NEW DELHI, Aug 4: The third edition of the Singapore Film Festival is set to kick off here from tomorrow and is poised to show off the creative talent of the island country, which is host to a sizable population of Indians.
The three-day festival organised by the Singapore High Commission in association with Indian Habitat Film Club is set to end on August 7 and features a diverse selection of films.
Each film will be followed by a dialogue with the filmmaker in attendance. Entry is open to public and free on a first-come-first-served basis.
“In India, Singapore carries an image of a cosmopolitan, technology-enabled nation. Through the Singapore Film Festival, we hope to show a softer and artistic side of our country. We have come a long way as a young, migrant nation and have many unique stories to tell. We hope they would touch Indian audiences and deepen understanding between our cultures,” says Kester Tay, festival programmer and First Secretary at the Singapore High Commission.
‘7 Letters’, Singapore’s official entry to the Oscars Best Foreign Language Film category this year is set to open the festival.
The film features seven of Singapore’s top filmmakers who made seven short films, or ‘love letters’, on what Singapore means to them.
They include award-winning filmmakers Eric Khoo and Boo Junfeng, whose film ‘The Apprentice’ showed in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The screening would be followed by a dialogue with filmmaker K Rajagopal, whose offering in ‘7 Letters’ focuses on the Indian migrant experience in Singapore.
Rajagopal remains Singapore’s main artiste who makes films
with an Indian perspective. His latest film ‘The Yellow Bird’ on a Singaporean Indian ex-convict showed at the International Critics’ Week of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
‘Singapore Minstrel’, a film on Singapore’s street performers, screens on August 6. The film revolves around Roy Payamal, a veteran Singaporean busker of Indian origin. Directed by his romantic partner Ng Xi Jie, the film dives deep into Payamal’s life and art. It defies genres in its fluid use of documentary and fictional elements – from interviews to re-enactments of events to raw footage of everyday life, which Payamal captures on his mobile phone.
The screening will be followed by a dialogue with Payamal and Ng, herself a multidisciplinary artist who works in the fields of performance, literature, illustration and cinema.
The festival concludes with ‘Utter’ – a series of three animation shorts based on three literary works by Singapore authors. The film premiered at the Singapore Writers’ Festival 2015 to critical acclaim.
Two of the animated films – ‘The Great Escape’ by Tan Wei Keong and ‘The Tiger of 142B’ by Harry and Henry Zhuang – have been selected to compete in renowned international animation festivals.
The screening will be followed by a workshop by internationally-celebrated animation artist Tan Wei Keong, who will speak on Singapore’s animation industry and his creative process and craftsmanship. (PTI)
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