Written by Parveen Maghera

The last day of the third annual Singapore Short Film Awards show­cased a large col­lec­tion of films with its own vari­ety as it deliv­ered the best of the films and the worst.


Triple X

Triple X depicts a man’s search for cer­tain spe­cial­ity titles in a DVD store. With decent cin­e­matog­ra­phy and story, Triple X was a rel­a­tively sat­is­fy­ing start to the day’s screening.

Someday My Prince Will Come

A non-dialogue film of 5 min­utes, Someday My Prince Will Come revolves around just dolls as they empha­sise on the fact that ‘Good things come to those who wait.’

An inter­est­ing film­mak­ing tech­nique, though it may be dif­fi­cult to appre­hend at the start, the film was a mar­vel­lous attempt in terms of its originality.

Tape/Record

The film is about a girl who is immersed in a video footage depict­ing her own per­fect life, which in the end turned out to be a schiz­o­phrenic teenager entan­gled between her imag­i­na­tion and real­ity. The story was not extra­or­di­nary but nev­er­the­less, the title and the film’s edit­ing com­pli­mented each other.

Eagles

A small trib­ute to the skaters out there, Eagles is a doc­u­men­tary entail­ing the pride and joy of being a skater.

Though it lacked that cer­tain aspect of turn­ing this doc­u­men­tary into a more inter­est­ing watch, what was dis­played was pretty much enter­tain­ing to the eyes and yes, the intent of the film­maker is achieved

Threads

A heart-warming story of a mother and her daugh­ter, Threads is one of those films filled with emo­tions and solemn.

No doubt, the pur­pose of the film was vis­i­ble and bril­liantly ful­filled, as the intent of the film­maker was achieved. The story was a unique take on rela­tion­ships but the intent is com­mon. Think about the many other films of the same genre hav­ing a sim­i­lar pur­pose? It is highly impos­si­ble not to name a few.

What About Farquar?

What about Farquar is a short doc­u­men­tary on how the first man on colo­nial Singapore of the past was not given proper recog­ni­tion in the present.

It made total sense of such a film where his­tory is con­cerned but what was por­trayed was not con­vinc­ing enough nor did it make sense at cer­tain areas for it to be good enough for a film. There were some tinge of humour here and there but the actual intent was not clearly shown.

The Thief and The Wise Man

A mean­ing­ful approach towards empha­sis­ing the beliefs of Islam, The Thief and The Wise Man is a reflec­tion of the wise words of the Koran, under­lin­ing the fac­tor of a wise human in life.

Notably a film from which one can gain some Islamic val­ues, the film man­aged to cap­ti­vate the audi­ence atten­tion as they were set to think whether the male lead would intend to do what he intended to or back out in the name of Allah. The art direc­tion in this film was appro­pri­ate enough till an unim­pres­sive sto­ry­book cover was shown. It, unfor­tunetly, reflected the lack of pro­fes­sion­al­ism from the art director.

What’s Your Choice

This is a film of a crip­pled man as he strives to earn a liv­ing through dis­trib­ut­ing pam­phlets in Orchard.

Interesting edit­ing tech­niques were dis­played in the film though it may look cheesy to some. Nevertheless, the intent of the film­maker was obvi­ous as he makes an effort to voice for those who feel degraded or use­less because of their disabilities.

Twelve Noon

Something dif­fer­ent I have watched so far, Twelve Noon explodes the moment on just one sim­ple story and character.

Impressively thought, with appro­pri­ate cin­e­matog­ra­phy and bril­liant edit­ing, Twelve Noon was indeed a film of its kind where every character’s view was por­trayed effec­tively dur­ing the same period of time where the event is occur­ring. Great think­ing by the direc­tor, indeed.

Underwater

A music video of a fish trapped in a girl’s body, Underwater is a refresh­ing expe­ri­ence from the whole event so far as this was the only music video depict­ing a story.

Excellent art direc­tion in this field, topped with bril­liant cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Underwater man­aged to cap­ture most of the audi­ence atten­tion and of course, the music did its fair share.

Vinyl

An inter­est­ing doc­u­men­tary on the choices peo­ple make between CDs and vinyl records, Vinyl prob­a­bly went too far and thus, made it seem draggy.

Without doubt, this doc­u­men­tary was cap­ti­vat­ing as not many are in the know of vinyl records in present day nor have been exposed to the opin­ions music lovers have for vinyl, as far as I am con­cerned. What was expected, was expected, what was knowl­edge­able was grasped well, but towards the end when audi­ences felt it was going to be an appro­pri­ate end­ing, the film car­ried on. It became draggy, with too much unnec­es­sary infor­ma­tion at the end. Yet, it was a great attempt at bring­ing back the past to the present.

To The Summer in Our Hearts

This film is a mem­o­rable refresher of the care­free days when play­ing in the play­ground was every child’s daily routine.

With dif­fer­ent shots of the play­ground at dif­fer­ent angles plus a few voiceovers of the locals as they share their thoughts on their child­hood days, To The Summer In Our Hearts seemed a decent attempt in reliv­ing the past in the present. Though this doc­u­men­tary was only scratch­ing the sur­face, what was shown was pretty relatable.

Big Bio

A cre­ative attempt on Claymation, Big Bio was one of the inter­est­ing yet unique films of the night. Although it was dif­fi­cult to under­stand what the film was por­tray­ing, it was a beau­ti­fully artis­tic dis­play of thoughts, ideas and imag­i­na­tion through the eyes of a futur­is­tic scientist.

Ubin

A short doc­u­men­tary por­tray­ing the cur­rent state of Ubin, this film is a form of real­i­sa­tion for all of us as we see the nat­ural land­scape of Ubin being threat­ened by the acts of modernisation.

With visu­als of the Ubin land­scape expos­ing its cur­rent appalling state and shots of the natives in between, this film could pass for any doc­u­men­tary chan­nel if it went more in depth into the cul­tural, aes­thetic and his­tor­i­cal aspects of the island.

Nevertheless, the intent of the film­maker was obvi­ous and it was indeed a great attempt to kick start a thought like this.

The Wedding Avenger

As a bride attempts to escape her post wed­ding com­mit­ments, she brings her­self to play an arcade game revolv­ing around the doubts in her heart.

With appro­pri­ate use of after effects, topped with well-suited art direc­tion, this film may have achieved its pur­pose, the ulti­mate intent of the film­maker. However, it seemed a lit­tle vague at some areas but nev­er­the­less, it was an enter­tain­ing film and audi­ences had a good few laughs at cer­tain points of the film.

When I Grow Up

A com­pi­la­tion of footages by a mother of her two year old baby boy, When I Grow Up made this film a point­less screen­ing that evening.

Of course, her baby was adorable, which kept the audi­ences enthralled and no doubt the footages did link to the title, it unfor­tu­nately made no sense for the film to be screened at such an event. Nevertheless, I see great poten­tial for the young star in the act­ing indus­try in the future.

Warmth on a Liang Day

A short doc­u­men­tary of an ice cream seller uncle ‘Liang’, this is one of those films enlight­en­ing audi­ences on the unseen Singapore.

Ice cream sell­ers have spread them­selves coun­try­wide sur­viv­ing on their bite-sized earn­ings each day as they strive for a joy-filled life. Liang, in this film, posi­tions his ice cream shop at dif­fer­ent parts of Singapore each day, is unfor­tu­nately a vic­tim of unex­pected weath­ers, yet, never leaves his humil­ity for the other Singaporeans who are, in one way or another, in the same boat as him.

Neatly put in place for a doc­u­men­tary as such, with ordi­nary cin­e­matog­ra­phy and direc­tion, Warmth on a Liang Day is an eye opener for those who think Singapore is a land of the riches.

Zuo Kang Lang

A film expos­ing the bor­ing worka­holic life of an aver­age Singaporean, this film itself turned out to be a bore.

With a count­less num­ber of repeated scenes of the same loca­tions with the same direc­tion, it made the film rather dry and point­less. Moreover, with no back­ground music or sounds for almost the whole film, leav­ing the first and last 5 min­utes of the film, ques­tioned the pur­pose of the film. Was it inten­tional or was it a tech­ni­cal glitch?

Xiang Yen

A mother and daugh­ter smoke away as they con­verse in an unlikely con­ver­sa­tion of the late husband/father’s smok­ing habit.

Xiang Yen’s story was based on the dia­logues of the two females, mak­ing it, though pur­pose­ful, lack in its cred­i­bil­ity. This would have been achieved if a few shots of the husband/father were shown, either smok­ing or lying in his deathbed.

All in all, great work in terms of cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion, espe­cially the last shot of the cig­a­rette burn­ing on the ashtray.

Bandh

A film of the bond between a motor­cy­cle and its owner, Bandh is an intrigu­ing film, espe­cially for first time watchers.

Bandh dis­played great cin­e­matog­ra­phy from the motorcycle’s angle itself and it made it seem less obvi­ous that the story was told from the motorcycle’s point of view. Interesting story, yet sim­ple with a pur­pose, Bandh was a pretty tit­il­lat­ing watch.

Redline

A film about rac­ing, blood, gam­bling, betrayal and hon­our, Redline could have done bet­ter if it was told in more than 19 min­utes. The film had a thrilling story, with an inter­est­ing plot and not for­get­ting the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion espe­cially when the main sub­jects of the frames were car(s). Brilliantly writ­ten but it felt a lit­tle rushed, espe­cially when the cli­max unfolded. The sto­ry­line could have been elab­o­rated on, keep­ing the sus­pense hang­ing and thus mak­ing the film more intrigu­ing. Nevertheless, what was shown in the 19-minute film was worth a praise.

This Is Love

A short ded­i­ca­tion from a son to his grand­fa­ther as he shows his insep­a­ra­ble rela­tion­ship on screen, This Is Love was, as a mat­ter of fact, a typ­i­cal fam­ily love film.

However, the film­maker is only 7 years old and for a young boy like him direct­ing the film and the way the sequence of events was put in place, I must say, it was an impres­sive start.

Two Fingers Imitating Legs Walking

This 9 minute long film depicted a man’s love life, from the day it bloomed till it started to wilt. Told in a nar­ra­tive for­mat, Two Fingers Imitating Legs Walking seemed pretty much of a blog­ger film­ing his own love life out of his own blog.

The cin­e­matog­ra­phy was unusual of course, not like any other films shown, but then again, the story line lacked its depth, which could have been improved on to make the entire film worth watching.

3 Days Grace

3 Days Grace is an inspir­ing story on a father and son rela­tion­ship once again, as the son takes care of his elderly father before shift­ing him into a Home. Well-written and a lit­tle dif­fer­ent from every other father and son short film seen so far, this film was a pretty inter­est­ing watch.

Yet again, as far as what I have seen, father and son rela­tion­ships have taken up most of the film sto­ries, and with that is a sad, emo­tional catch. Let’s start think­ing beyond this.

64

This film is about a boy who is an excel­lent chess player, or he think he is.

The story line seemed to entan­gle my thoughts, as I was unsure of what was really going on but what awed me was the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion dis­played. There was this feel­ing of sus­pense and mys­tery wait­ing to be unfolded and this was suc­cess­fully por­trayed using proper shots, sequences and appro­pri­ate usage of props and cos­tumes. The light­ing, as a mat­ter of fact, assisted in cre­at­ing the desired ambi­ence as well.

Hunting Tale

Hunting Tale was a film that was dif­fi­cult to appre­hend from the start. From the shot of a young girl with a soft toy to a grown up girl with tat­toos, and off she goes to a young lady’s house where, if I’m not mis­taken, they talk about her father. If shots of the girl’s par­ents were included, the film could have made more sense to the audience.

Wherever You Will Be

A man looks back into his child­hood days for the one he lost years back; Wherever You Will Be seemed an ordi­nary film with an ordi­nary story yet again. The story, in my opin­ion, could have devel­oped even fur­ther to make it more real­is­tic and of course, the pro­nun­ci­a­tion of the lan­guage used should be accu­rate, as some­one from the audi­ence had pointed out.

Chasing Sunset

Chasing Sunset depicts a girl’s strug­gle as she tries to main­tain a long dis­tance relationship.

Interesting cin­e­matog­ra­phy dis­played and beau­ti­ful art direc­tion at cer­tain areas; Chasing Sunset would have been more believ­able if not for the end­ing shown. From the begin­ning of the film, there was a sense of direc­tion and it made the film look good in a way, although it may not be the best story. However, the end­ing was a lit­tle vague or if it was the intent of the film­maker to leave it vague, then prob­a­bly there should be an actual rea­son behind it. However, how it seems to be is pretty unex­pected and the audi­ences could have expected a more log­i­cal end to it.

Roommates

By far the most enter­tain­ing film of the day, Roommates was a per­fect end­ing to the night’s and the week’s screening.

Amazingly writ­ten, Roommates was a film I have never had imag­ined to come across before. Complimenting on the bril­liant work on the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion in par­tic­u­lar, this film is worth a thou­sand praises. Every point in this film was filled with an eerie sus­pense and audi­ence were forced to think some­thing is def­i­nitely going to scare them, well for me at least.

The art direc­tion was per­fect and what was shown was con­vinc­ing and the story seemed orig­i­nal as well. Great job, I’d say.

Written by Nishanthini Ganesan

Day 6 of the Singapore Short Film Awards took place on a rainy Saturday and played host to the largest num­ber of films screened in a day thus far. As usual, some dis­ap­pointed, but there were more than a few that left the audi­ence in awe.

My Name is Sam

A touch­ing film in a Singaporean con­text about a boy who is being taken care by his grand­mother who does not want him, My Name is Sam was well shot and pre­sented on screen.

However, it can be said that My Name is Sam did not come across as strongly as a film with its sto­ry­line and sub­ject mat­ter had the poten­tial to.

Kopi Old Times

Kopi Old Times is a well-intentioned doc­u­men­tary about the cof­feeshops in Singapore. It addresses the age old ques­tion that Singaporeans are faced with on a daily basis: Tradition or Modernity?

In a land where change is immi­nent, noth­ing rep­re­sents our past as effec­tively as a sim­ple cup of cof­fee enjoyed at a hawker cen­tre does. The most obvi­ous prob­lem with this film’s cin­e­matog­ra­phy is there being far too many cam­era move­ments dur­ing the inter­views, which audi­ence mem­bers found unnecessary. The nar­ra­tion in this film had no obvi­ous slip-ups and pro­vided good com­pany to the visu­als on screen. Kopi Old Times, to say the least, is a film that held great meaning.

The Last Train

A doc­u­men­tary about the Tnjong Pagar Railway Station on it’s final days of oper­a­tion, told through inter­views with the peo­ple who have­have lived and worked there.

The doc­u­men­tary was com­phre­hen­sive, touch­ing on the prob­lems aris­ing from the clo­sure of the rail­way and cap­tur­ing the ambi­ence of the place. However it did drag at some points. The Last Train included footage of the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station’s last day of oper­a­tion which I found to make it par­tic­u­larly valu­able, not just as a film but as a National Archive.

The Last Train is a film that summed up a small part of Singapore’s his­tory, and though it can­not be said that this film is a mas­ter­piece, visu­ally, it has cap­tured a part of Singapore beautifully.

Lost in Paradise

Featuring stun­ning cut­aways accom­pa­nied by the thoughts of one man as he goes through a strug­gle faced by all artists, Lost in Paradise is a tale of one’s expec­ta­tions ver­sus his reality.

With a script that was both believ­able and authen­tic to its con­text, Lost in Paradise set itself apart from many other films with it’s set­ting, in New York City. The film had a sto­ry­line that was relat­able to any­one who has sought out to pur­sue his or her dreams. Lost in Paradise was beau­ti­fully shot, with the scenes on the cliff being both breath­tak­ing and sym­bolic, to show the author’s lone­li­ness as he gives up every­thing for his art. 

Mannequeins

Mannaquins is a psy­chadelic music video, one of the few music videos to be screened at the Singapore Short Films Award screenings.

Dark and depress­ing, Mannaquins was visu­ally com­pelling. It was well edited, with a clear con­cept and com­mend­able art direc­tion. However, the film felt like noth­ing more than an expres­sion of rage, and a clas­sic metal music video. One could not help but to won­der if the author of the film felt the need for the story to be relat­able to an audience.

Let Fly

Let Fly is a tale about one boy’s dreams to become a pilot, and his inail­ity to make them come true due to his father want­ing him to carry on the fam­ily busi­ness and his mother hav­ing died in a plane crash.

Depressing sto­ry­line with a lack of kathar­sis aside, Let Fly fea­tured awk­ward act­ing as well as back­ground nar­ra­tion. Let Fly gained my favour with its above aver­age art direc­tion, but lost it with its use of ama­teur sym­bol­ism. The open­ing sequence of this film didn’t have much ot do with the rest of the story either, serv­ing only to show the filmmaker’s abil­ity to pro­cure vin­tage films of aeroplanes.

Let Fly sim­ply is a clas­sic bad Singaporean short film, one that aims to sad­den its audi­ence for no appar­ent rea­son.

Pointework

Pointework is an artis­tic film detail­ing the dif­fi­cul­ties of a long-distance rela­tion­ship, through the eyes of a man and a woman, artists in their own right, as they strug­gle to keep their rela­tion­ship and their art alive.

Though well-shot with beau­ti­ful cin­e­matog­ra­phy and above-average art design, the film itself was poorly con­tructed. It fea­tured a lead female char­ac­ter that the audi­ence found diff­fi­cult to empathise with due to poor act­ing and a lack of dimen­sion to the char­ac­ter. Opposite her is a man who only ever wears his chef uni­form, until the end of the film.

Pointework was con­fus­ing at some points. Towards the end of the film, one could not help but to won­der, what was its point?

Made Up

A film from the vaults of Ngee Ann’s School of Film and Media Studies, Made Up is a tale of beauty and beauty lost.

The film relied heav­ily on sym­bol­ism, with there being no dia­logue at all. The art direc­tion was intri­cately done and com­mend­able as it led to the film being visu­ally com­pelling on screen. If only the the exit sign had been hid­den from view at the begin­ning of this film, Made Up would have been perfect.

Play Pretend

Play Pretend is a flm that touches on metero­sex­u­al­ity in a Singaporean con­text. Well shot, with pow­er­ful act­ing by Nat Ho, Play Pretend addresses the typ­i­cal Singaporean man’s need to be seen as masculine.

The vignette feel to the mem­o­ries helped seper­ate the past from the present and quell any audi­ence con­fu­sion as the film kept switch­ing between times. The film itself was beau­ti­fully shot. Coupled with the con­tro­ver­sial, yet relat­able sto­ry­line, Play Pretend struck a chord with its audience.

One Sunny Morning

One Sunny Morning is a film that touches on the con­cept of homo­sex­u­al­ity. Stunningly shot, One Sunny Morning is a tale of for­bid­den love and the strug­gles of two men as they fight to come to terms with themselves.

This is a film that will bring hope to its audi­ence, and one that rep­re­sents its sub­ject mat­ter well.

Ordinary

Ordinary is a well-intentioned film that is as sim­ple as it is pow­er­ful. The film tells about a day in the life of a toi­let cleaner, a film that every­one in the the­atre could relate to, for we all have seen and met toi­let cleaners.

Well-shot and put together, with believ­able act­ing, Ordinary is a mov­ing film that will inspire the worst of us to do a good deed.

Now Therefore

One of the few music videos to be screened at the 3^rd Singapore Short Film Awards, Now Therefore tells a story about a man escap­ing the world to seek out what he believes in.

Now Therefore fea­tured some amaz­ing shots in scenic loca­tions. It had con­vinc­ing per­for­mances by both the band and the actor. Well-edited and put together with good music and an interesing con­cept, Now Therefore set itself apart from many other angst-driven metal music videos.

Playback

Playback is a clas­sic story of some­one find­ing some­thing after it had been hid­den away for a long time, that trans­ports them back to their past, in par­tic­u­lar, their childhood.

Playback was beau­ti­fully shot and had a con­cept that was short and sim­ple, yet effec­tive. Featuring no dia­logue at all, it told its story through the well-delivered per­for­mances by its actors. Delivering a heart­warm­ing story in a Singaporean con­text, with art direc­tion that served its pur­pose well and made the film believ­able, it is hard to under­stand why Playback was not one of the nom­i­nees for an award.

Qi Qi

It can be said that Qi Qi make lit­tle to no sense. Though the sto­ry­line was clear, the audi­ence sim­ply did not under­stand the point of the film. Some shots lasted for far too long, and the low light­ing , as well as unclear voiceovers made this an uncom­fort­able film to both watch and hear.

Qi Qi fea­tured sym­bol­ism that came across as being too lit­eral. The film itself was draggy. It was impos­si­ble to empathise with the lead female char­ac­ter, for she lacked dimen­sion. As a whole, the film could no be said to be more than one authored by an ama­teur filmmaker.

Project Marionette

Featuring 3D ani­ma­tion that was well-developed, Project Marionette was visu­ally inter­est­ing and com­palling. However, the story over­all failed to be either mov­ing or pow­er­ful. To add insult to injury, the con­cept itself could also hardly be deemed as original.

Birthday cake

Birthday cake is an abstract film con­sist­ing of noth­ing but shots of a birth­day cake and the can­dles perched on top of it.

Though the con­cept was highly intru­ig­ing, Birthday Cake was grainy and suf­fered poor qual­ity on screen. However, this did not take away from the film being inter­est­ing and sym­bolic. Birthday Cake ful­filled its pur­pose as a blank book the audi­ence could fill up with their own con­clu­sions about the film.

The Red Veil

The Red Veil is a Tamil lan­guage film set in India.

The Art Direction in The Red Veil was inter­i­cately done, mak­ing for a visu­ally com­pelling film. Though The Red Veil had a sto­ry­line that could have come across as both mov­ing and pow­er­ful, it sim­ply did not come across as strongly on screen as it could have.

With its stun­ning cin­e­matog­ra­phy, it can be said that the Red Veil looked much bet­ter than it sounded. The dia­logue was deliv­ered awk­wardly, not helped by the fact that most of the character’s were not shown talking.

The Red Veil is a film that had the poten­tial to do well, but which sim­ply didn’t.

Redemption

The text shown at the begin­ning of Redemption stated that it was filmed on an iPhone 4 care. As some­one judg­ing this film, I must say that shoot­ing a film on an iPhone 4 cam­era is noth­ing to be proud about unless the film was well shot, which can­not be said about Redemption.

Poorly edited with far too many effects and tran­si­tions, this film fea­tured a story that was nei­ther prop­erly devel­oped, nor well-intentioned. At the end, all this film did was to high­light the dan­gers of the mentally-ill and stereo­type the mentally-ill as dan­ger­ous. Redemption was highly degrad­ing, mak­ing it a film unfit to be redeemed.

Quiescence

Quiescence is a film about a malay woman and her struggles.

The film was well shot and came across beau­ti­fully on screen. However, both the sto­ry­line and the main char­ac­ter felt one dimen­sional, and as such it was dif­fi­cult for the audi­ence for empathise with this film, or have much to say about it.

Spycat and the Paper Chase

A paper­cut ani­ma­tion, Spycat and the Paper chase was as funny as its visu­als were well-developed.

Though the con­cept couldn’t be said as being entirely orig­i­nal (Villian steals every known item of a spe­cific kind in the world propt­ing Hero to chase him down and take him down), the story and script were both well-developed and convincing.

Remembering Ubin

A well-intentioned film, Remembering Ubin cap­tured the beauty and essence of one of Singapore’s off­shore islands, which now lies forgotton.

The stun­ning time-lapses at the open­ing cred­its were enough to draw the audi­ence into the film, which proved itself to be as mov­ing as it was visu­ally compelling.

The film told the story of the island through the eyes of its inhab­i­tants, peo­ple who have lived and worked there since their youth. Remembering Ubin can be treated as a National Archive. It served its pur­pose, its pur­pose being to remind the young of a land their ances­tors once lived in and that should never be lost to the ages.

Geram

Geram was well-shot with a script that was prop­erly devel­oped and con­vinc­ing. It told the story of an unhappy wife try­ing to mend the gap between her and her hus­band, only to find out that the rea­son she had been search­ing for is entirely trivial.

Meaning, “angry” in malay, Geram was filmed in beau­ti­ful loca­tions, mak­ing for good art direc­tion and a film that was easy on the eyes. It touched a sub­ject close to the hearts of many Singaporeans, the love of soc­cer. A relat­able script with visu­ally inter­est­ing shots, Geram set the stan­dard for a clas­sic, sim­ple yet effec­tive, Singaporean short film.

Steng

Steng is an 8-minute short film fea­tur­ing a never-ending cig­a­rette and the hopes and strug­gles of three young National Service men.

Peppered with a vul­gar­i­ties, Hokkien and English alike, Steng had a script that was both con­vinc­ing and well-developed. The film’s most impor­tant asset was its script in fact, due to the film being mostly dia­logue with lit­tle to no action.

The art direc­tion was well done and on-screen, the night scenes did were both well-lit and free of noise. Many shots how­ever, were out of focus and there were more than a few con­ti­nu­ity errors, specif­i­cally in the length of the cigarette.

The film Remember was not screened due to tech­ni­cal problem.

Strangers

Strangers is a film touch­ing on the topic of les­bian­ism in the con­text of a con­ser­v­a­tive Singaporean home. 

Well-shot, with good qual­ity on screen Strangers fea­tured strong and believ­able act­ing by its cast. The house and the char­ac­ters were con­vinc­ing, partly due to the splen­did art direc­tion. The film showed as much, or prob­a­bly much more than it told, mak­ing for a com­mend­able effort. Strangers also fea­tured a pow­er­ful sub­ject mat­ter that was con­tro­ver­sial, enabling the audi­ence to empathise with the film and its characters.

Written by Parveen Maghera

The fifth day of the 3^rd annual Singapore Short Film Awards was indeed the best of the rest so far, with a whole lot of enter­tain­ing films, and not for­get­ting the more out­stand­ing ones.

Peace Be Upon You

A respond to the irra­tional por­trayal of Singaporean Muslims by PM Lee, Peace Be Upon You fol­lows the faith, beliefs and aspi­ra­tions of the Malay Muslim Community in Singapore.

In his book, ‘Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going’, PM Lee had cer­tain mis­con­cep­tions of Muslims, accord­ing to the Muslims them­selves as they see how invalid and base­less they are, prov­ing them wrong in a con­vinc­ingly ratio­nal way. This doc­u­men­tary, thereby, serves as an answer to PM Lee, the voice of those affected by his known-to-be gra­tu­itous statements.

When the cin­e­matog­ra­phy is con­cerned, need­less to say, it was per­fect for a doc­u­men­tary as such, of course, com­pli­ment­ing the art direc­tion in this case for the var­i­ous loca­tions used in the film.

An inspir­ing doc­u­men­tary, an eye-opener for those lost in a whirlpool of their own stereo­types and super­sti­tions, Peace Be Upon You is undoubt­edly a com­mend­able effort in rec­og­niz­ing the Muslim com­mu­nity in Singapore and is indeed a great start to the day’s screening.

Libertas

An ani­ma­tion film com­pletely based on illus­tra­tions, Libertas fol­lows a girl’s jour­ney to Uluru after the demise of her brother.

The illus­tra­tions were very well por­trayed, in accor­dance to the voiceover of the main lead. Simply drawn, yet painstak­ingly put together, Libertas had a unique touch. Complimenting on the effort of the ani­ma­tions dis­played, it was indeed a pretty fas­ci­nat­ing film. The story was sat­is­fy­ingly inter­est­ing, but of course with the por­trayal of the sin­gle and only char­ac­ter through illus­tra­tions, it made the film a tit­il­lat­ing watch.

Lighthouse

On a humourous yet ten­der road trip to an unknown light­house, a mother attempts to relive the moments with her three chil­dren after her hus­band, her children’s father, leaves them.

This del­i­cate story on the basis of fam­ily affec­tion would not have been able to be por­trayed the way it is, if not for the amaz­ing cin­e­matog­ra­phy dis­played. With beau­teous visu­als of the coun­try­side and bril­liant shots in between, and not for­get­ting the com­mend­able art direc­tion exhib­ited, Lighthouse fea­tured its upmost poten­tial for a deserv­ing award.

Tales of the Chugawagas

An adorable film of 3D ani­ma­tions, Tales of the Chugawagas fol­lows the adven­ture of lit­tle cutely built crea­tures as they delve into the dream world of the humankind.

This film is greatly cred­itable for its art direc­tion, with unde­ni­ably splen­did effort where the 3D mod­el­ling is con­cerned. The cin­e­matog­ra­phy dis­played in the film is also com­mend­able as it synced bril­liantly with the excep­tion­able back­ground music, which suited the whole ambi­ence in the film.

Tales of the Chugawagas was a mind-blowing leap into the art of 3D and I won’t be sur­prised to see these tiny crea­tures mak­ing their way to the sets of Disney.

Love In Any Genre

Love In Any Genre is a com­i­cal love story of two film char­ac­ters within a film, which ques­tions the deci­sions made as they hover between their own imag­i­na­tion and reality.

One thing the film reflected the most was the laud­able effort of the scriptwriter in his attempt of blend­ing in two widely dif­fer­ent lan­guages into one, which played a rather big role in this whole com­edy film. Of course, the script would not have come to life with­out the tal­ents. Indeed, the script accom­pa­nied by the appro­pri­ate accents pro­duced by the tal­ents made this film worth the effort. However, the story itself was a lit­tle super­fi­cial as it was not easy to under­stand the flow of events, apart from the humour content.

Nevertheless with a fresh doze of humour, this film man­aged to cap­ti­vate the audi­ences at least.

Sanzaru

Sanzuru, Japanese for “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil”, is a blood­ily gory film of a young man’s revenge for his father’s death and mother’s rape.

An absolutely intrigu­ing film indeed, Sanzaru is what I’d call a per­fect nominee.

However, it is unfair to com­pli­ment the entire film as a whole from what I only saw because the end­ing was not shown, due to an unex­pected tech­ni­cal glitch.

Nevertheless, what was shown was impact­ful. The cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion com­pli­mented the tal­ents por­trayal in the film effec­tively and had every valid rea­son to relate back to the title. The art direc­tion, in par­tic­u­lar, was well exe­cuted. The set, the wardrobe, props and blood were fan­tas­ti­cally dis­played on screen and was con­vinc­ing for a story like this. Yet, noth­ing more could be said with­out hav­ing the entire film shown.

Wild Dogs

Street busk­ing is not an ideal job for any Singaporean espe­cially in a soci­ety where money is vital for sur­vival. Wild Dogs explores how one man sur­vives on his own music, on his own voice, on his job: street busking.

This doc­u­men­tary serves as an eye-opener for those who think street busk­ing is an entire waste of time. If you think liv­ing on your pas­sion is use­less, it only shows how much you have been miss­ing out in life, try­ing to accom­plish the goals you think you needed but not what you have always wanted.

An inter­est­ing and enjoy­able doc­u­men­tary, Wild Dogs dis­played a worth­while pur­pose and a mean­ing­ful mes­sage is put forward.

Unheard

Another inspir­ing doc­u­men­tary of a fam­ily of hearing-impaired par­ents and their child, Unheard explores cer­tain myths and stereo­types of the hearing-impaired in our society.

Without any doubt, the effort put in for this film is admirable, as it voiced for those hearing-impaired being a bur­den to the soci­ety. A tremen­dous mes­sage put for­ward, Unheard is a mean­ing­ful doc­u­men­tary any­one would appreciate.

Thin Air

Thin Air cre­ates an unex­plain­able sense of ever­last­ing hope of a dying soul as a wheel chair bound elderly lives his last few days on his ter­race, hop­ing to catch a fish from the heights of New York City.

The main char­ac­ter in the film had put off his role really well, com­pli­ment­ing his own per­son­al­ity in the film as well as his phys­i­cal con­di­tion. I guess this made the film rather more enthralling as his por­trayal in the film dis­played the intent of the film­maker in a rel­a­tively sub­tle manner.

When the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion is con­cerned, there were pretty stun­ning visu­als of the panoramic views of the city, espe­cially those shot from the ter­race itself.

With that, it seems an admirable effort as a whole, mak­ing it a pos­si­ble awardee this year.

Mandy’s 8 Theories of Sleep

Blown away by its mag­nif­i­cent art direc­tion, Mandy’s 8 Theories of Sleep has suc­cess­fully proven itself to be a right­ful nom­i­nee, for me at least.

As Mandy edu­cates her class­mate on her 8 the­o­ries of sleep, we are con­tin­u­ously wel­comed by a colour­ful array of props rang­ing from push­carts and class­room dec­o­ra­tions to huge chingay-like floats and each prop com­pli­mented the flow of events perfectly.

The story is pretty sim­ple, but nev­er­the­less, had a pur­pose through­out the entire film that kept audi­ences enticed. After all, you wouldn’t want to leave with­out learn­ing all eight the­o­ries of sleep, would you? The end­ing was appro­pri­ate, as it suited the flow of events as well, a per­fect con­clu­sion to a friendly relationship.

A family-suited film, Mandy’s 8 Theories of Sleep, with its art direc­tion beyond bound­aries, was an enjoy­able, inter­est­ing and cap­ti­vat­ing watch.
 

Written by Nishanthini Ganesan

Day 4 of the 3^rd Annual Singapore Short Film Awards screen­ings held at The Substation was host to a good turnout and yet another group of films that ranged from the mediocre to those that were noth­ing less than a plea­sure to watch.

A Cloudy Conundrum.

A Cloudy Conundrum is an ani­mated film about the lives of crea­tures liv­ing on a cloud, as they live and work pro­duc­ing clouds for the skies of the world. The crea­tures are then thrust into the sud­den predica­ment of an unwel­come vis­i­tor to their hum­ble abode.

Beautifully drawn and visu­ally stun­ning, A Cloudy Conundrum sets itself apart from the other ani­ma­tions at the Singapore Short Film Awards with its use of vin­tage ani­ma­tion tech­niques that give a clas­sic feel to the entire movie.

Cut Adrift.

Cut Adrift is a short, 9-minute abstract film by direc­tor Hakym Noh, that places focus on the taboo sub­jects of incest, les­bian­ism and sex­ual gratification.

Taking place in an old house, it can­not be said that Cut Adrift was not visu­ally com­pelling with its inter­est­ing cin­e­matog­ra­phy and well-executed art design. On screen, the shots were lay­ered under a desat­u­ra­tion fil­ter, bring­ing an vin­tage feel to the entire movie.

However, the film’s beauty on screen did not help the fact that many in the audi­ence did not under­stand the film and felt that it lacked a sto­ry­line. Featuring a one-minute kiss­ing scene between two women did not earn the audience’s favour either. Cut Adrift sim­ply is a film that looks good on screen, but like a dog with a bark and no bite, it isn’t as pow­er­ful as a film of its sub­ject mat­ter could have been.

Bliss.

Bliss, by Liang Xuan is an Indonesian-language film that chron­i­cles the life and tri­als of a man, Nick, as he pre­pares to sell the house he has grown up in. Nick’s life story is told through rec­ol­lec­tions, mem­o­ries of the events that took place in the house from when he was a child.

Bliss is a jour­ney through one man’s youth and the events that have shaped him, from his mother get­ting thrown into the depths of drug addic­tion and being raped in front of his eyes, to Nick read­ing one of his father’s the­atre scripts.

The light­ing used in this film ranges from nat­ural sun­light, to can­dle­light in the family’s time of tumoil when they do not have enough money to pay the elec­tric­ity bills. Beautifully cap­tured on screen in stun­ning qual­ity, Bliss is a top con­tender in the Singapore Short Film Awards in terms of cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direction.

Existence.

Existence is a doc­u­men­tary detail­ing the lives of sev­eral Bangladeshi work­ers in Singapore. The film deliv­ers its sto­ry­line in the form of inter­views and phone calls by the Bangladesh work­ers to their fam­i­lies overseas.

Though there isn’t much that can be said about the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and the art direc­tion, Existence is a pow­er­ful film that brings us to places that we have never seen before. It takes us through the tiny world that these work­ers inhabit and the strug­gles that they face, while they build us the Singapore that we know and call home.

Sisters.

Sisters is a film that por­trays male homo­sex­u­al­ity in a Singaporean con­text. The film takes place on a wed­ding day. Sam, the brother of the bride, har­bours feel­ings for the man that she is about to marry and has to come to terms with those feel­ings while faced with immi­nant heart­break, if his heart is still in one piece.

Sisters fea­tured char­ac­ters that are relat­able and a script that is true to the con­text. Through the art direc­tion could have been taken one step fur­ther, for the set­ting did not seem as grand as I would have liked it to have been, it being a wed­ding day and all, it was believ­able and put the audi­ence in the con­text of a Singaporean home.

The Hole.

A Japanese-language film about fam­ily, love, and respon­si­bil­i­ties, The Hole cen­ters around a man, Kenji, and his mother, Ka-San. Kenji strug­gles with feel­ings of guilt as he refuses to get mar­ried, some­thing that Ka-San, like many other old folk, has been yearn­ing for to happen.

The Hole is a work of art that show­cases the abil­ity of its maker. The film’s scenic loca­tions made it visu­ally com­pelling. The art direc­tion was believ­able and gave this film an authen­tic small-town Japanese feel. The film itself was dis­tinctly Japanese in nature and appearence, specif­i­cally in the light­ing of the hos­pi­tal in the first scene and the nat­ural soft light that was used in most of the out­door shots.

First Breath After Coma.

First Breath After Coma is a film detail­ing the heart­break of young love, and the strug­gles of a young cross­dresser, Fie as he deals with the stigma of soci­ety while try­ing to pur­sue his dreams.

The poorly exe­cuted end­ing of First Breath After Coma was a prob­lem to many in the audi­ence as it made the film seem rushed and under­thought. The end­ing lacked karthar­sis and did noth­ing for the film over­all. The film also raised more ques­tions than it answered. Why is Fie a cross­dresser? Under what extreme cir­cum­stances was Daniel prompted to take advan­tage of a help­less young teenager?

However, such ques­tions did not deter from the film being well-shot. That being said, First Breath After Coma is a delight­ful por­trayal of a youth’s quest for accep­tance and hap­pi­ness, but it lacks the matu­rity and sin­cer­ity that would prompt an audi­ence to take this film seriously.

Hentak Kaki.

Hentak Kaki is a short film about a man, Teck Hong, serv­ing in the army as he goes on a jour­ney of self-discovery, aided by a long-time friend, and finds the strength to pur­sue his dreams of open­ing a Western-style coffeeshop.

Hentak Kaki fea­tured vivid char­ac­ters who were as endear­ing and relat­able as they were funny. It por­trayed the Singaporean strug­gle to find mean­ing in life accu­rately and charmed the audi­ence with its hilar­i­ous and witty dialogue.

The art direc­tion was believ­able and true to the con­text. Coupled with the strong script, it put this film in stark con­trast to many oth­ers from Lasalle which showed them­selves to be more dis­ap­point­ing than commendable.

Burger Burger.

Burger Burger is a short ani­ma­tion set in a futur­is­tic world, about a crea­ture which finds itself lost on a deserted island. The crea­ture is soon joined by com­pany that it soon wishes for more than any­thing else, to leave.

The ani­ma­tion of Burger Burger was well exe­cuted. Coupled with a sto­ry­line that was both sim­ple and effec­tive, Burger Burger found favour with the audi­ence. However, this being a film that was purely enter­tain­ing, and nei­ther pow­er­ful nor touch­ing, found me con­cerned as to its eli­gi­bil­ity for an award, any award for the mat­ter, with the excep­tion of Best Animation.

Godaizer.

Godaizer is an ani­mated film about a young man’s quest to save his city from a mutant monster. Though the ani­ma­tion in Godaizer was well done, the story wasn’t at all orig­i­nal and left much to be desired from. The char­ac­ters in the film weren’t vivid enough for

Godaizer to be as impact­ful as film like this had the poten­tial to be. This is how­ever, with the excep­tion of the Father char­ac­ter, who many in the audi­ence found to be par­tic­u­larly endearing.

Godaizer is a film that young peo­ple will be able to relate to. Though a story like this has brought upon an audi­ence both plea­sure and dis­plea­sure due to it hav­ing been told time and time again, it has not had the treat­ment of being told in a Singaporean con­text and there­fore is commendable.

Written by Dynn

Wednesday saw the biggest turnout yet for the third edi­tion of the Singapore Short Film Awards, assert­ing the fact that inter­est in this event, and film in gen­eral, is con­tin­u­ously grow­ing in this coun­try. Like pre­vi­ous days, the reper­toire dur­ing the third screen­ing ranged from excel­lent to appalling, with some sur­prise pack­ages in between.

Fiddle

Revolving around a true story about a man who plays his vio­lin to repress mem­o­ries of his daugh­ter, this film raised more ques­tions than it answered.

Part of the prob­lem was the film’s open­ing. The depic­tion of a man sniff­ing glue had lit­tle to do with the story, and led to some con­fu­sion when the actual plot finally kicked in. The cin­e­matog­ra­phy was decent, with some moments of bril­liance. One shot in par­tic­u­lar that caught the eye was a revolv­ing one of the female char­ac­ter lying among the rem­nants of her father’s vio­lin. However, I was left wish­ing that a greater link had been drawn between the dif­fer­ent ele­ments of the story, from the vio­lin to the char­ac­ters. At the end of it all, I found this film per­plex­ing and a tad hard to digest.

Feng Huang Qin

Compelling and visu­ally stun­ning, Feng Huang Qin was fir­ing on all cylin­ders on most fronts. The film, about an old man who plays the tit­u­lar instru­ment to keep his sick wife in good spir­its, was very well scripted. In par­tic­u­lar, praise should be given to the elderly lead actor and actress, whose riv­et­ing per­for­mance as a merry old cou­ple was a joy to watch. This was accom­pa­nied by some excel­lent cin­e­matog­ra­phy, which pro­vided a splen­did con­trast between a rich, bustling sec­tion of a metrop­o­lis and it’s qui­eter, more sub­dued sub­ur­ban areas.

If there were any down­side to the film, it would be that the pac­ing got slug­gish towards the end. Despite that, Feng Huang Qin still proved to be absorb­ing, and was indeed one of the out­stand­ing films of the night.

Forgotten

The title of this film is extremely apt for all the wrong rea­sons. Slipshod edit­ing, cou­pled with hor­ren­dously over­ex­posed footages made me won­der why this film was even show­cased in the first place. One could hardly make heads or tails of the story, and to make mat­ters worse, the sub­ti­tles blended straight into the visu­als, mak­ing any attempt at com­pre­hen­sion impos­si­ble. Forgettable, indeed.

The Final Sendoff

A doc­u­men­tary about the death indus­try in Singapore, this film was highly intrigu­ing. Some insights into the busi­ness aspect of the funeral trade was pro­vided, with the mys­te­ri­ous and super­sti­tious approach to death also touched on. However, I felt that the super­nat­ural ele­ments in the doc­u­men­tary could have been touched on more, and more con­crete expla­na­tions about the dif­fer­ent aspects of the indus­try could have been pro­vided. It would have also been a nice touch if the nar­ra­tion had been deliv­ered in Mandarin instead of English.

Despite that, the Hong Kong-style cin­e­matog­ra­phy, cou­pled with the inven­tive use of cre­ative lan­guage, made for a visu­ally com­pelling film. In par­tic­u­lar, the grue­some shots of decom­posed bod­ies dis­played towards the start of the film caught my atten­tion. Eye-catching, with bits of inter­est­ing infor­ma­tion, The Final Sendoff was a some­what absorb­ing piece of work.

Fachai Meets Lily (FML)

A com­edy about a man named Fachai who attempts to lose his vir­gin­ity before his thir­ti­eth birth­day, FML is a light-hearted com­edy that con­trasts to all the somber films pre­ced­ing it. What made the movie hilar­i­ous was Fachai’s highly-delusional per­sona, cou­pled with visu­als of him mak­ing out with a sex doll, and attempt­ing to achieve an erection.

As much as the end­ing trig­gered bouts of loud guf­faws among the audi­ence, I thought that it was a touch too rushed. The movie had been build­ing up to a truly sidesplit­ting end­ing, and I wished that the cli­max could have been bet­ter exe­cuted to bring the movie to a sat­is­fy­ing conclusion.

Nevertheless, FML is a great film to share some good laughs over.

The Line

A grip­ping tale of two sol­diers trapped in enemy ter­ri­tory, The Line proved to be one of the high points of the night. Set in the fic­tional strife-torn coun­try of Taunesia, the two peace­keep­ers are required to escort a lady out of the hos­tile region and to safety. The grimy and off-colour tableau of Taunesia was skill­fully cap­tured through the use of well-executed hand­held shots. Mixed with some well-engineered computer-generated effects, the result was a visu­ally eye-catching film.

One down­side of the film was the over-usage of exple­tives. I do not have an issue with the use of vul­gar­i­ties in a film, but in this case, the con­stant use of F-bombs was unnec­es­sary and became a source of irri­ta­tion. Parts of the dia­logue could have been improved on, with some of them com­ing straight out of A Guide To Action Movie Clichés. It helped though that there were some nice moments of comic relief, from the bungling Coporal Ahmad, well played by Yazid Jalil, to a well-placed sex­ual innu­endo halfway through the film. Praise should also be given for the exe­cu­tion of a heart-thumping action sequence close to the end of the film. All in all, The Line proved to be a com­pelling piece of work.

Just Like You

Through the eyes of a Cosplay prac­ti­tioner, Just Like You attempted to deal with themes such as dis­crim­i­na­tion, alien­ation, and accep­tance. However, the link between Cosplay and these themes were never fully fleshed out, and cer­tain ele­ments of the doc­u­men­tary seemed to con­tra­dict one another. With bet­ter exe­cu­tion, this film would have made for a more intrigu­ing piece of work.

I Want To Be Significant

A film about a boy named Shafie bat­tling obe­sity, I Want To Be Significant had the poten­tial to be a heart­warm­ing story of over­com­ing odds. However, it lacked emo­tional impact, and could also have done with bet­ter cin­e­matog­ra­phy. One won­ders how good the end prod­uct would have been had the film been bet­ter car­ried out.

I Want To Know What Love Is

Made up solely of footages spliced from the movie Mr And Mrs Smith, this film had no dis­cern­able sto­ry­line or mes­sage. Add to that a seg­ment where a shot of Brad Pitt say­ing “I can’t do it!” is repeated ad nau­seum, and what you have is a highly unnec­es­sary mess at best.

Kevin

An adorable ani­mated film about a dinosaur stranded on an island, Kevin invoked mem­o­ries of the car­toons of yore. A com­plete absence of dia­logue meant that the story of Kevin’s attempt at ful­fill­ing his most pri­mal need was told solely through cutesy visu­als. This was a refresh­ing change from the live action films that had made up the bulk of the reper­toire so far. An absolute joy to watch.

Inked

Inked offered a short insight into the work of tat­too artists. The doc­u­men­tary switched between shots of the artists tat­too­ing them­selves, appar­ently to feel the pain of their cus­tomers, and them offer­ing advice on get­ting tat­toos. However, there was a dis­tinct lack of focus, with the tat­too artists con­stantly mean­der­ing between dif­fer­ent top­ics. This left me won­der­ing what the exact sub­ject mat­ter was. Despite being some­what enlight­en­ing, this film could have been bet­ter executed.

Kelly

A pair­ing of strik­ing visu­als and trance music made Kelly an extremely schiz­o­phrenic view­ing expe­ri­ence. The art direc­tion was com­mend­able, with elab­o­rate make-up and cos­tumes mak­ing the film eye-catching. Coupled with some skill­ful cin­e­matog­ra­phy and edit­ing, Kelly was indeed an attention-grabbing piece. However, with only vague ref­er­ences made to morals and virtues, it was near impos­si­ble to cipher any mes­sages the cre­ators were attempt­ing to con­vey. At the end of it all, I was left won­der­ing what I had just watched.

The Invisible Monster

One of the high­lights dur­ing the pre­view, The Invisible Monster pre­sented a heart­warm­ing love story amidst a schiz­o­phrenic world of extra-terrestrial hap­pen­ings. In the film, Bert (Maxi Lim) is revealed to have a crush on Trish (Joanne-Marie Sim) and vice versa, while run­ning away from invis­i­ble aliens. Revolving around the con­cept of trea­sur­ing loved ones, this film was exe­cuted with lots of pizazz. Paired with excel­lent art direc­tion and cin­e­matog­ra­phy, the bril­liance of both actors made for a com­pelling piece. It is a won­der how this gem could have been cre­ated in 48 hours. Definitely a high­light of the night, and wor­thy of hon­ours.
 

Written by Parveen Maghera

And to the sec­ond day of 3^rd annual Singapore Short Film Awards comes yet another batch of ordi­nary and extra­or­di­nary short films.

Balik Kampung

In recog­ni­tion of the clo­sure of Tanjong Pagar Railway sta­tion, Balik Kampung sees through the past of two indi­vid­u­als as they meet on a train back to Singapore. The rail­way sta­tion is etched in their mem­o­ries as they delve into their past for the last time.

A sweet ded­i­ca­tion to the mem­o­ries of the now-closed Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, this film is the voice of the many out there, in Malaysia and in Singapore, as they see their past slowly fad­ing away, leav­ing only the mem­o­ries they have had with them. With great cin­e­matog­ra­phy, espe­cially the shots of the rail­way sta­tion and rail tracks, this film has lived up to its motive, or I sup­pose is the motive, leav­ing us with the last­ing mem­ory of the his­tor­i­cal Tanjong Pagar Railway Station that has acquired 89 years of heritage.

The Cemetery

The Cemetery is a short doc­u­men­tary film on the dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives of death.

Completely shot in one of the local ceme­ter­ies in Singapore, this doc­u­men­tary has indeed lived up to its title, how­ever, not its inten­tions. The film was not con­vinc­ing enough and with that, laid almost no impact on the audi­ences. What is my take on death? What do I look to see before I die? Where will I land up if I die? None of these set audi­ences think­ing which led to the film, being just a film in a ceme­tery and noth­ing else.

The Colored Chair

This film entails two sep­a­rate moments of life as a father sits, think­ing of his inevitable retire­ment from life, and a son cries, in the mem­o­ries of his late father.

The ‘col­ored chair’ in this film belongs to the father and as shown in the film, is a por­trayal of the father’s once existence.

Though sim­ple, the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and direc­tion of the film did great jus­tice to the emo­tional attach­ment por­trayed between the father and the son. With still shots of the father smok­ing away from the start where he lights his cig­a­rettes till it fin­ishes, filled in with shots of his son’s sor­row­ful cries as he speaks in the pres­ence of his father’s soul, The Colored Chair brings about the unique aspect of film­mak­ing with a per­fect com­bi­na­tion of past and the reality.

Complacency

A short black and white non-dialogue film about a man’s attempt of sat­is­fy­ing his unhappy wife, Complacency is a decent film but with a point­less ending.

With no regrets, the film started of with a direc­tion, a direc­tion the audi­ence were enthralled to fol­low, espe­cially when the title was left anony­mous since the start. However, the end­ing was unex­pected, as if some­thing was miss­ing, and some­thing was yet untold and the audi­ence were left hang­ing with the one word title.

Complimenting on its sim­plic­ity, Complacency had yet a whole lot of poten­tial, espe­cially with a title and an end­ing that the film through­out failed to por­tray effectively.

Chapteh

Set in the early days of Singapore where ten­sions between the Muslims and Chinese were tumul­tuous, a Muslim and a Chinese boy befriend each other regard­less of the dis­crim­i­na­tion or prej­u­dices faced by their reli­gion, as they hit along in a game of chapteh.

Well-performed as Singaporeans of the early days, Chapteh and its char­ac­ters were able to repli­cate what the early Singapore looked like, spoke like and behaved like. The art direc­tion, in this case, was splen­did for its intent of cre­at­ing the 60s back­drop was a won­drous attempt indeed, includ­ing the cos­tumes, record set, tele­vi­sion, sewing machine and the architecture.

Comfort

A 22-minute doc­u­men­tary film, Comfort, cen­ters a typ­i­cal Singaporean taxi dri­ver in his daily drive rou­tine from morn­ing till night.

Comfort inevitably shines an unfor­giv­ing light on the lives of the taxi dri­vers in Singapore. As direc­tor Afiq Omar fol­lows his father through­out the day and expe­ri­ences his father’s ‘office on wheels’, he is enthralled by the con­di­tion his father lives in for almost the whole day, and what he had expe­ri­enced was just ‘scratch­ing the surface’.

Most of the film was shot from the front seat of the taxi, some of which were hand­held. Accompanying these shots were inter­est­ing and mean­ing­ful input from Omar, taxi dri­ver and Afiq’s father which gave the film a rea­son, an under­ly­ing inten­tion for all those who think dri­ving a taxi is just a piece of cake. Let me tell you, if you think a film shot in a taxi is a com­plete bore and a waste, dri­ving a taxi is def­i­nitely not your cup of tea.

Comfort is an enjoy­able doc­u­men­tary, humor­ous yet believ­able, a pos­si­ble entry for a right­ful award.

The Dancer

In his pur­suit of medals, a Latin and Ballroom dancer sees his past com­ing in his way as he tries to prac­tice every step with per­fec­tion. Indulging his dis­ap­point­ment in alco­hol made him no bet­ter as he is tor­mented from the opera music play­ing in the apart­ment above him. Yet, what he sees, gives him a glimpse of hope, as he finally sees what he can truly do with his life.

Amazingly chore­o­graphed, although lit­tle and not meant to be per­fect, the dancer man­aged to por­tray his ver­sa­til­ity in the film, yet in his character.

With almost no dia­logue, The Dancer was ini­tially dif­fi­cult to grasp as all you see is a drunk dancer, in his own danc­ing seizure. As the film pro­gresses, the opera music gets more intense and if one was atten­tive enough to observe the behav­iour of the dancer, he or she could tell that the music was not a back­ground music meant for the scene’s emo­tional build-up but instead, belonged to the record player of the man liv­ing above.

Emerald Hill

Emerald Hill is a short and decent doc­u­men­tary on one of Singapore’s last places with a unique per­anakan influence.

The film had bril­liant estab­lish­ing shots of the area and not for­get­ting the peo­ple resid­ing there. A great recog­ni­tion of the preser­va­tion of the place, cul­ture and val­ues indeed. Yet, it still had some poten­tial for it to be some­thing more of the ordi­nary. Nevertheless, a worth­while effort in its intent of rec­og­niz­ing the past.

Hide and Seek

A rela­tion­ship of a maid and her master’s son, an undoubt­edly pleas­ant rela­tion­ship, Hide and Seek is a story of a 10-year-old’s detach­ment from his par­ents and maid’s dilemma of choos­ing between her home and the lonely boy.

This story is relat­able to those chil­dren who are always left at the maids care and the maids become the only per­son wor­thy to them. In a soci­ety where par­ents work tremen­dously hard for their chil­dren, the whole issue of love and affec­tion is brought down to a minus­cule level. Money and edu­ca­tion is vital, but what about love, com­pan­ion­ship and affec­tion? And in today’s soci­ety, maids leave their own loved ones to be loved ones for oth­ers. Are they being fair to them­selves or to their own loved ones? A ques­tion for the mod­ern day par­ents indeed, Hide and Seek voices for those who long for what they should deserve.

Denim

Denim is a non-scripted form of film, gar­ner­ing its title from the dress­ing of the main char­ac­ter. From what he is say­ing, he is an inter­roga­tor at a fac­tory and while being ques­tioned, he is indulged in his cork­board lay­out on the plain floor, step­ping on every cork­board he posi­tions at a time.

The main char­ac­ter is being hid­den in most of the shots, giv­ing a pos­si­ble indi­ca­tion that he has some­thing to hide, some­thing should not be shown and with a lack of shots and miss­ing pieces to this film, in any case, it is a film with the least eli­gi­bil­ity for an award.

Day off

Day off serves as a voice for the maids out there, who wish for a day off but are not enti­tled to one.

In a doc­u­men­tary for­mat, this film cen­ters a depressed maid as she is denied a day off. She con­tin­ues to spill her heart out, as she explains why she needs one and why she should have one. She serves as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the many maids out there and a real­iza­tion to the many own­ers out there, a real­iza­tion of unin­ten­tion­ally putting their maids in depres­sion or even slavery.

A mean­ing­ful and relat­able doc­u­men­tary film, Day Off has a pos­si­ble eli­gi­bil­ity for a right­ful award.

Changing Lanes

Changing Lanes is a story of a boy, an ex-convict, who hopes to get a decent job but fails many inter­views due to his con­vic­tion. Yet, he never gives up as he strives to do what a loved one told him to all these years.

As it is always said, it is dif­fi­cult to trust a con­vict but to give a chance to that indi­vid­ual to turn over a new leaf does not only make him relieved but it gives any­one the sat­is­fac­tion of being accepted once again. It serves as a moti­va­tor. It makes peo­ple believe there is always a sec­ond chance. Changing Lanes is one of those films with ordi­nary direc­tion, ordi­nary cin­e­matog­ra­phy, ordi­nary film­ing tech­nique but a sen­si­ble story putting a sen­si­ble mes­sage across.

Edmund

A com­i­cal film of a boy in his world of words as he awk­wardly por­trays him­self in front of the peo­ple around him, only to find him­self rejected all the time. At last, he finds some­one like him, fill­ing in his lone­li­ness after all.

A film of awk­ward­ness comes with it a sense of humour. This is one of the films with its awk­ward sense of humour. Not fan­tas­ti­cally writ­ten, yet, the humour present was pretty enjoy­able, although the end was a lit­tle too super­fi­cial for that mat­ter.
Nevertheless, a film to have a laugh about, Edmund it is.

Doodle

A unique rela­tion­ship unfolds through doo­dling as a young artist and a mys­te­ri­ous other con­tinue to draw, blos­som­ing into a rela­tion­ship of an unknown meaning.

A very unique story indeed, Doodle takes the course of rela­tion­ships to a whole new level. Drawing with an unknown whom you can only rec­og­nize through the doo­dles is some­thing unusual yet it makes the whole sen­sa­tion believ­able and never want­ing it to end. Doodle is some­thing of that sort.

And about the doo­dles? Beautifully drawn for a doo­dle, I must say. Credits to the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion, this film is one of its kind, rare yet simple.

Denial

Denial is a short story of a son, in his attempt to explain to his mother about his homo­sex­u­al­ity. Being a mother as she is, she brings her son to see a Chinese priest, hop­ing to ward off evil spir­its and set­ting his son’s life back to normal.

This film is a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the super­sti­tious behav­iour of the older gen­er­a­tion in Singapore. Evil spir­its are known for caus­ing chaos in a person’s life, be it for real or just an assump­tion, a super­sti­tious mind is always superstitious.

However, the story is incom­plete. We do not know whether the son has con­fessed nor did he want a change in his life. Or did the rit­u­als affect him? With miss­ing por­tions in the story, it is dif­fi­cult to judge the true extent of the film’s exe­cu­tion. After all, what is the ulti­mate conclusion?

Written by Nishanthini Ganesan

The 3^rd annual Singapore Short Film Award screen­ings will be held at the the Substation Theatre from the 5^th of March to the 11^th, 2012. The first day set the can­non­ball rolling with a good audi­ence turnout and films that ranged from the bad, to the worse, to the bet­ter and those that were noth­ing short of amazing.

Across the Straits.

Across the Straits is a love story cross­ing lan­guage and bor­ders. It is a clas­sic tale of unhappy youths find­ing plea­sure in the sim­plest of things and com­fort in one another far from home. Though the two main char­ac­ters, a Singaporean girl and a Malaysian boy, live lives that are miles apart, they under­stand one another in a way that no one else has, at least, not from their own family.

Accompanying the sto­ry­line are beau­ti­ful visu­als of the Johor land­scape and stun­ning shots. The sto­ry­line was refresh­ing, devoid of any com­pli­cated non­sense that would oth­er­wise hin­der the effect of the story being told. The twist at the end was an unwel­come change that was wel­come by the audi­ence. However, the end­ing did leave me hang­ing and expect­ing more from the film.

And I Would Do It Again.

A bro­ken hearted woman’s dream turned film analyst’s night­mare, And I Would Do It Again is a sad excuse for a fem­i­nist film. Though the intent of the film­maker was well enough, it sim­ply didn’t come across as an award-winning short.

This film told what it could have shown which made for a visu­ally bor­ing movie. Alternating between close-ups and long shots, there was a dis­tinct lack in the cre­ativ­ity of the film­maker when it came to the shots used. Hell hath no fury like that of the main char­ac­ter, a woman scorned. Sadly though, that was all that could have been said about her. A lack of char­ac­ter devel­op­ment was to blame and despite this film being relat­able enough, it proved itself to be utterly pointless.

Allegiance.

Allegiance brings to light a story that lies behind closed doors. It cap­tures the ugly Singapore, the one most of us will never see and that the rest of us fight to hide. It is the place in which gangs and addic­tions reign supreme. This is where the true life and death deci­sions are made and where the price of loy­alty is at its highest.

The cin­e­matog­ra­phy of this film was noth­ing short of breath­tak­ing, and the shots were a slap in the face to those who remark that Singapore is a bar­ren land to filmmakers. The action in this film was in sharp con­trast to many oth­ers screened, which relied heav­ily on dia­logue to bring the story for­ward. This film also made use of spe­cial effects, which served in their pur­pose to inten­sify the drama on screen.

Allegiance is a film that Singaporeans will be proud of, and that has proved itself to be one of the top con­tenders at the Singapore Short Film Awards 2012.

ACID/A Short Trip.

The dia­logue was slurred which could be excused by the fact that the char­ac­ters in this film were drunk. However there is no excuse for many audi­ence mem­bers left stumped after watch­ing this film, for even the sub­ti­tles were wrong.

ACID had bril­liant cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion, which made for a visu­ally appeal­ing film. The loca­tions were believ­able and the light­ing served its pur­pose well, which made this film interesting.

This is how­ever dis­count­ing the fact that most of the film took place in a bath­room where two char­ac­ters, the Japanese trans­ves­tite and the blonde woman have a con­ver­sa­tion. Then again, when mak­ing a film, dia­logue sequences are the eas­i­est to shoot.

An Ordinary Person.

An Ordinary Person is a doc­u­men­tary about a visu­ally impaired old woman who is an artist, and who con­tin­ues her pro­fes­sion despite her situation.

The intent of the film­maker is well enough. It can­not be said that the shots in this film were bril­liant, but they did enough to put the story across and keep the audi­ence from snooz­ing in their seats. The story and the film itself were inspi­ra­tional and the main char­ac­ter, interesting.

There is pur­pose to this film, like every film should have. It ful­filled what it aimed to do, to inspire the audi­ence, and that is what I enjoyed most about it.

Blood Ties.

A film about two sis­ters, one whom which is about to go on a dan­ger­ous jour­ney, a path that she has most likely taken before and that she will take for the last time.

Interesting enough, but the expec­ta­tions of this film are dashed when the audi­ence is faced with a film that is of poor qual­ity, with visu­ally unin­ter­est­ing shots and poor art direction.

The sim­plest job of the art direc­tor when he or she is faced with the chal­lenge of mak­ing a char­ac­ter bleed onscreen, is to make the blood look real. However, the results proved disappointing.

Blue Tide.

Blue Tide is a film about a man who dis­cov­ers a hid­den secret about a woman he has promised to marry, days before their wedding.

The art direc­tion in this film failed to impress, what with the obvi­ous lack of atten­tion to small details such as read­ing news about the death of a woman from a fash­ion mag­a­zine. However it did shine in such areas such as the wardrobe and the set­tings. The art direc­tion, cou­pled with the cin­e­matog­ra­phy, made for a visu­ally inter­est­ing film but not one that could be counted as a spectacle.

Blue Tide is a fair film, nei­ther here nor there. There is a story present, but what with the lack of action, it fails to give the impact a sto­ry­line like this has the poten­tial to.

Bunga.

Bunga is a con­tro­ver­sial film about one woman’s quest for beauty and its unfor­tu­nate trans­for­ma­tion into a path of lone­li­ness and sor­row, through sex­ual per­ver­sion by none other than the bomoh him­self.

The film on screen was visu­ally stun­ning, with excel­lent qual­ity, cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion. The shots in them­selves were visu­ally inter­est­ing and the colours, vibrant.

However, more than one audi­ence mem­ber was irked by the dis­re­spect this film showed towards Islam, one aspect being the woman’s lack of mod­esty as she held the Muslim holy book.

Band of Mischief.

A film from stu­dents in Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s very own Film Sound and Video course, Band of Mischief is relat­able to all those that have been bul­lied, and there isn’t a soul who hasn’t had his or her fair share.

The char­ac­ters are exag­ger­ated and yet so very believ­able. The script of the film was well writ­ten and pre­sented the audi­ence with a host of dif­fer­ent per­son­al­i­ties, all of whom were vivid. The cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion of the film made for a visu­ally splen­did spec­ta­cle on screen and the twist at the end served its purpose.

The film puts across a mes­sage, aside from the obvi­ous ‘No Bullying’, that is sim­ple and yet will give hope and a pur­pose to every vic­tim of bul­ly­ing, that there is some­one else in the world who has been through worse and who needs a lis­ten­ing ear.