IN TIME TO COME
Set in Singapore, IN TIME TO COME follows the ritualistic exhuming of an old Singapore 1984 time capsule, and the compilation of another. As enigmatic remnants of life from 25 years ago emerge – a bottle of water from the Singapore River, a copy of the Yellow Pages – today's selection of items is carefully primed for the future to decode. Interwoven are carefully composed shots of moments we rarely think to preserve: the in-between minutes of daily life spent waiting, shot in locales as diverse as the lush jungle to a residential district subdued with haze.
This picture of Singapore is both lovely and startlingly strange, already slipping beyond the present that its inhabitants struggle to hold in their hands. Like the time capsules in the film, this film itself is a vessel that transports us through past, present and future, a prism through which we glimpse alternate realities. The latest movie gifted by observer Tan Pin Pin takes its thematic DNA from her previous bold, intelligent work, but leads its audience into uncharted cinematic territory. - Kelly Leow
IN TIME TO COME world premiered at Visions du Réel in April 2017. The Singapore premiere and the start of the theatrical run, supported by NTU-CCA, took place at Filmgarde in September 2017.
Catch it here or on Netflix (S.E. Asia).
2017, essay film, 62 min, 16:9, 5.1 Audio, DCP, minimal dialogue, in English
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★★★★
"Immersive, an invitation to dream"
– Straits Times"Cements Tan's position as Singapore's most adventurous and thoughtful documentarian."
– Dennis Lim, Film Society of Lincoln Center"A distant, cold and surreal observation of Singapore society."
– Luciano Barisone, Visions du Réel“Eerily beautiful”
– Slant Magazine“Compelling and subtle”
– Filmmaker Magazine -
When I started what eventually became this film, I was collecting images around the topic of public rituals that defined our daily lives. For example, school flag-raising ceremonies, fire drills, morning greetings by staff at department stores and opening ceremonies. Rituals, by their definition, are repetitive and they recur across time, so there was an atemporal aspect to what I had filmed. I wondered, could these rituals, shot over four years, be edited together to be a commentary on modern life and on Singapore?
Since the period of this shooting also coincided with the commemoration of 50 years of Singapore’s independence, there were many commemorative rituals that I recorded too. One of them was the preparation of time capsules to commemorate this state event. We shot the preparation of the objects and the sealing of the capsules. At the same time, there were old time capsules being exhumed and their contents were revealed and cleaned before us, and we filmed them too.
Time capsules embody man’s desire to contain the past, present and future, all in one object. The preparation of them spoke of the present’s perception of a future time, while their eventual exhumation referenced the past’s vision of the future too, as seen from the present. In that, time capsules are very similar to films.
I have always felt that the act of seeing and recording is tied with the act of remembering, so from very early on, we wanted the framing to be wide and the shots paced in a stately manner. In effect, leaving an image on long enough, with enough detail and context, so that it makes an imprint in the mind’s eye.
We found that splicing footage of very deliberate and ritualistic preparations of the time capsule together with our wide shots of daily rituals gave the film an otherworldly, strange yet familiar tone. In the edit, the past, present and future seemed to collapse together, giving the film a sci-fi bent. When this possibility opened up, we pushed the angle in the sound design. The film then became a surprising journey in and out of different time spaces, sometimes two spaces at once, a journey that is never signposted.
Like most films of this nature, we glimpsed the film’s nature through the long process of editing, a glimpse that became more concrete and sharpened during the sound design of the film.
This documentary took nine months to complete. We spent six months editing it. In total 50 hours of footage was shot over 35 days spread over the nine-month period.
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With Support From
Singapore Film Commission New Talent Feature Film Grant
Hong Kong- Asia Film Financing Forum Award
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Artist ResidencyProduced and Directed by Tan Pin Pin
Script Consultant: Jasmine Kin Kia Ng
Associate Producer: Yong Shuling
Editor: Martyn See, Amelia Su
Cinematographer: Michael Zaw, Brian McDairmant, Eric Youwei Lim, Yong Shuling, Amelia Su, Ken Cheong, Tan Pin Pin, Lim Teck Siang
Sound Recordist: Lim Jenn Hui, Lisa Teh
Supervising Sound Editor & Re-recording Mixer: Lim Ting Li
Sound Editor: Maiken H Hansen
Foley Artist: Bogdan Zavarzin, Arina Knyazeva
Foley Mixer: Igor Kazmirchuk
Foley Mixer & Supervisor: Rustam Gimadiyev
Designer: KK Ong
Technical Consultant: Ian Wee
Post-Production Supervisor: Weston Thompson
Project Manager: Kultida Pungsiripattana
DI Producer: Narudee Panrat
DI Colourist: Guy Vajropala
Data Conform: Apirat Thipayachan, Addhasit Sriyotha
Data Management: Thanaphon Wichuladawut
Digital Mastering: Phongsak Pankhong, Pollawat Phomtea
Mastering Coordinator: Usawan Tiyawarakul
Production Manager: Josephine Seetoh
Additional Editing: Sun Koh
Production Support: Alicia Ho, Jessica Novia, Olivia Tay, Juliana Tan
Accountant: AccFin
Music
"Chan Mali Chan," a Malay folk song arranged by Jeremy Monteiro
Andrew Lim on guitar, Mohamed Noor on percussion.
From the album, "Swinging In Singapore"With Thanks to
Wildlife Reserves
Staff of Singapore Institute of Management
Sports Hub
Teachers and Students of Manjusri Secondary School
Books Kinokuniya
Toshin Development Singapore
Santarli Construction
The Substation
National Heritage Board
MCST 2784
Thermofrost Metal Engineering
Land Transport Authority
SBS Transit
Gardens By The Bay
SG50 Secretariat
Soh & Tan Enterprise
Nuurulhuda Binte Russely
Chang Chow Keong
Priscillia Lee-Tng
Charlene
Judy Wong
Chin Ser Jong
Aaron Tan
Joreen Chua
Low Chun Meng
Kenny Chan
Chua Gek Huay
Rick Thomas
Rajesh Singh Gill
Noor Effendy
Yap Soo Ei
Sylvia Goh
Maria Khoo-Joesph
Aaron Chong
Ho Ann Ching
Lucy Davis
Josephine Teo
Grace Wu
Clara Chew
Stephanie Sun
John Tan
Chai Yee Wei
Lingual Tan
Chen Junbin
Yvonne Tham
Freddie Yeo
Paolo Bertolin
Joachim Ng
Kristin Saw
Ang Yi Eng
Amanda Tay
Matthew Poon
Jacob Wong
Eugene Phua
Lian Tsui Yee
Natalie Soh
Davide Cazzaro
Vivian Wang
Delcie Poh
Shona Mei Findlay
Ute Meta Bauer
Lo Mun Hou
My Family -
2023 Harvard University, Sensory Ethnography Lab
2023 NUS Museum, Off Script Series
2023 Liberation Docfest, Bangladesh (Retrospective)
2019 STPI, Singapore
2019 Substation, Days of Future Past, Substation (multimedia performance)
2019 Dok Leipzig (Retrospective)
2019 Krisworld, Singapore Airlines Inflight Entertainment
2019 Meerkat Media Collective, USA
2019 Monash University, Australia
2018 Aperture: Asia & Pacific FF, Glasgow, UK
2018 University of Washington, USA
2018 Festival Internacional De Cine De El Palomar, Argentina, In Competition
2018 Rumah Attap Library & Collective, Malaysia
2018 Asian Studies Association Conference, Australia
2018 Gardens by the Bay on National Day, Singapore
2018 Colgate University, USA
2018 Vassar College, USA
2017 Sa Sa Art Project, Cambodia
2017 Montreal IDF (Retrospective)
2017 M+, Hong Kong
2017 Memory International Heritage Film Festival, Myanmar (Showcase)
2017 Vancouver IFF
2017 Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de La Plata, Argentina
2017 The Projector, Singapore
2017 Dharamshala IFF, India
2017 Art of the Real, Film Society of Lincoln Center, USA
2017 In Competition, EBS IDF, South Korea*
2017 In Competition, Hot Docs, Canada*
2017 In Competition, É Tudo Verdade, Brasil*
2017 In Competition, Sheffield Doc/Fest, UK*
2017 In Competition, Visions du Réel, Switzerland (World Premiere)*
* selected for competition