How did the film come about?
I’ve always been very interested in outsiders, people on the edge of society who are looking in from the periphery. It was very important to me to shoot the film in Singapore rather than find an equivalent location in Malaysia. The film is very much about memory, and capturing a part of Singapore I knew we would soon lose. Every single location that we shot in was demolished or torn down soon after.
What problems did you have putting the film together?
The entire film, including post, was made for around $150,000 and we only had 18 shooting days. A lot of people worked on the film pro bono simply because they believed in it, and that allowed us to achieve a wonderful intimacy on set that is reflected in the final film. But our post took over a year, because people were donating time in between their other jobs and could only work on the film during odd periods. We could barely afford any lights so we had to utilize the directionality and intensity of natural sun for our classroom scenes, giving us very limited shooting periods. For both the interiors and exteriors, we were always rushing to catch the light. In fact, we were also always rushing to catch the rain. It seems that it’s a rule of thumb that it rains when you need it to be sunny, and that it’s sunny when you need it to rain!
How do you think the film will fare in the canon of contemporary local cinema?
I do hope it can still find cultural permanence and that people will be willing to support small films like this. This is a film about loss, and I hope that we’ve managed to capture in some small way the heartbeat of our generation, and that Singaporeans can relate to Innocents in terms of pieces of half-forgotten memories, objects from childhood that were left behind, or in terms of the many physical spaces of childhood that no longer exist.
Innocents is on through Sep 29, Oct 3-5, 19-20, various times at Screening Room @ The Arts House. $10 at the door.
