Vel Ng (who plays the teacher in`Kichiro') witnesses an outrage in class and loses her compsure to utter THE PHRASE OF THE NIGHT. Guffaws throughout. Only people who had the chance to watch Kelvin's `Kichiro' would know what I am talking about.It is hard to put a finger to the offerings at the 4th Singapore Short Film Festival. While, it is not exhaustive in its search for the world's best short films (who can be except for a few high budget short film festivals in the world), its slant is moderately apparent - think `Kichiro'.
Kuo Pao Kun, the founder of the Substation left behind a fondly remembered statement : `A worthy failure is better than a mediocre success'. Faithful to this motto, this Substation festival gives life to a crop of edgy, oddball and `devil-may-care`' films that show you teachers can behave like Vel Ng(above). Many films push the boundaries and ask why not? instead of pandering to the audience's `why this why thats'. Unfortunately, I only managed to attend the first 2 days. So here are some scoops and views of what I saw (local films only).
`Londres - London', `Kichiro', `My Keys', `Flicker', `Stick boy' and `Popped Collar'
I love journalist-speak. Especially those who write regular columns and muse about the physics and chemistry in simple things that we experience in daily life. Eva Tang was a Lian He Zao Bao journalist before she decided to pursue further studies in filmmaking in London. She will be remembered for her opening statement about why she likes to make short films.
Like a direct translation from a piece of wisdom originally penned in Mandarin, it reads:
`I make short films becasue life is short (audience momentarily stunned by that comment). Our joys are short and so are our sorrows. Making short films, your rejections are also shortened when you get them.'