SGFilm.com Blog

Great. Now no-one will come back.
ChannelNewsAsia.com -- Government to impose stiffer penalties for NS defaulters

For heaven's sake, Melvyn Tan was in his 50s, and he came back to see his sick parents. I wonder how many of those who complained can boast of such filial piety?

Speaking of duplicity, we shouldn't be funding irrelevant causes like this: ChannelNewsAsia.com: Non-profit group gets grant to promote 'healthy gender identity'

While I was away, the MDA announced that it wants to manufacture its own film festival to go with its Asian Film Market.

TODAY, 27th Apr 2005: A First for budding Asian film talent

TODAY, 28th Apr 2005: So happy together?

Kenneth Tan isn't too convincing here. There are many small film festivals held throughout the year, but these are usually country-specific and have very limited runs -- usually about 1 week. They are also heavily supported by the respective embassies and high commissions, since these organisations consider them extensions of their diplomatic responsibilities.

The AFFF will be completely different from these small, "localised" film festivals, and will compete with SIFF in principle -- premieres are a key feature of SIFF too.

(There's also a conflict of interest. Kenneth Tan is on the SFC, which is part of the MDA. Why did Today let that slide?)

What I see here is wasted opportunity. Another one! Why is the MDA not working with SIFF? Is it MDA's highhandedness? Or is SIFF not willing to bridge the gap? Both?

2nd Singapore Short Cuts
Showcasing the Best of Singapore Short Films

Singapore Short Cuts is back again in 2005 with a whole new selection
of outstanding local short films.

Every third Saturday of the month from January to June 2005 at the
Singapore History Museum, you can expect an exciting and diverse selection
of short films, animation and documentaries, which includes
award-winning works like Exodus by Sherman Ong, Eat Rice by Angela How and 9:30 by
Yong Mun Chee. Many of these shorts will be screened for the first time
in Singapore and you will also be able to interact with the filmmakers
after each screening.
Presented by the Singapore History Museum, Singapore Film Commission
and The Substation


Sat 16 April
4.00pm - 5.30pm
Sound & Sight
Defying conventions and genres, these films take bold leaps of
imagination in sight, sound and structure.


Sat 21 May
4.00pm - 5.30pm
Absence : Presence
What is memory but the absence of the present? In this collection of
short films, the bittersweet memory of the past lingers ever so
seductively in the present.


Sat 18 June
4.00pm - 5.30pm
Displacement
Take a look at the rest of the world through the eyes of overseas-based
Singaporean filmmakers in this selection of short films.


Free tickets (limited) can be collected from the 1st day of each
screening month at The Substation and the Singapore History Museum. Tickets
will be issued on a first come, first served basis.

Please email nhb_shm@nhb.gov.sg or call 6332 4075/ 6332 3659 for
enquiries. For more information on Singapore Short Cuts, visit
www.nhb.gov.sg/SHM.

Old news, but posting can't hurt. The local film community has rallied around Bertrand Lee, who lost a leg while filming in India in January. Apparently he's still in hospital. See the appeal here.

Even Royston Tan's gotten into the act. Now all proceeds from his retrospective will go towards helping Lee.

The Substation's putting together a showcase of Royston Tan's best short films made between 2001 and 2004, called 0104.

SCREENING DETAILS

Venue: AGF Theatre, Alliance Francaise
Date & Time: 8pm, 26 Mar / 3.30pm & 7.30pm, 27 Mar
Tickets: $21 (free seating)
Duration: approx. 100min

Rating to be advised; program is subject to change.
Proceeds will go to a filmmaking class for troubled youths
conducted by Royston Tan under the auspices of The Substation.

Tickets are available now at The Substation Box Office, open weekdays
12pm to 8.30pm, and also at the door on the screening dates.
Please call the Box Office at 6337-7800 for update on rating.

SYNOPSIS

Careless Whisperer (PREMIERE)
When you're in love, your heart sings. But whether you can is another
matter. In this zany new work, we get to listen in on what Patrick, the
Singapore Idol contestant famed for his inaudible rendition of the
George Michael hit, really hears in his head... and heart.

New York Girl (PREMIERE)
Where does fakery end and genuineness begin? In this comedy with a
heart that is disguised as a social satire, a bimbo with a fake accent
embarks on a quest for stardom and fame...

Monkey Love (PREMIERE)
Shot entirely outdoors in the winter wonderland of Hokkaido, this
rhapsody in white stars a lovelorn monkey (ok, a boy in a monkey suit)
traipsing through snow, in search of something of his that someone has
stolen.

The Absentee (2004)
A music video made for the song "Killing Time" by the local band The
Observatory, from their album "Time of Rebirth".

Cut (2004)
"Cut" follows a film buff as he harasses a censor from supermarket to
car park, where the film ends with an over-the-top musical number
complete with go-go boys and cameos by various luminaries in the local arts
scene.

Blind (2004)
Old Parliament House (2004)
Capitol Cinema (2004)
Three films that unfold in a single take, through sound: the first with
a young woman in a park, the second with a man in the Old Parliament
House, and the last with a woman in Capitol Cinema.

24 hrs (2002)
In three wistful minutes, this film chronicles the bloom and doom of a
transient love, against a looping footage of Korean commercials and the
strains of a guitar.

Hock Hiap Leong (2001)
A boy's reverie at his favorite kopitiam takes us back to the 60s, and
a musical number performed in platforms, beehives and flares.
Sentimental and celebratory, "Hock Hiap Leong" memorializes the places and faces
lost in the shadow of a city's progress.

Mother (2002)
This moving film tells the story of a son's love-hate relationship with
his mother ­ through the device of a voice-over played over the
footage of a home video.

The organisers regret to inform that they are unable to secure a permit
to screen "15" (the short film).

The Arts House is screening four films as part of its first anniversary celebrations. (Hey, it's not losing as much money before - that's worth celebrating!)

Robot Stories and Littoral (Tideline) will be having their Singaporean debuts, while Maria Full of Grace is returning here (contrary to what the ads say, it's not a premiere!). Local short Midnight Cafe, by Francis Lau, will be screened before all 7.30pm shows.

The schedule for the Singapore International Film Festival is out. Join in the fun here on the SGFilm forums.

18th SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
April 14-30

Some of the longest films will play at this year's 18th Singapore International Film Festival. Leading the list is Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz's new 11-hour-plus epic, Evolution Of A Filipino Family, which follows the life of a family through the turbulent decades of Filipino history. Diaz's previous five-hour epic, Batang West Side, won the Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Feature at the 15th Singapore International Film Festival. Evolution is ranked as the longest feature in South-east Asian cinema history.

Others include Edgar Reitz's Heimat III, which is the third instalment of the life of a German family, also seen against the country's changing history. At six episodes, the film runs over 12 hours. Then there is Jacques Richard's Henry Langlois: The Phantom Of The Cinémathèque, a loving tribute to the man who founded the French Cinémathèque and this clocks in at almost four hours.

This year's sidebar programmes include a large retrospective of veteran Italian director Pupi Avati, including his recent hit A Heart Elsewhere (2003), as well as his well-known films, The House With Laughing Windows (1976), and Christmas Present (1986).

There will also be a significant focus on Vietnam with a tribute to Do Minh Tuan and Luu Trong Ninh. Fans of South-east Asian film will get a good sense of how Vietnamese cinema has changed by following this programme. The award-winning Buffalo Boy by Nguyen-Vo Nghiem-Minh will also be presented.
The festival will showcase over 300 films from 40 countries, highlighting the best cinema from Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Middle East. As with previous years, the event will culminate in the Silver Screen Awards Ceremony which gives prizes to the Best Asian Feature Film and Best Singapore Short Film.

And here's a write-up of the opening film, Steamboy, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo:

OPENING FILM:
STEAMBOY

Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) re-imagines Victorian England for his newest anime effort, which was a decade in the making and co-written with Sadayuki Murai (writer of Millennium Actress). Young Ray Steam comes from a family and tradition of inventors and his grandfather and father's most potent invention is the steamball, which can harness an incredible amount of power within itself. Ray finds himself accosted, attacked and pursued by thieving, conniving men in the United Kingdom as well as the United States. With help from his grandfather and the bratty rich girl, debutante-to-be Scarlett, Ray has to save London from these enemies, robots and a bizarre product of industrialisation called 'Steam Tower'. Visually arresting in its depiction of 19th century Europe, Katsuhiro Otomo's painstaking work over the past decade clearly shows in the minute attention to detail. But as the animation director's previous works have demonstrated, his love of cyberpunk transforms itself here into what he calls "steampunk" (a whole genre of sci-fi writing). This gives a hardness and edge to the worlds he creates and not least, this is reflected in the atmosphere of Steamboy. It aptly captures the progress from industrialisation to the age of nuclear weapons, which is as much a critique of modernity as it is a foreboding portend of things to come in the 21st century. As such, Steamboy is both a stunning adventure epic and an astute commentary on the misuses of power.

Note: Steamboy will be shown on April 14 at 9.15 pm at Lido 1.

Tickets will go on sale from March 18.
Tickets for Opening and Closing Film - $21
Heimat 3 and Evolution Of A Filipino Family - $21
All other films - $8.40

Prices exclude Sistic fee of $1 per ticket

Ticketing: Call Sistic at 6348-5555 or visit www.filmfest.org.sg.
Festival venues: Prince 1, Jade 1 and Jade 2 (all located at Shaw Tower, Beach Road); Singapore History Museum (Riverside Point, Merchant Road) and The Goethe Institut (Winsland House II, Penang Road).

*koffkoffhackkoff*

In the weeks since we last posted, The Straits Times has decided to charge for access to their website. Fortunately, we don't use their material very much to begin with. And since Today is still free, we shouldn't have problems with linking to articles about film in Singapore.

And oh yes - hello again!