Just as we were finishing up this story about all the great energy around local cinema, we heard about Tan Pin Pin’s documentary To Singapore, With Love getting banned. It threw a wrench in the works, and we were left wondering if any of these encouraging trends meant anything after all.
In the end, we decided that yes, they do. Writing this story, we spoke to people who have quit their cushy jobs to restart film festivals, fronted money they didn’t have for their first features and returned to filmmaking after a decade away. And while the MDA’s banning is enormously discouraging, the passion of local filmmakers and producers is evident.
Here’s why we think Singaporean cinema is (still) on its way up.
We’re making waves abroad again
Local cinema bad boy Ken Kwek’s last film was banned at home, but his newest outing, Unlucky Plaza, was acquired by independent film distribution company Media Luna earlier this month and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Over in Los Angeles, Singaporean director Tzang Merwyn Yong had his coming-of-age teen film Faeryville, which took eight years to make, picked up by American distribution company Eleven Arts. It will have a world premiere in Los Angeles at the beginning of next year.
Short films are leading to features
Singaporean directors have a love affair with shorts. They’re a legitimate genre in their own right, but let’s face it, they’re also cheaper and don’t get any commercial attention. So we’re glad to see filmmakers make their first features. Short film master K. Rajagopal (the only Singaporean to win the SGIFF Short Film Competition Special Jury Award three years in a row) has received a grant for his first feature. And after five shorts, director Sanif Olek’s rare Malay-language feature Sayang Disayang has been to ten film festivals already this year and has picked up a few awards. As of press time, it is under consideration to be Singapore’s official submission for the 2015 Academy Awards. See our interview with him here.
The SGIFF is back with a bang
After a steady drop in funding since 2000 then a two-year hiatus, the Singapore International Film Festival is back on the calendar (Dec 4-14, sgiff.com) with support from the Media Development Authority and corporate sponsors like Marina Bay Sands. This edition will also see the launch of all-new programs, including a competition for Southeast Asian short films. We won’t know much until the official press conference in late October, but Festival Director Zhang Wenjie tells us that there are already a good number of local feature films in the Singapore Panorama showcase. Read our full interview with him here.
There’s a big focus on young filmmakers
The other big new program at SGIFF is its first-ever Southeast Asia Film Lab. It’s a six-day writing workshop for ten emerging filmmakers, and there’s a $5,000 cash prize for the most promising project. Sorry, submissions closed on Sep 15. But the Discovery Channel has also initiated the First Time Filmmakers Singapore project (submissions closing Sep 30, www.ftfm.sg) through which five aspiring filmmakers will be selected to create a 30-minute documentary each. There’s a great deal of energy at the university level as well. Award-winning filmmaker and film professor Wee Li Lin tells us, “I find that the young filmmakers these days are bolder, more exposed and write more from the heart.” Just don’t get banned, kids! Or do. Whatever.
Audiences are warming up
In 2013, Jack Neo’s Ah Boys to Men 2 became the highest grossing domestic film of all time, earning over $7 million and beating a record set by its own prequel. The film may be an outlier, but its success boosts confidence in the industry as a whole. “There appear to be more people going to theaters to catch domestic films in Singapore. Producers now have a stronger case to pitch their projects to investors,” says film producer Lau Chee Nien.
Big brands are getting interested
We’re not sure if this is a good thing or a new age branding exercise—and maybe it doesn’t matter where the money comes from—but big brands are getting involved in nurturing local film talent, too. Earlier this month Tiger Beer organized an intimate master class with Anthony Chen and a handful of winners. Was it a publicity stunt? Obviously. But does it make being a not-yet-filmmaker sexy? Definitely.
We’re making friends with India
The MDA and the Singapore Film Commission seem to be funneling more money into film grants. (They were unavailable to comment on precise numbers, but our interviewees all cited the MDA and SFC’s support.) Next year, in time for SG50, they are funding a seven-director, Paris Je t’aime-esque omnibus film with big names like Royston Tan, Eric Khoo and Jack Neo. They’ve also just announced that they’re funding a co-production with Chennai, called Chennai Singapore. The move is to foster closer ties with the South Indian film industry (who make a lot of movies). It seems more tactical than cinematically passionate, but we’ll take it.
We may have our own Ang Lee
Earlier this month, The Straits Times reported that director Kelvin Tong will direct an international horror film The Faith of Anna Waters, starring Hollywood young things Elizabeth Rice and Matthew Settle and set in Singapore. It’s not the first international production to be shot here, but unlike most of the others, this one promises to be shot not in the Mediapolis studio, but on the streets. The MDA is also co-funding this movie, through a production assistance grant. Apparently, their support covers
not just filmmakers but also Singapore as a
filmmaking hub.
But censorship undermines everything
And yet, in a cruel twist, the very bodies charged with nurturing Singapore’s film industry are squelching the full potential of its storytelling. Earlier this month, the MDA banned Tan Pin Pin’s documentary To Singapore, With Love, about political dissenters living abroad in self-exile. The MDA said the film “undermined national security” because many people in the film gave “distorted and untruthful accounts”. A counterstatement signed by many of the filmmakers mentioned here (including Anthony Chen, Roystan Tan and Wee Li Lin) urging the authorities to reconsider, said, “censorship does nothing to promote a vibrant, informed society”. It does nothing to promote a fledgling film industry either.
Want even more on Singapore’s film scene?
Check out our list of 8 upcoming local productions or read our interviews with Zhang Wenjie, Singapore International Film Festival Director, and Sanif Olek, Director of Singapore film Sayang Disarang.
