During JIFFEST, one of my duties was to judge a documentary pitch competition. The winner gets 5000 Euro to finish her project given out by the Jan Vrijman Fund. Seven very earnest directors presented their project to a committee of three. Each director had 20 minutes. In the end we chose 2 projects that we felt had the best chance of being finished: the director had passion, the research was deep, plus he had access to his subject matter. Two teams received 2500 Euros each. Its not much, but some. The pre pitch workshop was conducted by Leonard Helmrich. I hope those documentaries will be made

One of the teams showing us a short clip of their intended subject

Singapore GaGa screened with Invisible City at Blitzmegaplex in Jakarta. There was a queue which made my father who was there very pleased

Shortly before that, Invisible City screened at the Tangent’s Exhibition. It was advertised in Zaobao so quite a few people turned up. There was a long and interesting Q&A. Here, a picture of two who stayed on to chat. There are photographed with the exhibit, because they are the exhibit.

Before that, Invisible City screened at WOHA Architects (Singapore), in their new office gallery space. It was special showing the film to architects. They innately understood the (futile) attempts at immortality, after all what is a building but an attempt at permanence. The Q&A was vigorous, but this time it was lubricated by lots of wine. It was nice to see WOHA’s principles Richard and Mun Summ (top right in pic below) again, we were neighbours before I became an en-bloc victim. More pictures here

So the tour goes on, I think this is the fun part of filmmaking, the showing bit, and showing it to its different constituents, silenced ex-revolutionaries, arty architects.

So much of film culture in my generation (pre internet, pre Youtube) was cultivated by screenings and film gatherings at the Goethe Institute and Alliance Francaise, borrowing videos from the British Council. They were cultural oasis for many of us. And it was that way in Philippines too it seems. Someone wrote a book on the Goethe Institute “effect” on Philippine film culture, the book “Kino Sine Philippine-German Cinema Relations can be downloaded free from this site”. An easy and interesting read.

A little about where this blog is sited, quoted from our Facebook Neighbourhood Group Blurb, (yes we do have a Serangoon Rd “gang”), written by Tessa Wong

“Foreign workers galore dashing across traffic willy-nilly, the narrow aisles of Mustafa, Sheng Siong, Tekka, the litter on the streets after Saturday and Sunday nights, the red light districts at Rowell, Desker and Somme Roads, the backpacker pubs at Dunlop Street, the Teochew Opera Drama Association, the vegetable stands at Campbell Road, the art strip at Kerbau Road, the snarly-toothed fake tigers at the Thai Buddhist temple at Racecourse Road, the myriad of Indian deities perched on the Indian temples’ facades, the good South Asian food, the bad South Asian food, the Hing Hwa community, Kitchener Road’s warring Putien restaurants, the NEL, p-10, the Perumal “boho enclave” (hur hur), the Indian beauty salons on Buffalo Street, the strange karaoke bar/whorehouse around Sing Avenue with a wall mural of stick-figure instructions on how to play cricket, the ABC store, the five-foot-way tailors which fix trousers for $2, the moaning cranes stacking up the City Square Development and inexorably gentrifying the area, the heat, the noise, the colour, everything!”

The Straits Times came up with their Annual Power List of Arts Curators in Singapore. Most of the people anointed belong to established Art institutions like the Singapore Art Museum, the National Heritage Board etc. Here’s the Fly by Night Power List of Movers and Shakers, not in any particular order

• Kelley Cheng (Page One/Ish/Night and Day Bar)
• Yuni Hadi, Objectifs/Singapore International Film Festival
• Heman Chong, Artist/Curator
• Jennifer Teo/Woon Tien Wei (Post Museum ex-p-10)
• Farm.sg (Rojak organisers, Torrance Goh, Kelvin Ang and Friends)
• Shaiful and friends at Lioncitydiy.com
• Stefan Shih (the googled eye reviewer of a nutshell review, do you sleep Stefan?)
• Randy Ang and Nicholas Chee, the Everywhere boys who created sinema.sg and now run Sinema Old School
• Ng How Wee, 100.3 DJ/writer/playwright/teacher by day
• Chua Ai Lin, long time moderator of the Singapore Heritage Yahoo listserv
• Dave Chua, long time moderator of the Singapore Film website, sgfilm.com

There you go, the 11 who have taken it upon themselves (usually outside their day job) to consistently create communities, promote new ways of thinking/seeing, jumpstart/promote others’ work.

Onward and Upward

James Lee, a director himself, lensed a few features for his friends. He shot Chui Mui’s Love Conquers All. His photographs are sometimes lyrical, usually deadpan. I like his photos of his friends, looking at them, I fell I know them. Hmm actually, I do

Come visit my side of the mountain

The French Stall – Confit of Duck in a diner
Food 03 – Australian organic veggie food by the Post Museum in thriving Red Light district
Cafe Domus – Secret garden watering hole at Owen Road
Night and Day Bar – At Selegie
Stiff Chilli – Gelato and more in Jalan Besar
All in the vicinity of the Workers Party HQ!

Garden at Cafe Domus

Sun Koh provides a glimpse into the the Pusan International Film Festival’s talent camp called the Asian Film Academy. Young people interested in filmmaking are invited to be part of this event, a residential camp (17 days). Every year different Asian faculty are invited to teach, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Penek were involved. Sun writes about her experience and talks about Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s underwear and Penek’s fork
“Many people have asked me “How was AFA?” upon my return from Pusan recently. The answer from me has so far been an immediate “F**king wonderful.” Then comes questions about the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’, followed by my inadequate attempts at relating my experience there. Although I realised that it is impossible for me to fully convey to you what it was that made AFA 2007 so “f**king wonderful”, this article strives to give you at least a feel of what impacted me during those 17 days of sharing.” Click here for more

When I asked Christoph Terhechte, the programmer for Berlinale’s Forum section whether Invisible City will be in the documentary section in that festival, he told me that the Forum section does not differentiate between documentaries and non documentaries. He said their film synopses make no mention of the work’s genre because as far as he is concerned differences are cosmetic. The Forum audiences can make film choices without those labels.

Nantes Festival of 3 continents this year conflated the 2 categories together too. On their website, it said, “This change has been made in reaction to the arrival on the cinematic landscape of unclassifiable films and the increasing importance of documentaries on the 3 continents.”

Is this a trend, the onslaught of “unclassifiable films”? Or are festivals/viewers finally waking up to the folly of having sections in their programmes. Should I read the rejecction note from San Sebastian Festival in that light too? Usually rejection notes say “We received too many films this year, please try again next year” but theirs was atypical, they said “We watched and discussed it, we think it is really interesting but we don’t have a place to put your film”. Is it not documentary, (read PBS, Michael Moore) enough? Or just not good enough. Like a spurned lover we keep wondering what they mean.

Jill Godmilow on The Liberal Documentary

If there is one Art film to watch that is uplifting, it is Thai film Syndromes and a Century. This is a rare feat for an art film, to lift. Usually the opposite happens, you want to slit your wrists, die. After Syndromes, I resolved that I should make a happy film even though Melancholy, I am told, is my middle name. When Apichatpong, its director came to town to scout for locations and meet Singaporean film directors, I felt I had to meet him as did others. Below, the Singapore Apichatpong Fan Club photos.

Apichatpong with Wee “Gone Shopping” Li Lin

Apichatpong with Sun “Lucky 7” Koh

Apichatpong with Loo “Solos” Zihan

Apichatpong with in group photo with me (2nd fr left) not smiling in case I look like a groupie, picture taken at the Screening Room

I donated a screening to Singapore arts space, The Substation, so that anyone who would like to have a personal screening of any of my films with me in attendance can bid for that experience on-line through ebay, proceeds go directly to Substation. To place a bid, click here . Many Artists have donated works, memorabilia, experiences for this auction. The deadline for bidding is 21 Nov, next Wednesday.
If you want to have a personal screening, and aren’t familiar with this whole ebay thing, contact emily@substation.org directly. If the price is right, something can be arranged. The Substation is dear to me, I am happy to work something out

Ben Harrison of band abcdetc emailed me a picture. I hope the woman next to him doesn’t mind being on my blog

One of the protagonists in Invisible City was Chan Cheow Thia (left, talking with Han Tan Juan), this young man went around Singapore interviewing oldies about their school life in the 40s to 60s for an exhibition that he and his friends from The Tangent were putting up. They asked me to document this process which I did – so I have them to thank because the footage became an integral part of Invisible City. The exhibition opens tomorrow at the Gallery at Singapore Management University (opp YMCA). And it opens with a forum tomorrow too, Sat 10 Nov, 2007, 2.30pm where I am a speaker. Exhibition hours are 12-8 everyday and the exhibition ends 9 Dec 2007

As Invisible City makes its way around the world and Singapore, the people who organise these screenings design their own posters to publicise the screenings to their community, colleagues. It is their interpretation of what the movie is about. Here is a selection, its great!

Warholian Poster for screening at WOHA Architects, Singapore

Nostalgic Poster for the screening at the Nanyang Technological University Sociological Society, Singapore

Penang Street Poster by ampulets for their blog

omy.sg is hosting some of this year’s FBN07 videos. Great videos, view it here . The theme this year is “still” and participants were given a weekend to produce a video This online upload is organised by an FBN alumni Alvin Lim who now works at omy.sg, he participated again this year too as did 45 other groups
A review of the event by omy.sg appears here, its in Mandarin.

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Drop in to watch the newest videos this Sunday 2-6ish pm at La Salle College of the Arts, Basement 1, Foundation Room, 1 Mcnally Street
(Pictures are from the 2006 edition at 72-13)

The theme this year is “still”

This is the  manifesto for a documentary film festival in Spain

At “Punto de Vista”, we believe…

That the first thing that film looked at was reality.
But fantasy has a part to play in the so-called documentary image.
That reality is simulation; and the real a mystery.
That cameras long to film the unfilmable, the invisible, time.
That film reinvents itself over and over again with every shot.
That the documentary is film as a subversive art.
That form is a filmmaker’s primary ethical commitment.
That filming can only be understood as a knowledge process.
We believe in images which would seem to have been created for the first and last time.
That the audience creates.
And films watch us.
That only form preserves vision.
We believe in documentaries which question the world.
In documentaries as vision. And creation.
That each film constructs the audience. Invents the audience.
That the screen is a meeting-point.
And the festival, a territory where film is thought up.
And we get to know each other through the vision of others.
From other points of view.

In grad school Lee Kyong Hee and Lee Wook Jung made the warmest soups during the coldest nights that had me over to their home more often than was polite. We lost touch so I was very happy to see them again after all these years in Seoul. Kyung Hee who picked up photography when I met her has now published two monographs. Wook Jung, as passionate as ever still makes documentaries. Half way through the evening, Kyung Hee asked me “Do you miss Evanston?”

After Pusan, in Seoul, I spoke in Park Yeo Nah’s (far right) documentary filmmaking class at the Sook Myung Women’s University. Later another friend Kim Hee Sun invited me to talk at her world music class, she had showed them Singapore GaGa. In both classes I was introduced as a Singapore film director who had just come from Pusan.