On the way back from the Earthquake Museum in Wufeng, our tour guide took us all five documentary directors from as far a field as Israel & Holland to eat at his favourite roadside pig organ soup stall. Some of us, inspired by his recommendation, tried congealed pig’s blood for the first time. This is, as you can imagine one of the more intimate and personal film festivals I have been to to date. The programme is small, but very well chosen, as are the guests. An interesting factoid, the two top grossing Taiwan films in Taiwan last year (theatrical) were documentaries! One was about the effects of the earthquake on the townsfolk and another about an old farming couple. Taiwan’s equivalient of the media development authority is catching on to the fact that there is a hunger for taiwanese documentaries (not the travel and living kind) and are throwing their full weight behind this documentary festival

Eng Yee Peng, director of Diminishing Memories invited her mum along to the Taiwan International Documentary Festival in Taichung. Our films were screened in the same programme.
Me: Mrs Eng, why did you decide to come to the festival?
Mrs Eng: I wanted to see what my daughter was up to, she seems to be making mysterious trips abroad, accompanying the documentary.
Me: So what are your impressions?
Mrs Eng: I thought the space would be bigger, more grand, a big hall with a red carpet
Me: The hall in Taichung is actually very big, most halls I have been to are smaller. Are you impressed with the questions?
Mrs Eng: The questions are quite banal actually

Where else but at the Substation Moving Images Programme

Mon 20 Nov, 2-5pm: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) by Peter Weir
Tue 21 Nov, 2-5pm: Sunday Too Far Away (1975) by Ken Hannam
Wed 22 Nov, 2-5pm: The Getting of Wisdom (1978) by Bruce Beresford
Thu 23 Nov, 2-5pm: Newsfront (1978) by Philip Noyce
Fri 24 Nov, 2-5pm: My Brilliant Career (1979) by Gillian Armstrong
Sat 25 Nov, 3-4.30pm: Film as Culture vs Film as Industry A Conversation on National Cinemas with Dr Vincent O¹Donnell and Dr Kenneth Paul Tan from the National University of Singapore (Free Admission).

Tickets from www.gatecrash.com.sg, hotline 6222 5595, or
The Substation Box Office, hotline 6337 7800 (noon to 8.30pm, Mon to Fri)

Pity documentaries aren’t included in this cinematic survey. I am beginning to come to terms with and even relish documentaries’ position as illegitimate children in most countries’ film lists. Be that as it is, it was great to attend the the Taiwan International Documentary Festival held in Taichung. For a few days, I felt like our work was the centre of the world, not an afterthought.

The Singapore GaGa DVD was launched last night at an appropriately named bar, Timbre with friends, crew, cast and supporters present. The highlight was hearing Yew Hong Chow perform. There is something about the way he plays and the pieces he chooses – popular classics (Dvorak, Brahms) that throws me back to a time and place that no longer exists. Like a temple medium, he conjures up another universe, just like that.

ampulets blog about the evening

The Singapore GaGa DVD is available from Objectifs from 30 Oct onwards. (Tel 63393068, 12A Liang Seah Street, Opp Bugis Junction). Look no further for X’mas Presents (and while you are at it why buy only one?). Separately further down the week, it will be available at Kinokuniya, Earshot, and also from Objectifs’ website for overseas orders. Please tell all your friends, Thank you

This exhibition commemorates the 6-men Woodcut Show held at the old National Library at Stamford Road between 14-18 Oct 1966, which was one of the first major art exhibitions in Singapore after Independence and Singapore’s first woodblock print exhibition. Exhibition is on until 31 Oct and details are available here. Amazing woodcuts and like all great shows, asks more questions than it answers.

Photography doing what Films can’t because of the Films Act which prohibits “political films”. Was sent this flyer about a photo-essay on Chiam See Tong’s Sixth campaign trail. A void deck never looked so good.

An accidental life

JON JOST might be considered the epitome of the aging, alienated and aggrieved independent film director. He is sitting in a borrowed New York apartment in hand-me-down clothes, doesn’t have a place to live and has no visible means of support, other than a coming arts residency at the University of Nebraska. (NYT 1 Oct) Continue reading →

Many people asked how we got the rights for the music in Singapore GaGa with the budget we had, this is afterall a work carpeted with music. Most of the music was from the public domain and chosen because of that, but for works like “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”, it cost an arm, leg and more from EMI Publishing. But we had it good compared to what they had to go through for Mad Hot Ballroom. Lesson: don’t use other people’s music unless one can defend its free use. I learnt that making Crossings: John Woo and again with GaGa. And yes, we had to buy rights to perform 4″33′ of silence from John Cage’s publisher. Fortunately they gave a discount.
Mad Hot Ballroom article

When this film about the Adrian Lim killings was first screened in 1992, my friend heralded the start of the Singapore film industry. He proclaimed that this was The beginning of a movement. The movement didn’t happen immediately and it took the easy availability of digital technology in the past few years to start the wave. This is a must see to see how far we have come. I haven’t seen it myself but years ago, I heard that a VHS copy was being sold on ebay which attracted alot of interest, such a rare sighting it was. The intrepid folks at cine.sg have found a print, and here it is in medium rare glory. Mark your calendars 29 NOV, 7.30pm, National Museum Gallery
Link

My friend Sun Koh (director of the delightful Secret Heaven) has made a new short called Bedroom Dancing. It opens the 6th Asian Film Symposium tonight at 7pm Picturehouse. I have attended the syposium for many years now, one of the highlights has always been the S-express (Nice Bus?) programme which focuses on Asian, especially Southeast Asian short films. The films are curated by film programmers from their respective countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong). The Malaysian programme of shorts I saw in 2004 was a great kick in the butt. Who can forget Wanita Cosmos, a cartoon parody of Malaysia’s first woman astronaut. This year, the Malaysian programme is curated by Amir Mohammed. Above all, get a glimpse of work made under very similar conditions as Singapore (a limping industry, authoritarian regimes, weak distribution infrastructure for independent work) and be inspired and shamed by the pungent films showing what can be done with very little money and a large dose of verve.

S-express Screenings @ The Guinness Theatre: all 8.00 PM

11 Sep Mon – Singapore (90mins with Talk and Q&A)
12 Sep Tue – Malaysia (90mins with Talk and Q&A)
13 Sep Wed – Thailand (90mins with Talk and Q&A)
14 Sep Thu – Indonesia (90mins with Talk and Q&A)

What with the brouhaha of the inaugural Singapore Biennale, the IMF/World Bank AGM next week (avoid driving, walking is faster), is there time for anything else? A documentary filmmaking workshop conducted by me organised by Objectifs, If nothing else, fish are swimmin, the livin is easy, so come have a chat
Sep 6, Wed, 730pm to 1000pm, 12 A Liang Seah St, $25, tel 63393068

“In this seminar, Pin Pin will share various approaches that you can take with your subject and encourage the experimentation of grammar in documentaries. She will talk about reshaping of stories based on continual research and the collection of footage during your process of documentary filmmaking. This is not a production workshop, but students should come prepared with questions and are encouraged to discuss any ongoing project ideas”

I am going to Sweden to present Singapore GaGa, Moving House and 80kmh (double projection) at the Goteborg Dance and Theatre Festival, the international performaning arts festival in Sweden. The works are screening on 25 August. I have never been to Sweden and I look forward especially to visiting the Volvo Museum

18 August 2006, Fri, 8pm, 72-13
Screening of Dragons Beget Dragons
Conversation with film maker Ariani Darmawan
Free admission. Call (65) 67377213 to reserve a seat.

It all began at the end of 2001 when Ariani Darmawan, stumbled upon a CD of Music from The Outskirts of Jakarta. It was something she had never heard before, strange and altogether fascinating.

Her curiosity grew deeper as she discovered the history to the music. To this day, Gambang Kromong is known as the only adaptive-culture of the Chinese-Indonesians, or “Tionghoa Peranakan”, as they are popularly referred to, literally meaning Indonesian-bred Chinese. Aside from Darmawan’s own personal interest as a Tionghoa Peranakan herself, she felt obliged to share whatever information she had with the public about the existence of this hybrid-culture, complete with its rich historical background. She poses: How much does one know about one’s culture, and moreover, one’s self?

Continue reading →

A performance of 50 Singapore and Malaysian texts some of which I never thought were performable like the Malay Annals or the Diary of Munshih Abdullah. The Singapore texts were chosen by Eleonor Wong and Alvin Pang while the Malaysian texts were chosen by Leow Puay Tin
16-20 Aug, Drama Centre, NLB, Sistic 6348 5555 ($33-$43)

Riding the Nice Bus
Singapore Theatre Festival