplicities of love.

Another piece which will have you smiling is the last short of the series. The fresh-faced Tomato Lee and Edwin Goh take on the roles of two lovers separated by time and space. Without giving away too much, product placement in the form of geomancy is smartly used in this segment.

The production values for all the shorts are top notch, but they are unfortunately marred by the sometimes amateurish acting and even more unfortunately, the forced attempt to tell a love story.

There is a tale about an old gentleman who falls for a young masseur, which feels tiresome despite fine acting by Gerald Chew and Jessica Tan. Then there is a story about a heartbroken girl who falls for a burly fitness instructor at a resort which failed to evoke any emotions.

What’s love without some melodrama and tragedy? There is a short which explores the relationship between a girl and a married man, and another which tries its hand at tackling the issue of love between an older woman and a younger man. Ericia Lee and Amy Cheng may have headlined these two segments with commendable performances, but they do not help to salvage the dreariness.

A project like this may work better on TV, but it is still a praiseworthy effort by industry players to encourage filmmaking and promote the local scene. There’s nothing like some good ol’ fashioned practice to improve on your next attempt, right?

Check out snippets of three of the shorts here:



Reviewed by John Li at the 24th Singapore International Film Festival

Aspiring Independent filmmakers share their thoughts about the 13 Little Pictures 'Boot Camp'

During the recent Singapore International Film Festival, a diverse group of people came together to explore and immerse themselves in the spirit of independent filmmaking. They were part of The 13 Little Pictures Film Lab (19-25 Sep). The Lab aims to be a platform for fellow filmmakers to collaborate, experiment and create new works. It hosts a diverse group of 15 aspiring directors, producers, cinematographers, scriptwriters, art directors, editors and sound engineers from Singapore and our neighbouring countries like Thailand, Philippines and China. Wait a minute, there was also one from Poland!

Over the course of about 2 days, they formed 3 teams that each made a short 5 minute video and screened their final works at Sinema Old School on 25 Sep. The 'boot-campers' consisted of the following:

Ashish Ravinran (Singapore)
Colin Tan (Singapore)
Echo He Yingshu (China)
Faraz Hussain (India)
Gary Yong (Malaysia)
Joenathann Alandy (Philippines)
Juan Manuel Alcazaren (Philippines)
Kuba Morawski (Poland)
Maenam Chagasik (Thailand)
Ng Yiqin (Singapore)
Shyan Tan (Singapore)
Sorayos Prapapan (Thailand)
Tan Jingliang (Singapore)
Tay Hong Cheng (Singapore)
Vivien Koh (Singapore)

We interview each of the teams to understand how they lived the 'indie' spirit in their 2-day journey and also to study the osmosis effect of the very special fimmaking 'cult' named 13 Little Pictures.



Tan Jing Liang, Singapore


Have you heard of 13 Little Pictures before this?
Yes - I first heard about 13 Little Pictures when I attended a screening for White Days by Lei Yuan Bin, one of the filmmakers from the collective.


What did you see in the direction of 13 Little Pictures that encouraged you to join the lab?
13 Little Pictures was to me a very unique collective of independent filmmakers that consistently adopted, for lack of a better term, an anti-classical creative process in filmmaking. I was very keen to meet the filmmakers and understand their creative philosophies behind this.


What were your expectations of the Lab?
I hoped to take away from the Lab meaningful exchanges with people interested in the same things I do.


I know some participants flew in from other countries to participate in this. What drove this?
Some were here to attend the 24th Singapore International Film Festival and the Lab was a way for them to do this in a more participatory manner; some were keen to work in Singapore and the Lab was a platform to meet like-minded people and make friends in the local film circle.


I understand you were all split into teams to make a 5 minute clip. How different is this from the usual 48-hr/2-day film challenges that are already existing?
I think the biggest difference lies in the fact that everyone in the teams had never met each other before, with some of our friends from the region not even having been to Singapore before this, so we had to get to know each other and figure out one another’s working styles within a very short timeframe before we could even delve into any creative conceptualization. The existing ‘marathon’ film competitions are usually joined by local participants who form teams of their own with members who already know each other or have worked together on film productions before.


Who were your mentors for your group?
Liao Jiekai (director of Red Dragonflies) and Lai Weijie (director of I Have Loved). Perhaps “mentors” might not quite be the right word to use. From the very beginning of the Lab, the filmmakers of 13 Little Pictures made it clear that they did not posit themselves as mentors with a teacher-student relationship with the participants, but rather as fellow peers in the collaborative art of filmmaking who are there to share their experience and opinions, just as the participants would share their own. This was something I really appreciated. I enjoyed that we all spoke on the same level and were able to engage with each other a lot more personally this way.


Have you watched their film/s? What was initial impression of yr mentor/s?
Unfortunately I have not seen Red Dragonflies nor I Have Loved...
The first thing I noticed about both Jiekai and Weijie was that neither of them had any airs about them despite their accolades as directors. They were ready and happy to share their creative processes in filmmaking and were very humble about their work. It was really pleasant that they spoke with me with the intention to share rather than to teach despite having a lot more experience than I did.


What was the most valuable thing you gained under your mentor/s?
That spontaneity is a trait very much worth embracing in filmmaking.


Has this project influenced the way you think about making your films in anyway?
It certainly has. During the Lab we talked a lot about paring the content of the films we make down to the bare essentials - to strip it down to its very core, even if it means having to make some creative compromises. I suppose we all to some extent have the tendency to be quite attached to the original whole that we set out to complete, but I’ve seen that some very meaningful things can result when one is more ruthless with such a stripping-down.

Daniel Hui and a lecture on skincare? 

Test Test, 10, 11, 12, 13

Tay Hong Cheng, Singapore (and team)

Have you heard of 13 Little Pictures before this?

Bee Thiam is a part Time professor at NTU ADM who has taught me Asian Film History, and he would mention of 13 Little Pictures. I had eventually found the 13 Little Pictures blog and also found out that my senior (Wesley) is also a member of the collaborative.

What did you see in the direction of 13 Little Pictures that encouraged you to join the lab?

My interest in local films have grown after my exposure to Asian Film History and see 13 Little Pictures as a collection of festival filmmakers and want to find out more about their processes and opinions as independent filmmaking in Singapore, and gain exposure from the experience of 13 Little Pictures Filmmakers.

What were your expectations of the Lab?

I thought that the lab will be a platform for filmmakers to exchange and bounce off ideas  and also sink deep into discussion of its language and how it means to one another, both by the participants and the 13 Little Pictures Filmmakers. Although i never did expect the film lab to be a place that taught the know hows of making a film and go for workshop exercises.

I know some participants flew in from other countries to participate in this. What drove this?

The teams and composition of filmmakers were very diverse, but in such a short amount of time, it did prove some problems. Somehow there seemed to be less time for exploration but more time for exercises about how films can be made.

I understand you were all split into teams to make a 5 minute clip. How different is this from the usual 48-hr/2-day film challenges that are already existing?

I have personally participated in several of 48 Hour Film Project, and one Fly By Night competition and feel that the 13 Little Film Lab allows for more exploration because of how diverse the team as opposed to the teams I have been exposed to in 48 Hour Film Projects which have been composed of friends whom I have known and worked with for a long time. Although in the 13 Little Pictures Film Lab, due to the diversity of the people and schedules, we experienced almost no time in preparation for the film. But due to the nature of our film (experimental), that posed only a small problem. There are some lines you'd know you can't cross as opposed to my experiences in 48 Hour Film Project, that I am accustomed to their rules and small little tricks. 

Who were your mentors for your group?

Daniel Hui and Yeo Siew Hua.

Have you watched their film/s? What was initial impression of yr mentor/s?

Havent seen any of their films. Daniel was a very experimental in all forms and it was refreshing, coming down from classes of directing in school and to the film lab when he told us about his approach on the the direction of a story, which is totally different from what ive learnt so far. Siew Hua seemed very accommodating, but we didnt see him much in the film lab because he could only stay for half of the total duration.

What was the most valuable thing you gained under your mentor/s?

One thing that was rather memorable for me was when Daniel was talking about the close up, and how the human face alone could tell a story that a montage of other shots could do, without changing the shot size. The close up was also the landscape, all its little movements and gestures are equally powerful as they are subtle in wider shots. 

Has this project influenced the way you think about making your films in anyway?

Although i do not notice any major change, i am sure that i have been influenced sub-conciously,

pushing the level of experimenting with new techniques of filmmaking, ontop of my occasional concious effort to try different methods.

'Should there music at this point?'

Now you can see their pores

No camera? I've got an iphone.

Ashish Ravinran, Singapore 

Have you heard of 13 Little Pictures before this?
I'd heard about this mysteriously-named film collective and roughly what they were interested in but not much more than that.

What did you see in the direction of 13 Little Pictures that encouraged you to join the lab?
This idea of a group of filmmakers who were primarily motivated by their love for movies, rather than 'external' considerations, sounded like a very encouraging environment for an aspiring filmmaker like myself. I also really liked their emphasis on respecting filmmakers' individuality and enjoying the diversity of opinions and approaches which that brought.

What were your expectations of the Lab?
I was looking forward to exchanging ideas with other participants who were similarly passionate about movies. But I didn't realise that there would also be so many practicing filmmakers from 13 Little Pictures, who mentored us for the week and who often seemed like participants themselves. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that half the participants were based in Singapore and the other half came from the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.

I know some participants flew in from other countries to participate in this. What drove this?
I can't speak for them but it seemed like they too were attracted by this idea of collaboration that is crucial to the ethos of 13 Little Pictures. I say this because many of them had already been working in the film industry for a while. Either that or maybe 13 Little Pictures did a great job of advertising the Film Lab overseas.

I understand you were all split into teams to make a 5 minute clip. How different is this from the usual 48-hr/2-day film challenges that are already existing?
I haven't taken part in any of those film challenges yet but I did help organise a 3 hour film challenge as part of the Oxford Film Festival 2011 in the UK, where I'm currently studying. And the Film Lab was completely different from that because we had a couple of days to get to know our teammates from scratch, do practice exercises, and then embark on our 5 minute movie. Altogether we had three days to shoot and edit. We also had a critique session the day before the final screening, where I think almost all the feedback was constructive. So maybe the spirit of 13 Little Pictures rubbed off.

Who were the mentors for your group?
We had the highly acclaimed cinematographer and filmmaker, Looi Wan Ping, and the very talented filmmaker, Wesley Leon Aroozoo, who is currently studying at NYU TischAsia.

Have you watched their film/s? What was initial impression of your mentors?
To be honest, I hadn't watched any of their films although over the course of the Film Lab I managed to see Daniel Hui's Eclipses, which premiered at the SIFF during the Film Lab, and had a great influence on me. As for initial impressions, I was struck by how interested the mentors were in talking to, and potentially learning from, the participants. There was no one really dictating how we should do things. Even Tan Bee Thiam, who was running the show, had an intentionally laissez-faire approach. In that sense, it really was like a 'lab' where we could experiment with different methods/styles etc. to see what worked best.

What was the most valuable thing you gained under your mentor/s?
At times, they were keen to let us fend for ourselves like when we were 'secretly' filming outside Parliament House. But they both also had a lot of solid practical advice when we were shooting and editing. However, the Film Lab was organised loosely enough for us to interact with the other groups' mentors, which meant that I was able to learn from them too. Since then I've also become friends (I think) with some of the mentors, who I've talked to about movie ideas, film school applications, their own projects, and so on. So I think it's this love for movies that relates to a real enjoyment of the process of filmmaking itself, which I now appreciate more.

Has this project influenced the way you think about making your films in anyway?
It's allowed me to think more clearly about how I want to make movies. I mean this not only in terms of content and style, but also about what kind of process I want to adopt in terms of writing, directing and editing, and how these choices are more closely entwined with my politics and fundamental beliefs than I had earlier assumed. And most of all, it's spurred me to make my next short movie, which I'm currently shooting. And I guess that's the best inspiration I could've asked for.

The leaders of the three teams, Hong Cheng, Jing Liang and Ashish take their bows for the finished products

Graduates from the School of 'Fuck the Budget, Just Shoot'

Review of Leon Cheo's 'The Three Sisters' - the first 'crowd-funded' film in Singapore

‘Three Sisters’ follows three middle-aged women who are long-time ‘girl-friends’ who reunite on a night out at opera (Chinese opera to be exact). Old habits and feuds die-hard. Miss Young-wannabe clashes with Miss Old and Frumpy and they quibble over the slightest things like not having medicated oil.

Watching Leon Cheo’s ‘Three Sisters’ transports me back to the old-fashioned HK Cantonese dramas of the past where catty women take turns to take a jab at each other’s inadequacies. Old dialogue in new packaging is how I would describe the film. There is something a bit mouldy about having three characters distinctly fitted into 3 pigeon-holes – the conservative and frumpy, the hot-blooded adventurer and the arbitrator. For conversations that don’t surprise, watching the three women fight it out over a verbal war in trite Cantonese phrases was like watching street opera. Leon could have taken lessons from the American sitcom ‘The Golden Girls’ for its wit and humour.

But there is actually a flip side to this. Leon takes the drone of the banter among the three women as their natural selves and transposes it to the opera stage. Like a kind of mirage, the opera on stage is acted by the same three women who play the sisters, except now they are the ‘Three Sisters (with bound feet)’. Mirroring their squabbles, the sisters on stage play out a caricaturized version of their real selves. The icing on the cake was a make-believe commercial for medicated oil performed by the three sisters in a kind of rhythmic recital. Gloriously out-of-context but dramatically effective, even narratively so in how it avoided the potentially excessive theatrics of the three women if they were really shown fighting over the oil.



It’s not easy to find aunties who can act these days but the ladies were perfectly-casted and delivered their roles pitch-perfect. Even in moments that were directorially awkward (like the scene in which they waited for the show to start and stood in a line like how actors would blocked in a play), they managed to breathe some authenticity into the scene and make you forget the other components of the mise-en-scene. However, while the actresses were good, there were only as good as the narrative had framed them to be. In the 18 minutes of a show and tell about the three ladies, there was perhaps too much ‘tell’, leaving wanting of more ‘show’, or perhaps just pockets of breathers to take us away from the sometimes nauseating catfights. Medicated oil might work too!

Written by Jeremy Sing

3rd Singapore Short Film Awards (SSFA) - Open for entries!

Singapore Short Film Awards 2012 Presented by The Substation, Co-organised by Objectifs The 3rd Singapore Short Film Awards is back! 

We are now accepting entries for the 2012 Singapore Short Film Awards. 

The deadline for submissions is Friday 4 November 2011. 

If you have made a short film, no longer than 30 minutes, in 2010/2011, but screened publicly only in 2011, we want to see it. It may be in the running for the Singapore Short Film Awards 2012! 

For more details, visit: www.substation.org/ssfa-entries-2012/

HIlarious guide to independent filmmaking by Wesley Leon Aroozoo

Independent Filmmaking : A Film Student's Journey from wes on Vimeo.

Wesley was unable to make it for the 13 Little Pictures talk on the value independent filmmaking so he made this video to compensate for his absence. You gotta love the soundtrack!

The Outsiders by Madhav Mathur

If I had to sum up my entire experience watching The Outsiders in one word, it will be ‘strange’.

Not so much in Terrence Malick’s experimental Palme d’Or clinching Tree of Life manner with its surrealist existential form that through the seemingly random introduction of dinosaurs and space elements leads to retrospective questions in hindside of the web of life, destiny and fate.

But strange in such a disjointed fashion that perhaps prompted at least 10 people among the sold-out Sinema Old School audience to leave midway during the screening. I will not mince my words here – this film at 112 minutes long and 16-20 months in the making was really quite painful to sit through, disregarding the various jump cuts, static shots, and low production feel, by which the director obviously intended to emulate a fly-in-the-wall observer stylistic technique.

The film has good intent, excellent in fact, in setting out to document the lives of marginalised groups of people in Singapore. The country is truly in dire need of such films that somehow little by little cast these groups of people in the mainstream limelight, but stopping short of shoving their existence down the throats of the general populace. Pleasure Factory somewhat achieved that, with its convoluted web of seedy Geylang prostitution and gay relationships. So has Royston Tan’s 15, which highlighted gangsterism, or Eric Khoo’s feature films that reflect proletariat Singaporean society.
And yes, the film did clinch an award of merit at the California Indie Fest in August 2011, so perhaps it is simply just not my kind of film.

The Outsiders, directed by Madhav Mathur, is the second film under his production label Bad Alliteration. In this flick he highlights the livelihoods of a Indian construction worker from Tamil Nadu, an Indian gay man, a Russian exchange student, an elderly reclusive Indian Muslim widower and a young Chinese non-conformist. All their stories run in parallel threads to one another, with minimal intersection and nary any interaction among the various groups.

Yet this perhaps only serves to exemplify a seeming disconnect with how Singapore has evolved today. Do the above groups of personality types really reflect marginalisation in Singapore? An uprising of alternative voices in Singapore today does not make the young Singaporean Chinese non-conformist any more marginalised than the China migrant whose habitual peculiarities – heck, make that his sole presence in itself – are frowned upon with disdain by the layperson and whose sheer existence is blamed for fueling a local population boom and overcrowding trains.

Further, how does the story arc of the dreamy Russian exchange misfit so caught up in her own romanticism ideals fit in? I have loads of exchange friends who have blended in seamlessly. Or the elderly reclusive widower, at that? These characters, from what has been told in the movie, simply have been overwhelmed in their own self-pity over their predicament that they are unable to move on with life and live it to the fullest.

Boy did I wish they seek therapy while watching the film. It really bugs me how groups of outliers can be used to generalise and reflect groups of people. I wouldn’t be so uncomfortable with the storyline if the choice of personality types are victims of external circumstances outside their control rather than victims of their own internal lack of self will. The former are truly a community of their own that deserves to be highlighted, while the latter mere pockets of individuals.

That said I did enjoy the story arc of the Indian gay man and the construction worker, though for the former the path to self-discovery was utterly bizarre (meeting a French photographer in a gay sauna, really?) and for the latter he is perhaps too naïve and trusting.

And sometimes you wonder whether they’re really bringing it onto themselves by living out their stereotypes.

Written by Walter Sim

Trailer below:

Do see also:
• Bad Alliteration Films: http://www.bad-alliteration.com/
• The Outsiders (2011) Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/TheOutsidersFilm

(Movie stills from Bad Alliteration Films)

Why we need Little pictures alongside big pictures? - A talk by 13 Little Pictures

After travelling half the world on the film festival circuit and competing in cities like Tokyo, Shanghai, Jeonju, Hong Kong, I awaited the Singapore premiere of ‘Red Dragonflies’ by Liao Jiekai eagerly. However, I found myself sleeping through 10 minutes of the movie when the characters were lost in the forest. Jiekai had warned that you either love or hate this movie. While I don’t hate the movie, you needed to look at it through a very different pair of glasses to appreciate it. I have watched a handful of other works from 13 Little Pictures and they all unflinchingly stay true to their unique artistic style even when it gets trying on the audience. Long, meditative wide shots or half-developed characters who never find their closure. Why do they do what they do? While the talk was entitled the value of independent filmmaking, it could also be seen as a talk on ‘why 13 Little Pictures make the films they way they do’.

From left to right : Elizabeth Widjaya, Lai Weijie, Liao Jiekai and Bee Thiam

13 Little Pictures is a collective of filmmakers who have come together to share resources, ideas and of course hands and legs to realize their own dreams to make films. Not any films, but films that are fiercely original and do not pander to popular style. Some of the titles that have emerged from the collective include White Days, In The House of Straw, Red Dragonflies and more recently at the SIFF – I have loved. All eschew traditional narratives and conventional structure and fiercely inventive in their own ways.

How they could relevant to the talk could be perhaps the fact that they are truly a bastion of the ‘indie’ spirit in Singapore. If recent batches of work from graduating students are anything to go by, it seems like we do have a dearth of fiercely independent voices. Sadly, most of the student works seem like fan-boy tributes to certain popular genres or styles. So in fact, these people are in a good position to tell us why they sweat it out (literally) making their films.

Chris Yeo, Daniel Hui and Looi Wan Ping

Having established that, the talk was effectively more like a chance for the filmmakers to share what their influences were or even to just ‘talk’ without any agenda in mind – almost just like their films! But I was personally most drawn to the segments when Bee Thiam and Daniel spoke and brought back to the crux of the whole issue - what’s the point in making these films?

Creating a case for making ‘indie’ films has many angles to it. You can see from the aspirational. Satyajit Ray bucked the trend of epics in India and was one of few to make independent films, having been inspired by European arthouse cinema. When he died he became a cultural icon and even won an Honarary Academy award. Today, he is considered one of the greatest auteurs of 20^th century cinema. Strangely enough, in Singapore they give cultural medallions to commercial torchbearers like Jack Neo. Not that I have anything against him. He is different genre and an icon in his own right.

Sherman Ong (in yellow T-shirt) joined mid-way through the session

If we look at the box office figures of the Singapore film industry over the years, it being depressing is no surprise. Perhaps what we need to turn our attention to is the how commercial films, or rather films pitched to be commercial have in fact all lost money. In fact, the most profitable film of all time in Singapore is the first film of our late 90s film renaissance – Money No Enough. Even Royston Tan’s 881 came in only in 5^th place. Grossing $5.8million at the box office, it gave hope to many aspiring filmmakers then. While many people associate it with a commercial spirit and of course Jack Neo, what should not be forgotten is that the film could be seen as a beacon of the ‘indie’ spirit as it was unabashed in the way it told the Singapore story at that time. An interesting nugget of information is that its producer was once quote in the papers back in 1980 as saying filmmaking in Singapore was difficult. Singapore was a cultural desert in all aspects of the word culture then. His name was JP Tan.

If you are worrying about how to finance and distribute yr movies, then you shouldn't bother making movies. Daniel Hui (correct me if I have wrongly quoted) said that without batting an eyelid. I can certainly vouch for that! Without a script or a full story, money itself cannot save a movie. And it is not a chicken and egg issue. A good script will find its backers and resources, even if it may not be in the form of money. What this probably then addresses is the fact that the reverse seems to be the case these days. If you are a name, you can get money with just a concept. This is also why I think sequels suck.

If Bee Thiam was the voice of reason of the night, Daniel was the voice of passion and conscience. More self-assured and fervent than before in his beliefs, he made a strong, almost moralistic case for independent films, not in a bad way.  He likened making independent films to an intimate exercise to connect a small group of people. Making films for large groups of people was conversely likened to wanting power. And not too far from the truth was his belief that cinema today is too indulgent, too in love with nostalgia. The world has forgotten that cinema is about seeing new things. The Lumiere brothers brought over what they saw in Indonesia. People like to see the same things but commercial cinema and culture seems to have conditioned us to go back for the formulaic. To seal of his argument, Daniel got back to simple logic. There was a film that used a cast of stars and seasoned actors, an art director who directed for Atonement and could be said to have been packaged in a style that suited commercial tastes. It still bombed at the box office. That film was The Blue Mansion.

So if you are have a good idea or two but you are trapped in worrying if it will sell, you should just listen to you guts and the rest will take care of itself. If you don’t have a good idea, then I will leave you with this quote dropped by Jiekai at the talk.

‘Creation begins when u turn yr back towards the audience’

Zhu Tian Wen

Writer and long-time collaborator of Hou Hsiao Hsien


Written by Jeremy Sing, photos by Amarendra Bhosle

ShoutOUT!: Perspectives Film Festival 2011

Perspectives Film Festival is an annual festival organized by students from Nanyang Technological University revolving around breakthroughs in cinema.

This year, the festival is proud to present six films that sparked controversy, and elicited bans and censorship in their home countries. They are:

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

The Blue Kite (1993)

Czech Dream (1993)

Syndromes & A Century (2006)

Caterpillar (2010)

Click here for ticketing and more information!

Review: Eclipses by Daniel Hui

“There is no one I respect more than my audiences.”

With that one gutsy punch line, 25 year old Daniel Hui opened his debut feature, Eclipses.

There is no better way to start talking about the film than from its title - deceptively simple yet so rich with meaning and thought. Structurally, the film functions in two wholes, the first being an apparent fictional story about a woman (Vel Ng) mourning the loss of her husband; the second, where the woman disappears, splinters into a documentary about the people around her (Vel) and the filmmaker.

Yet, save for the abrupt cut to black in the middle of the film that signals the film’s transition, or eclipse of the initial other, the film’s fiction/documentary dichotomy holds little bearing to genre defining labels. Here, the lines between documentary and fiction are blurred not because of the film’s apparent schizophrenia, but because the filmmaker sees little difference between the two.

With Eclipses, Daniel seeks to make a film that transcends cinema or what little has become of it, rather than to conform. Cinema appears to have forgotten its roots as a medium to document, to listen, to simply, allow for its audience to see what they want to see rather than to tell them what to see.

At its heart, Eclipses is a film that reflects a process that is deeply rooted in kindness. Daniel shares that Eclipses was made after a hiatus and disillusionment from filmmaking after the passing of his close friend, Yasmin Ahmad. Almost none of the film was scripted because Daniel simply allowed the performers to say what they wanted to say. Daniel did not want to be taking something away from his performers, he wanted them to be giving something instead. Eclipses listens to its performers because its filmmaker listens. In turn, the audience is put into a conversation with both the film and its maker.

A common aesthetic thread follows through Eclipses from Daniel’s earlier films, and that is his wide use of the close-up. Two particular close-ups stood out for me - both of which were monologues, the first delivered by Vel Ng and the second, Daniel’s grandfather. Never before has cinema spoken to me in ways as such, and the experience from having two characters speak straight to you is both liberating and intimate.

For all its merits, Eclipses is not an easy film to watch. It stretches the patience of its audience, and is more likely to speak to audiences who are not there to be entertained, nor to be told how to think or what to see. Like an eclipse that enters with darkness and leaves with light, Eclipses puts a banket over our eyes only to give its audiences and cinema an opportunity to be reborn again.

24th SIFF Silver Screen Awards

The mainstay in the local cinema circuit attracted the most fanfare and attention in this writer’s recent memory, no less because of esteemed attendees such as Josh Radnor, of Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother fame. Or how the utterly bizarre (and some say surreal) dinosaur-featuring Brad Pitt-starring Tree of Life was part of the line-up. Or how Vettel’s on track brilliance was cleverly underscored with a fitting tribute to the legendary Ayrton Senna the very night the Formula One Grand Prix closed with much fortissimo.

This overshadowed the star-studded mess the 24th Singapore International Film Festival was, with several unfortunate delayed print shipments, postponed film screenings, technical faults, ticketing problems, movie switcheroos, poor website management to say the least!

But I digress. For this post I’m supposed to talk about the Silver Screen Awards, and so I shall (not without, obviously, having first taken a friendly jibe). As with the likes of Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Tokyo or Vancouver, there is the concomitant awards ceremony where the films on showcase jostle it out for a trophy or two.

Of worthy mention are the recent graduates of the LaSalle-Puttnam School of Film, who bagged three out of five nominations — Best Film, Best Cinematography and the Special Mention Award.

Here is the list of nominees and winners (in blue) of the SIFF Silver Screen Awards:

SINGAPORE SHORT FILM COMPETITION
 

BEST FILM
Hello, Goodbye — Tay Li-Cheng, 15 mins
Hentak Kaki — James Khoo, 11 mins (trailer above)
Threads — Charmaine Ho, 13 mins
Sisters — Lincoln Chia, 9 mins

BEST DIRECTOR
Jonathan Cockett & Brad Wilson, Big Feet, (7 mins)
Kenneth Lee, Band of Mischief (22 mins) (trailer above)
James Khoo, Hentak Kaki (11 mins)
Lincoln Chia, Sisters (9 mins)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Left Hook
Window of Dreams
Blue Tide (above)
Hello, Goodbye
Band of Mischief

BEST PERFORMANCE
Oon Shu An, Left Hook
Marc Gabriel Loh, First Breath After Coma
Sunny Pang, 3 Days Grace
Benjamin Chow, Band of Mischief

 

SPECIAL MENTION AWARD
Nooraini Shah Sikkander, Window of Dreams (11 mins) (above)

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Edmund Chen, Echoing Love (2011)

Winners from the Asian Feature Film Competition as follow:

BEST FILM
beside(s,) happiness — Heiward Mak (2011), Hong Kong
Secret Reunion — Jang Hun (2010), South Korea
Buddha Mountain — Yu Li (2010), China
The Journals of Musan — Park Jung-bum (2010), South Korea
Animal Town — Jeon Kyu-Hwan (2009), South Korea/USA
Lao Wai — Fabien Gaillard (2010), China

BEST DIRECTOR 
Heiward Mak, beside(s,) happiness (2011), Hong Kong
Yu Li, Buddha Mountain (2010), China
Wang Xiaoshuai, Chongqing Blues (2010), China
Nguyen Phan Quang Binh, Floating Lives (2010), Vietnam
Sam Voutas, Red Light Revolution (2010), China

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Floating Lives (2010), Vietnam
One Day (2010), Taiwan
I Have Loved (2011), Singapore
Kuche Melli (2011), Iran

BEST PERFORMANCE
Fachri Albar, The Forbidden Door (2009), Indonesia
Kang Dong-won, Secret Reunion (2010), South Korea
Lee Joon-hyuk, Animal Town (2009), South Korea/USA
Kim Young-pil, Rolling Home With A Bull (2010), South Korea
Zhao Jun, Red Light Revolution (2010), China

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Sam Voutas, Red Light Revolution (2010)