Bitesize: Appreciating Film 101 (06 June 2009)

On 06 June 2009, the Archive was invited by Esplanade to give a presentation as part of Bitesize, a series of monthly talks and workshops conducted by prominent names in the arts industry. Our intern Pei Yee was there with Bee Thiam and she blogged about the session:

The Archive’s talk titled “Appreciating Film 101” took place in the Bay Room and was presented by Bee Thiam to an attentive and interested audience. With a focus on the appreciation of Asian film, Bee Thiam presented an overview of various Asian cinemas, namely China, Japan and India.

Tracing the historical development of each region, he interspersed his presentation with several film clips and analyzed the way a story was told in each clip. In doing so, it was highlighted to the audience how the subject matter and film technique of the various films have changed and developed over time to reflect different social concerns and conditions. For instance, the gritty look and the camera's matter-of-fact gaze in Zhang Yimou’s Old Well (1986) and Story of Qiu Ju (1992) which have storylines that take place during the Cultural Revolution was in sharp contrast to the Asian box office hit Crazy Stone (2006) that features snappy editing and the quirks of a contemporary and globalized Chinese society.

 

Following that, the audience was given a very brief history of the Japan film industry  – one of the oldest film industries in the world – and was treated to a taste of the country’s cinema with Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1955). Giving a lesser known view of Indian cinema to contemporary moviegoers, Bee Thiam introduced the audience to important Indian directors which included Raj Kapoor (who often paid tribute to Charlie Chaplin in his films) and Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray and his award-winning debut film Pather Panchali (1955).

In all, Bitesize was a comprehensive two-hour overview of Asian cinema that gave the audience a good general understanding of the region’s culture, history as well as its film industry.

Here’s to hoping the talk sparked the beginnings of an interest in Asian films for some in the audience!

Bitesize photos courtesy of The Esplanade Co Ltd.

Educators' Workshop by Dr. Kenneth Paul Tan: Critical Approaches to Understanding Singapore Cinema (05 June 2009)

Listening in on Dr. Kenneth Paul Tan’s workshop on Critical Approaches to Understanding Singapore Cinema, I realized that if I were an educator, Dr. Tan’s workshop would help me in more ways than one.

Through a introduction that detailed many aspects of Singapore Society, Dr. Tan encouraged the participants to develop a heightened awareness of the ways in which different dimensions of the Singaporean psyche were explored in Singaporean films. Thus, throughout the course of the workshop, there was an underlying impetus to absorb the myriad of views and ideas presented by the films. Viewing works from the commercial Jack Neo, art-house Eric Khoo, accessible Royston Tan, and documentarians Tan Pin Pin and Martyn See, participants were tasked with the analysis of how the different filmmakers employed the filmic medium (whether simplistically or with some sophistication) to comment on, jibe or satirize Singapore’s political state and the subsequent impact of her policies upon Singaporeans.

Dr. Tan also encouraged the participants to examine various local films, including I Not Stupid, 12 Storeys, 15, Cut, Singapore GaGa, and Singapore Rebel, from a largely political stance. It soon became clear that political issues were tightly intertwined with other, equally if not more “sensitive” socio-economic issues. The entire exercise may have helped to demystify and break down reservations which educators may have had about discussing Singapore’s politics in their classrooms.

After the workshop, it became apparent to the educators that films could be utilized to effectively spur on debate among students and to promote reflection about socio-political issues their students may not have thought about before. Furthermore, the various film clips selected by Dr Tan illustrated the eloquence of local films, some of which present difficult topics in a sensitive yet powerful manner.

Ultimately, I’m sure many participants (myself included) left the workshop enlightened, motivated, and enthused about how they can enrich and empower their students intellectually through the entertaining and universally accessible medium of film.

 

Educators' Workshop by Ken Mizusawa: Exploring Fact and Fiction Through Film (04 June 2009)

One knows that one is in for something interesting when a workshop begins with a film which involves one man playing three characters: an effeminate drama teacher, a blonde ditz and a schoolboy with a severe attitude problem. Using this film, or to be more precise, "mockumentary" as a springboard for discussion, Ken delved into how Truth is presented in the variety of moving images that surrounds us today.

Viewing D.W Griffith's pivotal film, Birth of a Nation (1915), participants caught a glimpse of one of Man's first forays into filmmaking. With Ken's insightful commentary as a guide, participants also actively observed how the beliefs and values of an era and a nation could so vividly colour in onscreen portrayals. Ken related how students, viewers shaped by the present, find Birth of a Nation sequences utterly hilarious due to the incongruity between their expectations and the 1915 audience's expectations of how a film should be.

Throughout the workshop, Ken continued to address the significant roles played by the audience, audience's expectations and filmmakers in shaping the final filmic product. He screened a wide range of films that each substantiated the central theme of Truth in Film through their characters, purpose and style.

Through a screening of Peter Jackson's Forgotten Silver (1995), he also established the importance of discerning form from function in the Language Arts classroom.

The workshop was not only packed with film clips, but with dynamic ideas and concepts that were pertinent and usable in the youth classroom. The participants, a majority of them educators, had come away from the workshop knowing more about how to engage students in critically thinking about Truth in media and Truth portrayed by the media.

 

MOE Bi-Cultural Camp 2009 (03 Jun 2009)

For the third year running, we were approached by the Ministry of Education to programme for the film screening segment of the annual MOE Bi-Cultural Camp. The camp was held at Singapore Sports School on 03 June and it was attended by 300 Upper Secondary students who will be taking a module on China Studies. This year, we screened two documentaries shot in China - Boomtown Beijing (2008) and Please Vote For Me (2007).

Read all of MOE Bi-Cultural Camp 2009 (03 Jun 2009)

Screening of Mat Bond (1967)

On 30 May, we co-organised a screening with the National Library Board as part of their programme, the AsPI (Aspiration Pathfinder). Themed to "Singapore in the 1960’s", this edition of AsPI guided participants through a series of immersive experiences beginning from the time when Singapore attained its independence in 1965. We were planning to hold the screening outdoors, at the backyard of Action Theatre, to replicate the experience of open-air movie screenings in the 1960's. Unfortunately there was a sudden downpour and we had to screen the film indoors instead.

The film we screened is a black & white Cathay-Keris comedy titled Mat Bond (1967). A wacky spoof of the James Bond movies, the titular character is an aspiring spy who gets himself embroiled in a series of capers involving an experimental elixir that evokes invincible powers in the person who consumes it. The participants of the AsPI programme had a good laugh at the silly antics of Mat Bond and the convoluted plotlines as a rich Malay gangster, the Chinese triads, spies for the British, and the head of the village's nursing home all vie to get their hands on the elixir.



The film was loaned from the Cathay-Keris Films' collection, and the English subtitling of the film was done by Alfian Sa'at and incorporated by the team at Black Magic Design.

ACJC talk: the Business of Film 101 (29 April 2009)

It began with an introduction to clue the students of MediaSparks Entrepreneurship and Media Club in on what the Asian Film Archive was all about. Having understood the context in which the Archive functioned, students then asked questions that touched on how the Archive came into being and the purpose of its existence.

In response to this myriad of enquiries, Bee Thiam proceeded to highlight the motivations behind the Archive and elaborated on inspiration gained whilst traveling to different parts of the world. He also broke down the process of starting a non-profit organization into bite-sized steps and addressed the challenges faced by a company that has a social mission at its core.

Bee Thiam talks about the  

The "sharing session" certainly lived up to its name. Whilst playing assistant, toggling between DVD player and laptop presentation; even a humble intern (yours truly) managed to gain further insight into the why's and how's behind the Archive's conception.
  

Remembering Wouter Barendrecht


Photo by Norman Wang

Like everyone else, I was shocked when I received the news. For the rest of the day, I read and re-read the news report, in the remote hope that my refreshing the page would bring in an April Fools’ Day prank but that did not happen… This is how I remember Wouter:

The first time I contacted Wouter was in 2005 when the Asian Film Archive oganised a retrospective of Penek Ratanaruang. He emailed back, generously gave his blessings and waived the screening fees for our use.

Three years later, we met for the first time at the Berlin Panorama party. We connected instantly and he knew of our work well. He loved films and understood the importance of film preservation. He arranged to meet me again the next day for drinks and offerred to help in any way he could. He immediately blackberried his close friend, Sandra, to connect us. Sandra worked with him at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and then directed the Netherlands Filmmuseum. We spoke more; I told him what challenges we faced and how we intended to overcome them; he gave suggestions on possible funding and how I can always rely on Fortissimo for help. He then invited me to dine at a Chinese restaurant with his colleagues and friends. Before he left for Hong Kong, we met up again for lunch. He asked about my jury duties and my recommendations of films he should look out for. I passed him a pile of DVD screeners from Singapore filmmakers and he promised to look at them. In my years of speaking to people about our film archive work, I never found a more enthusiastic and generous supporter. Despite his busy schedule, he always had time for people who loved cinema, and especially his friends. Later, I would hear similiar stories recounted by others how they were helped by Wouter very early on in their career.

The last we met was in Hong Kong. On the stage of the Asian Film Awards, he was jumping with joy that Tokyo Sonata, a film Fortissimo produced, won the Best Film. At the post-awards party, he gave me big hug and could hardly contain his excitement. We arranged to meet again at the Filmart to discuss some film projects. In between parties, we caught up again and he was visibly exhausted but always happy to be around friends. A few days lafter at his office, I gave some updates on the Asian Film Archive. I brought his favourite kuei lapis from Singapore. During our meeting, he gladly accepted an invitation to come on board as an international advisor, and introduced Esther, his colleague, to be in the loop of it and be of assistance. Later that night, we met at the awards party. Lorna, his ‘wife’ came along and they huddled lovingly. Raymond joined in soon after. And that’s the last I saw of Wouter: caring, laughing, kind, giving and loving.

You’ll be missed dearly. My biggest hug to Wouter, the gentleman with such a great heart for cinema and his beloved friends.

- Bee Thiam



 

 

Available at HMV Singapore, Kinokuniya Bookstore (Taka), Gramophone, Sembawang Music Centre and Earshot Art House. Proceeds from the DVD sale go to raising funds to support the preservation and cultural mission of the Archive.

Asian Film Archive is non-governmental organisation founded to preserve the rich film heritage of Singapore and Asian Cinema, to encourage scholarly research on film, and to promote a wider critical appreciation of this art form. As an important nexus, it brings together the various segments of the Asian film community in order to open and enrich new intellectual, educational and creative spaces.

 

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International Advisory Board
Dr Kenneth Chan (Chair)

Dr Aruna Vasudev
Professor Chris Berry

Professor Chua Beng Huat

Professor Chua Tat Seng
Mr. Hou Hsiao Hsien

Professor Howard Besser
Dr Lim Song Hwee
Professor Jan Uhde

Dr Kenneth Paul Tan

Mr. Ray Edmondson
Professor Rey Chow
Professor Trinh T. Minh-ha

Board of Directors
Dr Kenneth Paul Tan (Chair)
Jacqueline Tan Swee Gek
Dr Kenneth Chan

Mike Wiluan
Ong Sor Fern

Executive Director
Tan Bee Thiam

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Asian Film Archive
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Singapore 486548

 


Email
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