These films are believed to be lost forever. But we are not giving up. We are mounting one last search for them. If you have information on them, we would appreciate if you would inform us.

The Search for Black Gold


Films are made of stories and the search for a film sometimes unearths poignant and heartwarming stories that bring generations together. This is one such story of a daughter seeking a memory of her father and a piece of their familial and cultural heritage through his cinematic work. The director is Yi Sui. The film is Black Gold. Made in the early 1960s, Black Gold is about dulang washers (workers who pan for tin), tin mines in Malaya, and the Malayan Emergency. This is one of the few films made during pre-independent Singapore by a Singaporean. However, until the search for the film was initiated by the director’s daughter, the film was virtually non-existent and unknown to most. The search for Black Gold came to the Asian Film Archive who is attempting to locate a print of the film through local and international contacts. The Archive has in its collection Lion City, another film by Yi Sui about 1960s Singapore and the film is reunited with his family. The same fate is hoped for Black Gold.

“My father's works are important to my family. He also captured the atmosphere of Singapore and Malaya of the 1960s. It is our heritage. I am trying to show my daughter the world that I came from. She has been to the new Singapore, but the old is lost forever, except in films like what my father did.” Joo Lan Berry, daughter of film director, Yi Sui