The Media Development Authority of Singapore has banned To Singapore, with Love for “undermining national security”. Here is my statement in response, which first appeared on the film’s Facebook page.

STATEMENT BY TAN PIN PIN
Director and Producer of “To Singapore, with Love”

To Singapore with Love (2013) was slated to screen with my other films Invisible City (2007) and Singapore GaGa (2005) at the end of September 2014, in a triple-bill presented by National University of Singapore (NUS) Museum, an institution that I have had a long working relationship with in relation to my previous films.

Now the screenings will not take place.

I am very disappointed by the MDA decision to ban it — for myself, and also what it means for Singapore. Like many of my other films, To Singapore, with Love took shape organically. I was making a video about Singapore?s coastline from afar. In the process of researching the idea of being outside, I stumbled upon Escape from the Lion’s Paw (2012), a book of first-person accounts by Singapore political exiles, people who remain outside the country, but not by choice. I decided to interview one of them in Malaysia. I was so moved by her account that I decided to change focus and To Singapore, with Love was born. Like my other films mentioned above, this film is a portrait of Singapore; unlike the others, this film is shot entirely outside the country, in the belief that we can learn something about ourselves by adopting, both literally and figuratively, an external view.

For this film, I traveled to England, Malaysia and Thailand to interview the exiles to find out how they have lived their lives away from Singapore. Some have not been back for more than 50 years. They talk about why they left, but they mostly talk about their lives today and their relationship with Singapore. They show us the new lives they have created for themselves. One shows us around his noodle-making factory, we visit the law firm of another and play with the children of yet another exile. We also attend the funeral of one of them. Finally, we observe a family reunion that takes place in Johor Baru, the twinkling lights of Singapore a short distance away. The focus is on their everyday lives. These exiles all have different ideological positions and are of different ages; some are communists, others are activists from the Christian Left, yet others are socialist politicians or former student activists. But their feelings for Singapore is intense and heartfelt, albeit sometimes ambivalent, even after so long away. Those feelings (more than the circumstances of their exile, or even the historical “truth” that led to such exile) are what my film predominantly focuses on, because I feel that many viewers might relate to those feelings.

I made this film because I myself wanted to better understand Singapore. I wanted to understand how we became who we are by addressing what was banished and unspoken for. Perhaps what remains could be the essence of us today. I was also hoping that the film would open up a national conversation to allow us to understand ourselves as a nation better too.

I am therefore very disappointed that my film is banned. By doing this, MDA is taking away an opportunity for us Singaporeans see it and to have a conversation about it and our past that this film could have started or contributed to. It is vital for us to have that conversation on our own terms, especially on the eve of our 50th birthday. We need to be trusted to be able to find the answers to questions about ourselves, for ourselves.

It is my deepest regret that we cannot have such a conversation here today. That conversation did start when some Singaporeans saw it at film festivals overseas. Some of the reactions include; “Tender and searching”, “Extremely moving and thought-provoking”, and “A must see”. Now, the irony is that a film about Singapore exiles is now exiled from Singapore as well – this is not something I ever wanted or hoped for.

I hope to be able to show it in Singapore one day, and may re-submit for a rating in the future.

Tan Pin Pin
10 September 2014

More information
Film’s official site
Film’s Facebook page
Director’s filmography
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《星国恋》导演兼制片人陈彬彬声明书

影片《星国恋》（To Singapore with Love ）（2013）原定于2014年9月，连同我的另外两部纪录片《备忘录》（Invisible City）(2007)和《新加坡风》（Singapore GaGa）(2005)，在新加坡国立大学博物馆——一个与我业已建立起长久合作关系的机构——放映。

如今这个同场放映活动将被取消。

对于媒体发展局禁止这部影片做公开放映的决定，我感到非常失望。这不仅仅因为我无法遂愿，也因为禁令对新加坡别具意涵。就像我的其他影片一样，《星国恋》是随着艺术创作的构思发展自然成形的。我原本的录像计划是从远方拍摄新加坡的海岸线。我对身处域外的观念十分感兴趣，而在我进行相关研究的过程中，我偶然找到《狮爪逃生》（2012），一本通过新加坡海外流亡人士采用第一人称叙述亲身经历的书。他们在家国以外生活，却并非出于个人选择。我决定去马来西亚访问他们当中的一位。她的叙述深深打动了我，以致我决定转移影片的焦点。《星国恋》也就这样诞生了。同我其他的作品一样，这部影片描绘的是新加坡；但有所不同的是，它完全是在国境之外拍摄的。我相信我们能够经由采取外部的视角———无论是指身体上的移置或思考上的越界—－对我们自己产生新的理解。

为了拍摄这部影片，我去了英国、泰国和马来西亚采访这些流亡人士，并向他们了解离开新加坡后的的生活情况。他们当中有的已经超过50年未曾回家。尽管他们向我倾诉他们离开新加坡的原因，可是绝大部分时间他们谈的是目前的生活情况和他们与新加坡的关系。他们给我们介绍了为自己创造的新生活。我们于是去了制作面条的工厂，探访了一个律师行，并和另一名流亡人士的孩子一起玩乐。我们也出席了他们当中一人的追悼会。最后，我们在柔佛新山旁观了一名流亡人士与家人团聚的场面，而当时岛国黄昏的灯火就在不远处闪烁。影片的焦点是他们的日常生活。这些流亡人士的意识形态立场不尽相同，也分属不同的年龄层。他们当中有些曾是共产党员，有些是左倾的教会活跃分子，还有一些是社会主义政治人物或当时学生运动的活跃分子。然而，他们对新加坡的情感浓烈而且真挚，尽管偶尔带有爱恨交织的意味，即便离开已经是许久的事。那些情感毋宁才是我影片着重捕捉的元素（而非他们出逃的形势，或甚至导致他们流亡的历史“真相”），因为我觉得许多观众能够领会这些情感。

我之所以拍摄这部影片，是因为我自己希望能够更加了解新加坡。我想通过探讨被放逐的以及无法被代言的人与事，来了解我们何以走到今天。也许最终留存的人与事方才形塑了我们今日的本质。我也原本希望影片能够促成一场全民对话，好让我们更好地了解作为国家共同体的自己。

因此我对影片被媒体发展局禁止放映深感失望。媒体发展局的这个决定剥夺了新加坡人观看这部影片的机会，也让岛国人民无法借由这部影片的内容，以多方对话的形式交流和探讨我们的过往。这场由国民自身决定讨论议项的全国对话至关重要，尤其在新加坡建国50周年来临之际。我们必须争取得到官方的信任，我们能够就有关自己的问题为自己找到答案。

如今这场对话无法开展是我最深刻的遗憾。然而，其实当一些新加坡人在国外的影展上观赏了影片之后，对话已经开始。他们的反应包括“深情且深刻”、“非常动人并引人深思”、“非看不可”。而眼下最反讽的现实是，一部有关新加坡流亡分子的影片本身也遭逢自岛国流亡的命运。这绝对不是我想要或希望出现的境况。

我期待影片终有一天能够在新加坡放映，并考虑在未来重新把片子提交给当局进行分级审查 。

陈彬彬
2014年9月10日

Growing up in the 70’s, S. Korea never featured in my minds eye. It was either Japan, everything imported from Japan was of the highest quality, from stationary to all our electronics, Great Britain, I was weaned on the BBC World Service, or the USA, the setting of all my favourite television shows. Korea, if it featured at all, was represented by Ssangyong, the mega construction company who built our train lines in the 80’s or it was a country riddled with North Korean spies who were always defecting. I never saw them as cultural beacons who would make such an impact on my filmmaking life. As we speak, To Singapore, with Love has completed a three city tour screening at Busan, Seoul and Incheon. Busan International Film Festival supported both To Singapore, with Love (2013) and Invisible City (2007) through the Asian Cinema Fund, they were the first people who gave this films the huge vote of confidence. DMZ Documentary Film Festival also commissioned “The Impossibility of Knowing” (2010). Most recently, I was asked to be on the Jury of the Wide Angle Section at the Busan International Film Festival. An honour, I quickly accepted, it my chance to pay back, even a little bit. Come the first two weeks of October, I will be in Busan watching documentaries, I can’t think of anything better.

Documentary directors, at least in Singapore, are often asked when we will make a dramatic film – as if all the documentary training we have is expected to lead to this moment. Well the moment has arrived! Together with 6 other directors, all familiar names, we are making a short film each around the theme of Singapore for this omnibus project. It’ll be Singapore filmmakers contribution to Singapore’s 50th anniversary celebrations. It’ll be my first time having to deal with actors 15 in years since my student film Rogers Park. Looking forward to it, sort of. What is my short about? More details will be revealed at the media conference in October. Akan Datang

Very happy to announce that To Singapore, with Love won the Best Director Award in the Muhr AsiaAfrica Documentary section, Dubai International Film Festival on 13 Dec 2013. The award was given by Sheik Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid. I’d like to thank the crew, supporters and also the people I interivewed who shared their stories with me. ST report here

To Singapore, with Love was the Cine21 Busan Daily’s Critics Choice. Here’s their review and an interview with me.

The Cine21 Review

This film is about Singapore, but not a single scene is from Singapore.

In the movie, several Singaporeans talk about their fatherland. Although they were exiled by Singaporean government decades ago and are still not permitted to enter the country, they have never have forgotten their country, not even a single moment. The film reflects the history of Singapore through the Singaporean exiles, who are making their way through life in foreign land such as London, Thailand, Malaysia, and they deliver a message for the future generations. To the exiles, Singapore is an object of love and hatred, where memories of the past, the scar of exile, and the ardent love that they have been carrying are all mixed-up. The scar has affected their children, some of whom also cannot get the Singaporean citizenship. However, some exiles get over the wound and rise to their feet to document their experiences in books and music, or they feel empowered to help other small nations with lesser power.

If you feel compassion or are touched while watching this documentary, To Singapore, with Love, maybe it is because of the format of the film. The production’s ability to weave sentiment from small details, food, poetry, songs, and photos, that pull out emotional connection is impressive. A new production of Director Tan Pin Pin, who has been attempting to re-compose the identity of Singapore, which was also her homeland, through her previous films Invisible City and Singapore GaGa.

To Singapore, with Love is made in 2013 with the support of Asian Network of Documentary Fund, and will be featured as a world premiere at Busan International Film Festival. So, we get to watch this film by Director Tan Pin Pin, ahead of Singaporean audiences.”

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The Cine21 interview

To new generations of Singaporeans, the documentary films of Director Tan Pin Pin, would be the reference of the past that is more valuable than history books. Her fatherland Singapore is an object that has fascinated and inspired her for a long time.

Through her previous works such as Singapore GaGa (2005) and Invisible City (2007), Singapore’s social classes, languages and spaces earned a new meaning. Her new production presented in Busan this year, is also a documentary about Singapore. Is she unable to get out of the charming space of Singapore? “Ha ha, I receive proposals about filming a drama. I say, ‘Yes I will do it’, but what can I do? Even though the opportunity to direct a dramatic movie finds me, whenever I hear anything related to Singapore, it becomes my first priority. I do not choose the subject, but the subject chooses me. It is interesting.”

To Singapore, with Love is a story of exiles, who have been banished from Singapore, and who live in foreign land. Featuring the people who cannot lay their feet on their homeland, the movie talks about Singapore from the exiles perspective. To Director Tan Pin Pin, who wanted to make “more a poetic movie, less a polemical one”, the film is a love letter to Singapore, as the title of the movie suggests. That is why she allocated much time on showing the poems and the songs written by the exiles who express their longing toward their hometown as well as the food they ate, and the photos from the past. How will Singaporeans react to the portrait of Singapore that is reflected in the eyes of the people who are outsiders but not complete strangers? She says what she wonders most is the response of the young Singaporean audience whom she hopes, will get to see this film sometime in the future.

One and the half years in the making, my new film, To Singapore, with Love will world premiere at Busan International Film Festival on 6 October in the Documentary Competition. I look forward to going to Busan to attend the screenings and the Q&As. Looking to release the film in Singapore in early 2014.

Short Synopsis
To Singapore, with Love is a film about Singapore political exiles some who haven’t been back for more than 50 years. The exiles ruminate about their lives away from home. Its a portrait of Singapore, from the outside.

Director Tan Pin Pin attends a funeral in the hills of southern Thailand, a family reunion in Malaysia, and goes for a drive through the English countryside, searching the world for the displaced souls of Singapore: different generations of Singaporean political exiles who have not been able to come home. Some have not returned for 50 years. She finds out how they have lived their lives away and how they still view the Singapore of their dreams. As they recount their lives to us, we see a City that could have been. A love letter to Singapore, shot entirely outside the country.

This film is made with the support of the Asian Cinema Fund, Busan International Film Festival, who also supported Invisible City (2007).

Get the latest film updates from the film’s facebook page

Directed, Produced and Photographed by Tan Pin Pin
2013, 70min, DCP, English, Mandarin, Malay, Hainanese
with English and Chinese subtitles

A listing so that I can remember the year.

I was in Paris for the Snow City international premiere and became well-acquainted with the Georges Pompidou Centre . It opened in 1977, 35 years ago, and it is still so contemporary. To have the guts of a building all hanging out, smack in the middle of belle epoque Beaubourg…This building has to be experienced first hand. And of course Paris, the most beautiful city in the world.

I went with the Singapore Heritage Society to visit Colonial Perak, Malaysia. While admiring the town planning of Taiping city centre on a blazing hot day, we stumbled upon the best Chendol in the world.

It was also wonderful to be acquainted with Ng Sek San’s architecture in Ipoh in Sekeping Kong Heng, a house within a house. I loved the tension between the rough unfinished quality and the deliberate designed feel of the space. It is as if every part of the building process was re-examined, then re-invented, even the electrical wiring methods. I would hate to be his contractor.

Saw Ian Woo’s drawings for the first time at the Singapore Art Museum’s Panorama – Recent Art from Contemporary Asia show. He presented a series of paintings which combined thick brush strokes with fine, yet deliberate pencil markings. The contrast works very well.

Green Zheng’s Chinese School Lessons Show at Chan Hampe Gallery. He essentialised the May 13 Generation into a few slogans and words (Malaya, bersatu, Where do you live, what is your name) and painted them over the Chung Cheng High School uniform. If you, like me have been immersed in that era for work, to see his interpretation of their experience as an art work found in faux-colonial Raffles Hotel gallery was sweet irony. You can view the works in the catalog here.

Charles Lim’s Evil Disappears Show at FuturePerfect. David Teh curated a strand of Charles’ work focusing on the fluidity of borders. I have been following Charles work and have enjoyed his explorations. Do get your hands on the catalog containing David’s essay.

Attended the 25th anniversary of Operation Spectrum, a day in 1987 where 22 activists were detained for being Marxist Conspirators. Yes, Marxist Conspirators. The organisers were very surprised that several hundred people turned up to commemorate the event. There was an exhibition on the ISA that showed a mock up of a detention cell.

Freedom Film Festival (Singapore edition). I facilitated the Q&A for two films from this Malaysian film festival with the young Malaysian directors in attendance. They were so articulate and passionate that our normally sedate Singapore audience found themselves actually asking many questions. We over-ran and everyone had to be chased out of The Substation auditorium.

Hayward Gallery – the Art of Change: New Directions from China. I had only half a day to myself while in London and torn between the Tate Modern’s newly opened Tanks and this, I went for this. So much of Chinese art is cartoonised or Ai Wei Wei-ised with the aura or dissidence, that nothing else seems to get through. This exhibition seeks to address the dark hole. What I found impressive was the documentation of the exhibtion. The website, only accessible in situ, cross referenced the artists’ work with the events (political as well as cultural) of the day as well as their relationship with each other. Particularly memorable was Xu Zhen’s suspended lady and Sun Yuan & Peng Yu’s dogs chained to running machines.

I wasn’t sure if my upcoming film, an experimental documentary called Hinterland was pitchable, but we threw our lot into it and gave it our best try. Glad the selection committee chose it as one of 8 projects. Thank you everyone who worked to shoot the trailer, design the collateral and read the drafts. You can read about the other awardees here. Sindie interviews me about Hinterland here.

The pitch poster is designed by KKO. As you can see, I have a soft spot for mosquito foggers and NPCC cadets.

Postcard from Atlanta Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand, where In the Mood for Love was filmed. I stayed there and it was horribly haunted. Worth the experience nonetheless

Two new films of mine are launched online for the first time. The first is an animation, its my first animation, though I would also call it a dance performance. The other, about a set of graffiti found at the infamous Yangtze Cinema in Singapore. Click on the links below to view.
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REMEMBER
A dance featuring a cast of words inspired by a thesaurus, 6 min
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YANGTZE SCRIBBLER
A set of grafitti is found at Yangtze Cinema, 6 min
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Watch it big by clicking on the expand button, play it loud.
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These films are commissioned by the Singapore Memory Project. an ambitious project which aims to collect, tag and showcase Singapore memories.
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Review
Making memories, S’pore-style
Singapore Memory Project aims to collect, record and preserve five million personal memories of Singapore from Singaporeans.
Tay Yek Keak, mypaper
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Wed, Apr 25, 2012
In the light of the debate over the preservation of the Bukit Brown cemetery, here are three timely short films – made by two top female Singaporean directors – which remind us of the importance of not forgetting about a thing called Memory.
The films are part of the Singapore Memory Project run by the National Library Board, which aims to collect, record and preserve five million personal memories of Singapore from Singaporeans by 2015 for future generations.
In the march of time, things get erased, misplaced, waylaid or simply unceremoniously forgotten. That is why memories are important, as the late American writer Saul Bellow reasoned, to “keep the wolf of insignificance from the door”.
Here’s what to expect.
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Yangtze Scribbler
Director: Tan Pin Pin
www.singaporememory.sg/showcases/20/contents
This fascinating video appeals to your inner snoop, and will give you a taste of The Da Vinci Code in Singapore.
Okay, checking out the graffiti in a dingy stairwell of Chinatown’s Pearl Centre where Yangtze Cinema – that quaintly cool bastion of sleaze house-art house – used to sit isn’t exactly the stuff of books or movies.
But repeatedly scrawled on the walls there is a mysterious combination of numbers and stick figures.
Could they be gang messages or alien symbols? Or, maybe they were simply the work of some pervert recording how many dirty movies he’d seen.
The narrator of this docu-sleuthing is Debbie Ding, somebody who has been archiving signs and symbols in Singapore.
I have to confess that I’m a big fan of director Tan Pin Pin (Singapore GaGa, Invisible City). She is a premier observer of details and the invisible patterns that link them.
In Yangtze Scribbler, she stirs your curiosity enough to make you think. That’s the first step in the path to creating a memory. You’ll never forget when something intrigues you. And this short surely does.
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remember
Director: Tan Pin Pin
www.singaporememory.sg/showcases/21/contents
The first time I saw this clever experimental clip which features words leading into more words on a starkly white background, I thought it was a student work done by a dictionary fan.
But Tan’s six-minute video, dubbed a “visual thesaurus”, imprints essential cautionary directions onto your mind the way you’d never forget a letter from a divorce lawyer.
Starting from the key opposing words of “remember” and “forget”, the trail leads off to a web of ancillary words that adds more and more meaning and purpose – and finally, danger! – to the one before.
Remember, regain, record, retrieve, observe, witness, discovery, cure, heal, unify, improve; and, conversely, forget, block, bury, erase, leave – each word is connected by moving lines which grow and evolve like a living organism.
If you’re some kind of Scrabble freak, you’re in for a hypnotic word fest. Just remember to remember the word “remember”.
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Singapore Country
Director: Wee Li Lin
www.singaporememory.sg/showcases/22/contents
Matthew Tan is Singapore’s very own home-grown cowboy who went to Nashville, Tennessee (home of country music), in 1975 with the intention of creating a FSS (famous Singapore song).
In this short, he tells interviewer Adrian Pang that in a motel there, he and a motel employee, Bristow Hopper, came up with Singapore Cowboy, Tan’s lonesome ode to local sons in distant lands.
Director Wee Li Lin’s (Gone Shopping, Forever) approach is predictable, using yesteryear photos of cheesy hair and clothes to pile on the nostalgia.
The bit before a sit-down interview with Adrian Pang, though, is playfully cheeky as a throng of good ol’ gals line- dance, with Tan singing onstage.
It is an articulate Tan who nails down his strange affinity for all things country.
“I lived in Upper Serangoon which was a very ulu place with attap houses,” he reveals. “You cannot be any more country than that.”