An 'all-stars' shot on the set of The Lucky Seven Project, taken in 2007, that features some of the most active figures and voices in independent filmmaking today
Singapore went into a filmmaking coma from the late 70s into the
early 90s. And to think Singapore used to be busily making 200-300 films in 50s
and was ahead of Hong Kong in the game then. Looking at the current flurry of
filmmaking efforts, begs the question of when we woke up from the coma. ‘Mee
Pok Man’ was almost a buzzword in the late 90s when it signaled the existence
of filmmaking activity then. ‘Money No Enough’ seemed like the next sign of a
resurgence. Then came ’12 Storeys’. But all in all, it seemed like the efforts
of a few men (Jack Neo, Eric Khoo or Glen Goei) who saw the possibility of
filmmaking in Singapore earlier than many others. There was still a nagging
thought: how about ‘normal’ people like us? Can we make films too?
The year 2003 marked the beginning of a few platforms that seemed
to help surface new names in independent filmmaking. The Substation started its
monthly programme called First Takes, where anyone could air their first films
to the public. The rule was ‘don’t judge, just air’. First Takes stood the
middle-ground between film practitioners and hobbyists. It offered film
practitioners a chance for a quick public feedback while it also gave film
hobbyists who didn’t feel confident enough to submit their films to film
festivals a chance to screen their finished product without hiring a venue. 
In the same year, the ‘Fly By Night’ video challenge was started
by film curator Yuni Hadi and filmmaker Tan Pin Pin. This brought many people,
particularly of a young age, together to make a video based on a theme over a weekend. Over the years, it soon
became a ‘social-leveller’ in filmmaking, telling the man-on-the-street that you
can create your own cool videos without a big crew and a lot of time. Not to
mention, the Objectifs Centre of Photography and Film was also started in 2003,
providing an opportunity for wannabe-filmmakers to get basic level knowledge of
filmmaking, and in particular, digital filmmaking.
Naturally, ‘Fly By Night’
and Objectifs signaled the start of the digital-filmmaking revolution which
lowered the barriers to filmmaking and allowed anyone with a story to tell to
pick up the camera and just shoot. Till today, filmmaker Kan Lume sets the
record for making a feature length film on DV camera with just under $1000.
That film was ‘The Art of Flirting’.
Finally, also in 2003, Singapore Short Cuts, a more selectively
curated screening of Singapore short films, was launched. This was like a ‘Best
of Singapore Shorts’ showcase which brought prominence to several names in
independent filmmaking over the years like Victric Thng, Eva Tang, Boo Junfeng
and Wee Li Lin.
So in fact, one can argue that the current movement that we see
in the film community or even film fraternity is roughly 10 years old. David
Lee, Vice-President of the Singapore Film Society, recalls that when he
returned from university in Australia in late 2002, ‘filmmakers like Sun Koh,
Han Yew Kwang were just starting out, and so were a slew of other filmmakers
like Tzang Merwyn Tong who continue to be active today.’ Sun Koh won the Silver
Hugo Award with her first short film ‘My Secret Heaven’, Han Yew Kwang won
‘Best Short Film’ at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2002. At the
same time, Royston Tan’s seminal short film ‘15’ (picture below) also surfaced in the scene,
having won several awards overseas. David adds, ’You can feel there's a
burgeoning film community with a new generation of filmmakers, a 2nd wave of
filmmakers whom I will refer to as the post-2000 wave.’
Indeed, there was a newly-found courage imminent in the scene
and the name Royston Tan (in the rabbit suit above) somehow had embodied this courage. His short films won
him numerous awards from various film festivals. He was named TIME magazine’s
Top 20 Asian heroes in 2004. While being hailed as the new poster boy of
Singapore cinema then, he was also tagged as being the L’enfant terrible of the scene, for being unflinchingly straight-talking
in his style, unabashedly ‘obscene’ and honest in his depiction of street kids
and in general, eschewing traditional cinematic storytelling rules with so much
gusto. This was important for the filmmaking movement then as it bestowed it
with a spirit of experimentation and adventure that went hand in hand with the
new opportunities presented by ‘Fly By Night’, ‘Singapore Short Cuts’, ‘First
Takes’ and the digital revolution in general.
The film ‘Ilo Ilo’ was certainly the story of the year in 2013 and
needless to say, Anthony Chen was 2013’s poster boy. Anthony really emerged in
the scene in the middle of this 10-year resurgence. In 2007, his short film ‘Ah
Ma’ was the first Singapore short film to be competing in the Cannes Film
Festival Short Film section and he won a Special Mention Award. He belongs to a
generation of filmmakers who dug a little deeper into society, going beyond the
sensation and mood that earlier filmmakers may have sought to explore. Boo
Junfeng (pictured below), who earned his following from winning awards at the Singapore
International Film Festival, was like a generational companion to Anthony. His
films often peered into sensitive social, and sometimes, political issues.
Despite his young age, his films often displayed a maturity beyond his years.
David (Singapore Film Society)calls them part of the 3G (third generation) of
Singapore filmmakers, with Jack Neo and Eric Khoo being part of the first;
Royston Tan, Sun Koh, Wee Li Lin and Tan Pin Pin being part of the second.
This ‘3G’ class is a thoughtful, almost pensive class. They
explore issues hard and deep, have very individualistic takes on things and
delightfully, they vary greatly in their artistic approaches. Anthony and
Junfeng aside, there is Liao Jiekai whose well-travelled first feature film
‘Red Dragonflies’ took a meditative view on change and growing-up in Singapore.
There was also Loo Zihan who pushed the boundaries on sexuality in film with
films like Solos and Pleasure Factory and also spoke for artistic integrity in
his valedictorian speech, which was a protest against the school authorities
asking him to change his final year film poster.
While the bold strides these films made in the cinematic craft
did not always find a sizeable audience in Singapore, there was always the film
festival circuit audience willing to soak up these films and give due
recognition to their works. Yuni Hadi, film curator, founder of Objectifs and Producer
of ‘Ilo Ilo’ said, ’The interest film programmers have taken in Southeast Asian
films in the last decade have created an international audience for us and
opened up the world of critics and festival awards which have helped boost the
interest in stories from our region. I remember sending out Singapore short
films on VHS to festivals and cultural institutions overseas more than 10 years
ago and very few people wanted to collaborate or even knew where Singapore was.’
Alongside this ‘3G’ emergence, from 2007, Singapore seemed to be
seeing a start of the ‘professionalisation’ of filmmaking with the ‘mushrooming’
of educational institutions offering formal courses in film. NTU emerged with a
filmmaking programme, comprehensive enough to compete with Ngee Ann Polytechnic
even though it was not focused on using actual film, but more digital. Then
came the NYU Tisch School of the Arts as well as the La Salle College Putnam
School of Film (pictured below) which both offered graduate programs in film. At the secondary
school level, filmmaking groups emerged as CCAs replacing the relatively unsexy
cousin, the AV (audio-visual) club. Evidently, there has been a greater demand
for a proper film education. If a teenager was to tell his or her parents that
he was going to film school, chances are, they may not nag about the
impracticalities of a film career and actually be rather accepting.
The spreading of film education seemed to the second ‘leveller’
after the digital filmmaking revolution. In the last few years, film
competitions like cine65, the 48 Hour Film Project, the New Paper First Film
Fest and a dozen other mini film contests from a bevy of government statutory
boards and corporations have lured entries from a widened pool of people, and
in particular students (not just film students). In 2011, 13-year old Amos Yee took
the top prize at the New Paper’s First Film Fest, suggesting how kids these
days in Singapore may be starting to harbour Steven Speiberg or Martin Scorsese
dreams. Aishah Abu Bakar, Programme Manager of the Substation’s Moving Images
programme, remarks that ‘everyone, including secondary and primary
school students can make films now’. Having been at the receiving point of film
submissions for First Takes and the Singapore Short Film Awards for the past
4-5 years, she testifies to seeing how filmmaking is no longer the exclusive
turf of a handful of individuals, ‘I think the scene is very vibrant. I'm
particularly encouraged seeing younger filmmakers' works, from SOTA, some ITEs,
and some polytechnic final year projects. They can surprise you with their
depth, and the ideas or concepts behind these films, and I think it's so great
that they feel empowered to try their hand at filmmaking as a form of
expression.’
10 years on in
2013, it seems we have arrived at the point where the big boys no longer have
the best ideas and a generation whose sensitivities and sensibilities are honed
on Facebook and Twitter are giving the occasional wise cracks in our film
lingo. They just don’t have the experience, equipment and possibly the
entourage (of the usual collaborators like DOP, sound etc). David (Singapore
Film Society) quips, ’I can already see signs of a 4G - Singaporeans below 25 years
old, becoming active in film screenings and talking about films, and most
importantly starting to make films. What's interesting to note is that the
younger generations are all if not primarily graduates from film schools, the
film schools brats if you would, and coming from quite different backgrounds
from the 1st generation early pioneers.’
Anthony (pictured above), who won
the Camera d’Or at Cannes and the Best Feature Film award at Golden Horse for
‘Ilo Ilo’ could be considered a product of a comprehensive film education,
having gone from Ngee Ann Polytechnic to the National Film and Television School (in UK). And the
disciplined approach to filmmaking was rather evident in ‘Ilo Ilo’. Therefore,
with a 4th generation of new filmmakers, properly schooled,
well-grounded in theory, are we ready to expect a Singapore New Wave of cinema?
According to Yuni (producer of ‘Ilo Ilo’), ‘We’re in a good time because we are surrounded
by a generation of practitioners who believe that we have a chance to grow
beyond what we already have.’
One must not forget that Anthony’s success is also the success
of relentless conviction to a dream, where textbooks and theory are only half
the formula, where the journey to making the film is most of the time lonely.
The fact that filmmaking has been ‘democratised’ to the wider population,
resulting in more people pursuing the dream, may not necessarily increase our
chances of winning more awards in the future. But it cannot be denied that
there is a certain camaraderie that has been developed among the currently
active independent filmmakers in which Anthony’s win was almost seen as
everyone’s win, and that surely has a mutually-galvanising effect on each other
to bring the bar higher. Yuni adds, ‘It is more important now more than ever
that we stand together as community to move forward’.
The article is written by Jeremy Sing, editor of SINdie and he
dedicates this article to Bertrand Lee, who is making a comeback in filmmaking
this year with a Mandarin film called ‘The Abandoned’. Bertrand Lee was a
pioneering filmmaker who belonged to the post-2000 class of filmmakers. His
career was interrupted when a truck mowed him down in Mumbai in 2005 and he
lost his left leg.