But Is the Book Better?: Eating Air, Thu 28 Nov, Sat 1 Dec

I'm off to the Georgetown Literary Festival in a bit, but before I do that, I'd like to advertise a little something I've got coming up. It's a screening of the fabulous 1999 motorcycle gangster movie at the Arts House, after which there'll be a talk about my novelisation thereof!

But Is the Book Better?: Eating Air
Venue: Screening Room, the Arts House
Date/Time: 28 Nov, 7.30pm; 1 Dec, 3pm.
Free admission
(on a first-come-first-served basis)

My talkback is on 1 December, with director Jasmine Ng! More info here.

Two European films I have tangential relationships with

I've decided to do Bhutan before Nepal, and Treasures of the Thunder Dragon took me a little longer to pick up from the library. So I'll observe today with a plug for two European films.

1) The first one is Irish/British/Singaporean - Joe and Christine Lawlor's Civic Life: Tiong Bahru, documenting what's currently Singapore's hippest neighbourhood. The whole film's just been uploaded to Vimeo! (Sorry if the embed isn't working... don't know how to fix it on my display.)

TIONG BAHRU from Desperate Optimists on Vimeo.

2) The second one is My Name is Janez Janša, and it's by the three Slovenian artists who had their names legally changed to be the same as that of the right-wing Prime Minister of Slovenia. I got filmed by two of the Janezes at the last Flying Circus Project, in Cambodia. (This is why their lineup looks so multiethnic.)


My Name Is Janez Jansa (excerpt #11) from aksioma on Vimeo.

I've been informed by them that the film needs funding, because it's under attack by their government. Support it by donating money over here.

SWF STUFF!

1. I've been published in the wonderful Singaporean literary journal CERIPH, edited by Lee Wei Fen and Amanda Lee.


This is its 4th edition, branded as the white issue, launched last Saturday at the Singapore Writers Festival. I've got a poem to open each of the five themed sub-chapbooks in the journal (they like to monkey a lot with design): a poem on ivory, a poem on wheat, a poem on amber shift, a poem on cosmic latte, a poem on sleet.

Copies are $20 from BooksActually and the Select Books store at the Festival Pavilion, over at the SMU Green. You should totally pick one up.


2. I'm also being published in the mono-titular anthology Coast, edited by Lee Wei Fen and Daren Shiau.


Mono-titular means that every single story and poem in the book has the title "Coast". Contributors include every significant Singapore writer from Edwin Thumboo to Alfian Sa'at to Pooja Nansi to Theophilus Kwek. (My contribution is fiction, for once!!!)

Don't know how much it costs yet, but it'll be launched at the following free Singapore Writers Festival event:

date : 26 October 2011, Wednesday (Deepavali)
time : 2 pm ~ 3 pm
venue : Singapore Management University (Festival Pavilion, Campus Green)

Be there or be square.


3. I'm also hosting an event at SWF: the screening and discussion of the short film Civic Life: Tiong Bahru. I'll be interviewing co-director Joe Lawlor, bookstore owner Kenny Leck and someone else.

Tiong Bahru Trailer from Desperate Optimists on Vimeo.

The timing of the event is:

date : 30 October 2011, Sunday
time : 2 pm ~ 3 pm
venue : National Museum Gallery Theatre

Right now, the free advance tickets have been snapped up, but further tickets will be available at 1pm on the day itself from the Museum Box Office. More info here.

Two Singapore movies

I just watched Kelvin Tong's "It's a Great, Great World" last night and I freaking loved it!



I've heard it's boring for some people, but if you're a Singapore nostalgia buff like me, it's definitely up your alley. It stars all the big Channel Eight Mandarin-speaking celebs: amazing that they can speak dialect so well. And yeah, the stories have heart - I was actually weeping by the end.

Also attended the gala premiere of Wee Li Lin's "Forever". (I was an extra! But don't try and find me; I'm in the airport scene, but I'm just a blur in the background.)



Mixed feelings. I liked "Gone Shopping" (final cut) better. But it works as a certain kind of chick flick. Come support!

Whoa! A bunch of my favourite films won stuff!

Re: Civic Life short film competition. Click here for the results.

Civic Life 90-second Film Competition! Vote now...

Seriously, there's some good stuff. 20 finalists here, and the deadline's this Sunday. You can only vote once, so vote wisely.

Here are a few of my faves:

When the day begins... from Prashant S on Vimeo.

Miniature Town : Potong Pasir from togusa chan on Vimeo.

Corridor from Isazaly Mohd Isa on Vimeo.

The Neighbourhood Shops are Where the Heart Is from edwin s on Vimeo.

家 from Esna Ong on Vimeo.

I've been extremely behind with my updates.

But here we go:

1. I'm going to be a torchbearer for the Youth Olympic Games on Friday 13 August, roughly around 10:35am on Kallang Road, slot number 6081. You can stand by the road and support me if you like!


Announcements

Yes, I know it's ridiculous and that the YOG itself is really pretty fucked up, and the uniforms are fugly: baggy grey and orange, with clear stipulations that we are not to alter them or wear them in a non-uniform manner or promote any socio-political-cultural agenda with them while we're running.

But NAC Literary Dept asked me to be a teensy part of Singapore history, and since they've generally been pretty cool people, how could I ever say no?

2. My interview with Boo Junfeng about his upcoming film "Sandcastle" is up on Civic Life.



It's showing in Cinema Europa, VivoCity from 26 August onwards. Go early so you can convince the cinema to keep it in the theatres longer.



3. I never mentioned the fact that I've got a story up there myself: Last Kampong Boy, a brief summary of my father's memories of growing up in Tiong Bahru.



I think I'll talk about ContraDiction in a separate post.

I've done an interview with Royston Tan.

It's about his upcoming movie, OLD PLACES/老地方, co-directed with Eva Tang and Vitric Thng. It's up on the Civic Life Tiong Bahru blog, commissioned by the British Council.

The movie itself is being shown on TV: it'll be on Sunday 8 August at 8pm on Okto (wah, so many eights, must be auspicious). It's a series of personal stories told by ordinary Singaporeans about the vanishing places in Singapore.

Trailers here:







Loads of photos on the website. Tune in!

How shocking! A Royston Tan movie with no numbers in the title!

By the way, for the Exploring Singapore Literature thang this Saturday at National Library, we don't have a lot of people signed up for Breakfast Club. Seriously guys, you don't want to have Halloween breakfast with Catherine Lim???

More info here. Come at 9:30 for the chow and 10am for the panel. (The chow will still be around, don't worry.)

At the movies

Where Got Ghost? is actually quite watchable!



And The Blue Mansion trailer is hella professionally done... I wanna watch this!



But Female Games stinks. I mean, really, really. All the Sayoni lesbians who watched it felt offended.



So what else is coming this year in Singapore cinema?

Film director Yasmin Ahmad (1958-2009)

She passed away last night. See here. Yesterday there was already news that she'd collapsed during her press conference from a stroke.

I'd admired her work ever since I watched Sepet. Or maybe before that, when I was doing my internship at Young and Rubicam KL and I found out about her Petronas National Holiday ads. It's Malaysians like her, I thought, that put Singaporeans with all our superficial racial harmony agendas, to shame.



Unfortunately, the only time I met her was at a free screening of Muallaf, which was awkward because I didn't actually like the movie, since it pulled its punches. But of course it was daring enough to actually take on the issue of Islam, and what filmmakers in Singapore have dared to do that? (I know of one, but he was called up for questioning by the ISD and his film was confiscated and he was forbidden to even discuss what happened thereafter.)

She was scheduled to shoot her first film in Singapore next year. It would've been called "Go, Thaddeus!" She'd already proven her worth with two short films advertising the importance of family love.

She quite liked us, although we kept on mispronouncing the titles of her films. We never censored and marginalised her and called her a traitor to her race the way Malaysia did. Of course, if she'd been born in Singapore, she would've been outspoken about the ironies we have here, and we would've destroyed her in our own way just the same.

I'm glad at least that she lived to see the elections of 2008, with the breaking through of a post-racial Malaysian politics. If only I knew there were other film directors like her around.

If you haven't read Loo Zihan's NTU valedictorian speech...

... well, you should. Click here.


The poster for his short film "Threshold" got censored just before his speech, which makes it a little more than the usual sappy go-forth-and-prosper-fest.

"Destino" by Dali and Disney

Lo and behold, the 6-min short film that Salvador Dali and Walt Disney began in 1945 and didn't get finished till 2003.



It's WICKED. Incidentally, anyone else wanna watch Sumpah Orang Minyak at the National Museum's Night Festival?

The latest about HERE

aka Tzu Nyen's film, which I keep on blogging about despite not actually having seen it.

After a resounding opening last weekend, HERE continues its run at the Picturehouse this week

To those who have seen the film, thank you and do help to spread the word!

For those who have not yet experienced HERE - don't miss out on Singapore's unique feature film entry to the Directors' Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2009, by filmmaker and visual artist Ho Tzu Nyen! Come experience this singular cinematographic adventure!

Screening times (tickets available from Wednesday evening, 1 July)

Thursday 2/7 - 9.30pm
Friday 3/7 - 7pm
Saturday 4/7 - 4.30pm
Sunday 5/7 - 4.30pm
Monday 6/7 - 7.30pm
Tuesday 7/7 - 7.30pm
Wednesday 8/7 - 9.30pm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What reviewers around the world have to say about HERE

"HERE... relentlessly forms, destroys and reforms, a different species among local films"
***1/2
- Eista Lee, zbNOW (translation)

"one of the most memorable features to have appeared recently on the local movie scene"
***1/2
- Yong Shu Hoong, my paper

"ranks among the best and most expressive films yet to come out of Singapore"
- Mathias Ortmann, sinema.sg

" a breath of fresh air"
- Tan Heng Hau, moviexclusive.com

"HERE is unlike any Singapore film we have ever seen"
- fridae.com

"there's a method to the madness here"
- Stefan S, A Nutshell Review

"Ho's interplay of camera and sound achieves hypnotic serenity, even, eventually, dreamy melancholy."
***1/2
- Whang Yee Ling, 8Days

"a deep reflection on cinema and on human nature"
- Bruno Carmelo, Nisimazine.

"A triumph for a first-time director"
- Amanda de Guzman, The Business Times

"a beautiful aesthetic"
- l'Humanité

"a strange sensorial experience"
- DVDRAMA

"a highly sophisticated visual language and inventive montage, the story intrigues, captivates"
- les Fiches du Cinéma

"an entry point into the singular artistic universe of the filmmaker"
- www.evene.fr

"Acquiring a ticket for this film, is accepting to immerse oneself in a cinematographic adventure."
- Tadah! Blog


TICKETING DETAILS

I. Tickets available at
- The Cathay box office, 2 Handy Road, level 5
- www.cathay.com.sg (from 1 July 2009)

2. Discounts:
- 12% discount on tickets purchased at box-office only with UOB Visa card.

3. About the film
www.herethefilm.com

HERE by Ho Tzu Nyen... still in theatres

If you didn't catch HERE at the Picturehouse last week, never fear: it's still showing for a while longer. It'll be on from Thursday 2 July to Sunday 5 July, specific times to be uploaded to the Picturehouse site by Wednesday.



For more about the film, click here: www.herethefilm.com

HERE by Ho Tzu Nyen

Posting this for a friend-cum-really cool local artist:

Singapore film selected for the Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2009,
runs from 25 June - 1 July 2009 at The Picturehouse



I. Ticketing details

1. Showtimes
Dates : 25 June - 1 July 2009
Time : one show time daily from Monday to Friday, additional screenings on weekend (2nd week run to be advised

25th June 2009, Thu 19:20
26th June 2008, Fri 21:40
27th June 2009, Sat, 13:00, 15:00. 21:40
28 June 2009, Sunday, 12:50, 19:40


2. Tickets available at
- The Cathay box office, 2 Handy Road, level 5
- www.cathay.com.sg (from 18 June 2009)

3. Discounts:
- 12% discount on tickets purchased at box-office only with UOB Visa card.

4. Group bookings / Director Q&A
- Private hall screenings can be arranged. Contact Cathay cinema at 6736-7228 or cinddie_teo@cathay.com.sg with preferred dates and times.
- Halls available on a first-come-first serve basis. 2 weeks’ advance notice to the cinema preferable (for programming reasons).
- A 25-minute post-screening Q&A session with the director can be arranged, depending on his availability. Please contact media@gsmprjct.com to enquire.

5. About the film
www.herethefilm.com


II. The Picturehouse Explores: HERE - Dialogue Session with Director Ho Tzu Nyen

Date : Sat 27 June 2009
Time : 3.00pm, 5.00pm
Venue: The Picturehouse Lounge.
Level 5, The Cathay, 2 Handy Rd

Free Of Charge. Light refreshments will be served. Film screenings before and after. RSVP your attendance to thepicturehouse@cathay.com.sg

You should watch the Ramen Girl.

I watched it on the plane from Bangkok. I know it can't be good as Tampopo (on which it's based, and which I've never watched), but it's still fun and a good deal less numb-nutted about the process of foreign adaptation than Sofia Coppola movie. Lost In Translation. God, that was awful.



Also, the hot blonde girl fucks a hot Korean-Japanese dude! Not on screen, but the relationship happens! I want the webcam version!

Sell Out!

Just saw this very teeheesome Malaysian movie musical as part of a preview for the Singapore International Film Festival.



Unfortunately tickets are sold out, but it'll be showing in Malaysia later this year and there's a number of other shows with tickets available... come on, support the fest! (Six films in it have been cut so far, from what I hear.)

I know racism's supposed to be dead in the age of Obama, but...

... I've been watching stuff on Apple Trailers.

1) In "Dragonball Evolution", both the hero Goku and the villain are played by white men.

2) In "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li", the main character is played by a Eurasian who doesn't even really look Chinese.

3) "Push" is set in Hong Kong, but none of its main characters are Asian.

Somehow East Asian culture has become really popular, whereas East Asian bodies... less so. Sigh.

Yi-Sheng has just discovered Guy Maddin.

Here's the Heart of the World:



And Sissy Boy Slap Party: