Invisible City
Invisible City (备忘录) is a documentary about people who document Singapore. The director interviews photographers, journalists, archaeologists, people propelled by discover a Singapore for themselves. The documentary conveys how deeply personal their search is and how fragile histories are, hanging on only through memories and artefacts. Interwoven with the interviews is never seen before footage and photos of the City culled from private archives. In Invisible City, you witness the atrophy of memory, you see a City that could have been.
Invisible City world premiered at National University of Singapore, University Cultural Centre Theatre, in Singapore on 19 July 2007. It ran for a sold-out four weeks at The Arts House, Singapore from 22 July 2007. It won the Asian Vision Award, Taiwan International Documentary Festival and the Prix de la SCAM, Cinema du Reel.
2007, documentary, 58 min, 4:3, Shot on DVCam, in Mandarin, Japanese and English, with Chinese and English Subtitles.
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“A witty, intellectually challenging essay on history and memory as tools of civil resistance.”
– Citation, Cinéma du Réel“This film brings new inspiration to the telling of Asian histories.”
– Citation, Taiwan International Documentary Festival“The film invites debate about how the past can be remembered and history written, objectively, without fear or favour.”
– Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, SingaporeAlfian Sa'at, DVD liner note "A valentine to the custodians of Singapore's ephemera"
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Lim Chen Sian, 32, is known as the “Indiana Jones" of Singapore. One of the four archaeologists in Singapore, he has dug in the Padang, Istana, Kampong Glam and Neil Road.
Chan Cheow Thia, 28, was educated in Singapore and Shanghai, he works in MOE by day. As a key member of civil-society group The Tangent, he is currently working on an exhibition, Education At Large, re-examining extra-curricular life in Singapore from 1945-1965. He columns are also featured regularly in Lianhe Zaobao
Guo Ren Huey, 79, was a member of the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Force and fought in the jungles of Pahang, Malaysia during World War II, where he also met his wife. He was in charge of training young recruits. After the war, he went on to work for the Internal Security Department.
Han Tan Juan 65 is a former executive sub-editor and correspondent of Lianhe Zaobao, as well as an eminent cultural researcher. He conducts walking tours around Singapore and gives talks on history. In February 2007 he spoke at a forum organised by The Tangent, recalling his student days in Chung Cheng High and subsequent involvement with politics, leading to his citizenship being revoked in the 1960s.
Izumi Ogura is a journalist for Asahi Shimbun. She was its its Southeast Asian Correspondent based in Singapore. She wrote about topics ranging from education policy to Phua Chu Kang. She is now based in Osaka.
Ivan Polunin, 86, is a noted botanist and entomologist who first came to Singapore in the 1950s. He has shot footage for the University of Malaya’s Department of Social Medicine as well as for his own documentation. Some of the early colour footage was used by the BBC to make programmes, one of which was called Paradise in the Mud, about the Orang Seletar. He retired in 1980 and now spends his time annotating his archive of film and photographs in his home nestled in Hillview estate.
Dr. Marjorie Topley, Ethnographer, Raffles Museum, has researched ghost marriages among Singapore Chinese, sorority marriages in Guangdong, Chinese secret religious sects and economic practices among indigenous rice farmers and immigrant vegetable farmers in Hong Kong's New Territories.
Marjorie Doggett is the author and photographer of Characters of Light: Early Buildings of Singapore, which documents many colonial buildings that no longer exist. Originally from England, she has been living in Singapore for more than 50 years. Her late husband, Victor Doggett ran a renowned Piano school. In the 60’s she became a Singapore Citizen. She was an active member in the early days of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and she was also active in the early heritage conservation movement in Singapore.
Others
Wee Sheau Theng
Yeo Kang Shua
Chua Ai Hua
Siew Yen Polunin
Teng Siao See
Ho Meng Kit
Ng Chun Kit
Koh Tai Ann
Ong Chang Woei -
I decided to seek out people who, like me, choose Singapore as the topic of their work. I don’t mean where Singapore is the setting for their work, but where Singapore is the main subject. I was curious about whether I was the only person who found this country so interesting, enough to spend most of my professional life making films about its blind spots. I also wanted to thank and show my appreciation to those whose work on Singapore I admired and have benefited from. I sought out photographers, journalists, film directors, archaeologists who were observers and documenteurs of this city, past and present. The result of our interactions is Invisible City. It is a documentary about people who looked for a Singapore for themselves, on their own terms. Invisible City is about the basic human need to search, to question, to preserve evidence and to share one’s discoveries with others. It is about the need to be remembered for what one has seen and experienced. In the end, Invisible City documents the fight against the passing of time and the atrophy of memory.
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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Produced, Directed and Written by: Tan Pin Pin
Editor: Inez Ang
Script Consultants: Tan Siok Siok, Jasmine Ng Kin Kia
Associate Producer: Lim Tiat
Photography: Ryan Seet, Tan Pin Pin
Additional Photography: James Teo
Additional Editing: Martyn See
Production Support: Lian Tsui Yee
Research: Tan Wen Ling
Editing Assistant: Cheryl Koh
Transcription: Zhang Kang Min, Candace Zhou
Japanese voice over: Fuwa Tomoko
Sound Designer: Nigel Woodford
Colourist: Pang Wei Fong, Blackmagic Design
Grading Co-ordinator: Hazel Ngiam
Graphics: Elena Ho
Chinese Subtitles: Lim Woan Hui, Eva Tang
Publicity: Suryahti Abdul Latiff, Teng Qian Xi
Legal Advisor: Alban Tay Mahtani & de Silva
Brand Strategy & Marketing: Mindwasabi -
World Premiere organised by NUS Museum, theatrical run at the Arts House, ISEAS, Singapore Art Museum, Subordinate Courts Staff Club, Millenia Institute, Temasek Junior College, The National University of Singapore History Department, NUS University Scholars Programme, WOHA Architects, Singapore Management University, National Institute of Education, Singapore, Sinema, Singapore Airlines inflight Entertainment
2023 Liberation Docfest, Bangladesh (Retrospective)
2022 ArtScience Museum, Imaging Paradise Series
2020 States of Motion, Asian Film Archive
2019 Dok Leipzig (Retrospective)
2017 Montreal IDF (Retrospective)
2017 Memory International Heritage Film Festival, Myanmar (Showcase)
2015 La Cinémathèque Française, Singapour mon Amour, Homage to Tan Pin Pin
2012 Sintok Singapore Tokyo Film Festival
2011 Flaherty Seminar (Showcase)
2011 Luang Prabang Film Festival
2011 DMZ Docs, Korea, Filling the Gap
2010 Asian Network of Documentaries in Japan, Yamagata IDFF
2010 Hawaii International Film Festival
2010 Sinfest, London, United Kingdom
2010 Urban Docs Asia, Lund, Sweden
2010 Singapore Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Ambulante, Mexico City, Mexico
2009 Shanghai International Television Festival – In Competition, Magnolia Award*
2009 Toronto Singapore Film Festival,
2009 Media Fiesta, Singapore
2008 Jakarta IFF
2008 Punto de Vista, Spain, in Competition*
2008 Cinema Du Reel, France, in Competition*
2008 Taiwan International Documentary Festival, In Competition*
2008 Cinemanila
2008 Smithsonian Museum, Freer & Sackler Gallery Washington DC, USA
2008 Singapore Western Australian Network National Day Screening, Perth
2008 Rome Asian Film Festival
2008 Women’s Film Festival of Brussels
2008 Bangkok Fringe Festival
2007 Documentary Film Festival Yogyakarta
2007 Busan International Film Festival, Korea. in Competition*
* selected for competition