DONOR GINJAL

Bagi sebagian orang ginjal adalah organ terpenting bagi setiap manuasia. tapi apa jadinya jika salah satu atau keduanya rusak. pasti akan mengalami kesulitan dan kesusahan. Banyak biaya yang harus dikeluarkan diantaranya cuci darah setiap bulan atau setiap minggu.Namun jika ada Ginjal yang baru tentunya dari pendonor,hal itu tidak akan terjadi.Nah Saya adalah orang yang siap menjual Ginjal saya

"दोनोर गिन्जल"

'Earth' by Ho Tzu Nyen - some views from the ground

In the blackness of the screen, little specks of light begin to fade in, like what you would see out of your plane window as you are approaching land. As more specks become visible, it builds to a kind of pay-off to the title of the film and a rather symbolic opening... until it is punctuated by the visual distortion caused by rippling of the water, whose surface produced a reflection that we have in fact been gazing at.

These first few minutes of the film 'Earth' epitomise what the film's aesthetic genius rests on - calculation. It is artificial in its intent and inorganic in its approach and it brings it to a deliberate extreme. In doing so, Tzu Nyen reminds me of what artists are meant to do - have a stubborn vision and flesh it out concertedly. 'Earth' is a lot of wilful indulgence but yet it is executed with so much discipline that how the film is being made is a good enough reason to watch it. In fact, it becomes the more important question in our heads and drives our continued curiosity in, even when it gets challenging.

Speaking of content, a blunt and gut-driven summary sounds like this - 'Earth' is a green film that shows how interconnected we are, reeking with overtones of the warnings of environmental destruction. How true is this? I would bet Tzu Nyen to say yes but without any weight of caring too much about what our interpretations are. It is evident from the film that what he cares about are reinventing the ways of representing a universal and common topic.

'Earth' is shot in a theatre set and everything is staged to create the image of an apocalypse. Visually, the organised 'mess;' is a sight to behold - both in its claustrophobic close-ups and the painting-like wide-shots.

But even more gratifying are little moments, driven by sound, that delighted me. There was a shot a man seemingly injured coupled with the siren of the ambulance echoing in the distance and the flashing of red light thrown onto his face. There was another moment where a man seated up is blind-folded and peacefully oblivious to the madness around him. Throughout the film, there is also a plethora of ethnic sound-bites, reflecting a mixed kind of consciousness among these 'earthly' inhabitants.

Watching 'Earth' is not without pain too. In fact, watching it is like going through a dual experience of being tortured and yet discovering something new or even brilliant in the torture. It uses constant disorientation to break down what you might try to make of it, so you are never too comfortable watching from a single angle. But ultimately, I feel the film is not trying too hard to control its outcomes. Save for that tableau, it is simply a very pure attempt to achieve a certain physical and experimental process. But of course, in Tzu Nyen's case, he's seasoned enough as a visual artist to safeguard the aesthetics of the film even when his 'experiment' veers off the the time-precise track.

Here what some members of the audience had to say about 'Earth' at the screening last Sunday (23 May) at the Substation.

Chee Seng, a year-3 English Literature student at NTU talks about how sound's made the film.


Beng Kheng, the Experimental Film Forum Programme Manager, shares his deep thoughts on his last day with the Substation. We will miss your quirky introductions, BK!

Production Talk - 'Haunted Changi' by The Haunted Changi Crew

HAUNTED CHANGI - A group of local filmmakers explore the famously haunted Old Changi Hospital in Singapore with terrifying and tragic results.

On Facebook, HAUNTED CHANGI is an interactive film project in which people can interact and talk to the crew member-characters of the movie. Audience are able to read what goes behind the scenes during production and correspond between each other - making it a unique experience for the viewer.

*****

So what inspired you to start on this project?

There are many supposedly haunted places in Singapore, but Old Changi Hospital seems to be the granddaddy of them all. There are so many urban legends and stories surrounding OCH (true or not)... how could we not take interest? I think when we first set out, it was just a documentary on OCH's past but the direction seemed to change as we became more interested (some might say obsessed) in exploring OCH itself. The final film is a both a mix of our originally intended film project and behind the scenes footage that was captured along the way. In light of everything that eventually happened while filming, that made for the best movie experience.


What is Changi Hospital being used for now? It looks abandoned, but knowing the Singapore govt, they cant just be leaving it to rot right?

When we filmed in OCH, we were documenting it in a state in which it now no longer exists. Basically, we documented the premises just before it's latest clean-up. After we filmed there, it was entirely cleaned, gutted, and painted -- all the old doors, cabinets, stray documents and windows have now been removed. It is a shell of it's former self. It will never be the same. It will never again be like it was when we filmed there. Our film crew captured OCH in it's spookiest prime, when it had been abandoned and unkempt since the hospital officially closed in the 1990s.

From what I understand OCH had been leased out by a property developer in 2006 and was targeted to be turned into a resort spa (ya right!) Plans fell through and the company leasing OCH returned it to the government. We received permission from the company to film inside OCH just before they cleaned it up and handed it back. OCH has heritage status, so it will not be torn down... but it still remains a victim of time. I believe the government is looking to lease it out to another developer in the future... but it should just be made into Singapore's official haunted house... sponsored by the Singapore Toursism Board. ;)



You keep selling some scares and mentioning some very compelling footages in your blog... can you share what kind of a scare is that? A shocking-type scare? A 'gets-underneath-your-skin' type scare? A slow burn?

While I cannot reveal the exact details of the footage, as we are still in negotiations for a distributor and potential buyer of the footage... I can say that yes, there are some very frightening elements in HAUNTED CHANGI and the story that eventually unfolds with the film crew. Stringing all the footage together in post-production, our filmmaking process actually became a big part of the story as our cameraman shot a great deal of behind the scenes footage. Combined with the initial focus, the viewer will see not only what we experience while filming in OCH, but also how OCH eventually effected us all. I personally think the unfolding of the story is a "slow burn", but even so, the exploration of OCH was very well shot by our crew and will be interesting for the viewer to experience. Sadly, in the end however, there are truly horrifying and tragic results.

Will it get under your skin? Yes, I think some people will definitely think twice before deciding to explore the abandoned building again. There are many dangers in OCH. Kids can go in and out seemingly unharmed, but such things can attach themselves and effect your life much later... as our crew painfully discovered first hand. Enter at your own risk... you have been warned and our film will serve as evidence.



How is this film different from other short videos of OCH taken by anyone?

Very different in that HAUNTED CHANGI is a feature-length film and we took great care to capture OCH in a very professional manner using high resolution imagery and certain camera techniques -- including specially made HD infrared helmet cams and using long shutter exposure sequences and the fastest lens available. The long exposure sequences in particular will show the audience exactly what it looks like inside OCH at night WITHOUT any artificial lighting. Watching HAUNTED CHANGI footage, the audience will truly experience OCH like never before... and on the big screen. Great sound recording for the project too!

HAUNTED CHANGI footage was painfully captured at high quality so the footage can be enjoyed on the big screen.


Is it true that the main bulk of the film was shot only from a night's footage?

Night footage probably comprises about half of the footage. Infrared footage is used only during our initial night exploration and is mixed with the footage of the 7D. Basically for the night exploration we had a 3-camera shoot -- one 7D with two infrared helmet cams. Nothing got out of our site! The 3-camera shoot actually ended up playing a pivotal role in the night exploration during one "encounter" because one of the cameras actually captured something that the other two did not and it is quite disturbing and unexplainable. We are dying to release this particular footage to the public, but obviously we need to save some things just for the film release. However, we are considering releasing this particular sequence on the Internet before the film is in cinemas to help promote the movie. Can't promise anything right now though.


Why the choice of the Canon 7D cam? How is it particularly suitable for the 'Blair-Witchy' nature of your film?

We chose the 7D for a couple of technical reasons: 24/25P HD recording, able to use great film quality lens, very good in low-light, portability, able to take high resolution still sequences at fast rates. At first it seemed like a hassle to deal with recording sound separately, but I think it actually just enabled the soundman to capture great recordings on his own. It really wasn't a big deal to sync the sound in the end.


Do the 'scientific gadgets' actually help?

The usefulness of "scientific gadgets" in the study and exploration of the paranormal can of course be debated. We see it as a step in the whole process of simply recording evidence. Using the gadgets can't really prove anything either way, but it can help narrow down the possibilities one way or another. That said, we understand a lot of people like to point out orbs and such in photos. We are not interested in any of these orbs and they have nothing to do with the footage we've captured. Others can point out orbs and debate the significance, but these orbs are not the focus of our footage. So trust us, we won't be showing orb pics and crying "ghost!"


So... do you believe in ghosts and/or the supernatural?

I did not believe in ghosts or the supernatural before filming HAUNTED CHANGI... but I definitely do believe now. I am never going back there again... ever.


When and where is 'Haunted Changi' going to be released?

As for HAUNTED CHANGI's theatrical release.... looks like early September. We will definitely make a public announcement on the HAUNTED CHANGI web pages when we know for sure.

*****

An audio piece recorded during the shoot from HAUNTED CHANGI

Join the HAUNTED CHANGI page on Facebook
Check out their blog for happenings
Updates on their website

The most Casual "Interview" ever...

Let's Take this Cloudy Apple Juice as a meter to gauge how long we have stayed in Starbucks for...hahaha

Boss-man introduces SINdie to the potential writers ...

Is my Hair Messy?
Slightly Low...
Interviewing takes so much patience!
Colin listening hard
A pretty distraction.
Poof! It's gone.
So how is this So-and-so???
BUSY...BUSY...BUSY!

Period Experiments by Tania Sng

Last year, a group of filmmaking pals brought their chummy relationship even closer by creating an omnibus of short experimental pieces called 'Infinity'. The pals are Victric Thng (who led the movement), Yeo Lee Nah, Lillian Wang, Green Zeng, June Chua, Gozde Zehnder, Russel Zehnder and Ming. Victric said he hoped more people would step forward to join them in their push to give experimental films more attention. This year, The Substation's decided to give due attention to experimental films by organising the 1st Experimental Film Forum. Without surprise, Victric, a big champion of experimental films, had an active hand in making this possible.

Possible one of the greatest finds in curating this forum is Tania Sng. For those who know her, we know her as one whose worn many hats, most notably being an executive producer of Cages, running her production company previously, and being one of the Lucky 7 directors. But the second night of the Film Forum gave the audience a sense of what might be closer to her heart - making films. In particular, her experimental slant. 

Some of the stronger and more memorable pieces in her line up of films tonight included the thoughtfully layered 'Little Girl Shoes', the angst-filled 'Huo Shui', the subversive 'Singapore Dream'  and the conceptually clever 'One Track Vision'. Victric referred to them as 'period' pieces and quite aptly so because there were made many years ago. Visually and emotionally, they evoked a ambience that seems a little foreign. Tania questions society unabashedly in her films, almost with a lot of anger, which seems to have dissipated or made irrelevant today because some things have moved on or evolved. So, naturally, it became very interesting to know what went through her mind when she conceptualised the works back in her fresh-grad days of transiting back to Singapore from the US.

LUNCHBOX 5 - Martyn See

Saturday 15 May 2010, 6pm

Furama Hotel, Room 2309

6pm:
I raced all the way from Hong Lim Park to room 2309 of Furama Hotel to pass the editors the first completed tape from my video team. We were capturing live interviews at the Pink Dot event. Martyn's just got in to kick off the final leg of the Pink Dot video team's assembly line - the edit. There is no pay in this and he knows the job will probably end around 3 am. But for him, volunteering for a good social cause is as natural as how he does his job of editing.

For those who don’t know Martyn See, he is a Singaporean who survived 15 months of police investigation for the making of banned short film ‘Singapore Rebel’, deemed to be an illegal political film under the law. He has since followed up with ‘Zahari’s 17 Years’, a documentary on an ex-political detainee, and ‘Speakers Cornered’, a chronology of brief scenes from a street corner standoff between pro-democracy activists and the police. Otherwise, he is mostly a law-abiding Singaporean video editor. Feature editing credits include Mee Pok Man (1994, Eric Khoo) That One No Enough (2000, Jack Neo) I Do I Do (2005, Wen Hui, Jack Neo) Singapore Gaga (2005,Tan Pin Pin) Just Follow Law (2007, Jack Neo), Money No Enough 2 (2008, Jack Neo).

It seems to all fit into a nice complete picture now. Just slightly more than a month ago, I asked him out for an interview for our regular LUNCHBOX series. We spoke at lengths. There were plenty of rich anecdotes but nothing beats seeing him in action. So working with Martyn on the Pink Video is seeing those spoken views and fervent beliefs come to life. Here is what we spoke about in April:

Jeremy: I notice from the time you started yr blog till your latest post, it seems to have come full circle, in terms of dealing with the issue of being able to conduct political discourse in a public space.

Martyn: I started this blog in late 2004 primarily as a platform to promote ‘Singapore Rebel’ as a short film, that’s why it was called singaporerebel.blogspot.com.

J: I thought the blog was a reaction to being questioned by the police after you made the film.

M: No, I started the blog about the same that I made and the same time I submitted it to SIFF. And, yeah…. I wanted it to promote political films.

J: Were you the first person in Singapore to make political films?

M: No, I am not the first. The first people who made political films and were harassed by the police for it were Kai Sing, Mirabelle Ang and Christina Mok. They were all lecturers in Ngee Ann Polytechnic FSB in 2000. They made a film about J B Jeyeratnam and allegedly the police came and they confiscated equipment and they warned them not to do this. The news was buried for a year and at the end of 2001, their contracts were not renewed. Straits Times’ Tan Tarn How found out about it. So, basically he wrote about the incident. Until today, the 3 filmmakers have not spoken up about it. 9 years later, they are still traumatized. (pause) So ‘Singapore Rebel’ for me was an attempt to make everything transparent.

J: Did you make it after the incident or did you make it at the same time as the incident?

M: No, no. no. After the incident. In late 2001 after the general elections, I approached Chee Soon Juan and started gathering my materials to make the film. The blog was basically used to announce where and when ‘Singapore Rebel’ would be screened.

6.10pm:

Jeremy: You ok with this camera? It was a bit faulty the last time I used it.
Martyn: Yeah, don't worry.
Jeremy: When do you estimate you guys will finish the edit?
Martyn: Don't know. Depends on the number of tapes.
Jeremy: I estimate about 6-7 tapes.
Martyn: .....

J: I guess the blog has gone a much longer journey since, covering other grounds.

M: Yeah, because it was banned and ran into censorship problems, so it became a blog about censorship. And since censorship is related to political decisions, so it became a political blog. Yeah, I sort of moved in that direction incidentally.

J: I meant the word ‘circular’ about your blog because the most recent post was on the anniversary celebration of the SDP and the press’ interview of Chee Soon Juan. It seems the press has softened their approach on him and they have achieved what you wanted to achieve…. And you mentioned you want to move on to find new grounds….

M: Ya. You are right. I avoided talking about Chee Soon Juan for 4 years and suddenly The Lianhe Zaobao (联合早报) decided to feature him in an article for the 30th anniversary of the SDP. I thought hey, this is exactly what I was trying to do with ‘Singapore Rebel’, basically to document this guy. Now it seems the mainstream press has softened their words. The good thing that came out of this is …. Well (laughs) perhaps I have been proven to be ahead of my time la!

J: Was it only Zaobao?

M: Straits Times ran a story on the anniversary as well but Zaobao did the in-depth interview.

J: Correct me if I am wrong. Is Zaobao more liberal?

M: I wouldn’t know.

J: I am saying this because I find that the Chinese media tends to be more democratic. One good example are some Chinese radio stations like FM100.3. They really speak their mind about sensitive issues and I don’t find this in any of the English stations.

M: However, you must also realize that the Wanbao （晚报）is very tabloidish and it carries a lot of weight in terms of influencing the heartlanders’ opinion. So the government knows that you can sway opinions with the Chinese press and therefore, they are still keeping a tight reign on it. So they may seem to be freer but come election time, They may not be. They may become as anal as the English press.

J: I initially wanted to do this interview chronologically… sort of starting from how you became interested in doing political films. But I saw several interesting developments on your side recently that were seem more interesting to address. I saw this video

,
linked in a letter (http://www.rsf.org/Open-letter-to-Prime-Minister-Lee,36832.html) by Jean Francois Julliard to PM Lee Hsien Loong about the recent New York Times case. It is from the website ‘Reporters Without Borders – for Press Freedom’. In it, you were responding to the censorship board’s decision to ban your films. Given that this letter is addressed to the PM, are you afraid to be openly named in it?

M: Well, I am basically just stating the facts that the Films Act was not a liberalization. It was basically one step forward but 2 steps backwards. I just spoke matter-of-factly. So I don’t think it would be defamatory at all. So I am not too worried. I was actually quite happy I was able to help their letter a local angle. Otherwise, they might be totally accused of coming from a Western point of view, or trying to impose Western values on us.

J: Where were you speaking?

M: I was actually at a forum in South Korea and Jean-Francois was there. He pulled me out for a 5 minute interview there.

J: Do you think anything will come out of the letter?

M: Well, surprisingly, they have yet to respond. Normally, they will respond, through their private secretary. Perhaps the letter took them back.

J: I sometimes wonder where letters to the PM or President go? Do you need special channels to reach them? It feels a bit like a black hole to me cos you don’t know if your letter will make its way up to be heard.

M: Well, they do read it.

J: I read on your blog that some of the people in authority know your name.

M: I am sure they do and I don’t mind.

J: Have you met them in person before?

M: As far as I know, the only people who have met me are the police officers investigating my case. I have not spoken to any MDA officers. I have only spoken to the people at their front-desk for the purpose of submitting my films. And whenever they approve or ban my films, I get a letter from them. I have had no direct communication with MDA in the last 5 years.

J: I read a particular blog post in which MM Lee mentioned your name?

M: No, he didn’t mention my name. He basically told TIME magazine at the end of 2005 that if it was up to him, he would have allowed ‘Singapore Rebel’.

J: So he’s heard of your film.

M: Well, the question was posed to him by TIME magazine. So I can’t say at the time of the interview he had already heard of the film or not. So, perhaps that might have been the first time he heard of it. The irony is even though he said he would have allowed, the police investigation on my film was only resolved much later and the ban was lift a year later.

7.45 pm

The door creeks open and Martyn is combing through some rushes for good sound and visual bites. I arrive with the rest of the tapes meant to be digitised. Martyn turns around, slightly stunned by the number of tapes I had in the ziplog bag - 8 in total. We checked the clock, it was 8.15 by then. Having seen worse editing days, he took all 8 and laid them out like a professional. Feeling guilty, I promised him I will be back soon after I freshen up at home.

J: I am curious to know about your experience of the 15 months of investigation. Were you detained at all?

M: No. Basically, I went to the police station 4 times to give statements to answer questions. At the second interview, I had to surrender my camera and tapes.

J: So that was after you submitted to SIFF?

M: Yes, I submitted to SIFF, SIFF submitted to Board of Film Censors, Board of Film Censors warned SIFF to warn me to withdraw the film. And after I withdrew the film, I sent the film overseas. Two months later, MDA filed a police report saying that my film has violated section 33 of the Films Act. So that’s how the police investigations started.

J: During the 15 months, were you deterred from making other films?

M: During the 15 months, I was researching Said Zahari’s story and I made ‘Zahari’s 17 Years’ within that 15 months. And I submitted again to SIFF and SIFF for some reason again didn’t want to show it. It was about a year later that I decided to submit the film myself to the board of Film Censors and it was there that they told me they decided to ban it then.

J: Has anyone overseas contacted you about the films you made? I mean most of your films are on YouTube and being watched by many people.

M: No not much. Other than people, I don’t get that many comments.

J: I mean, I am sure they could be writers who might use your video for referencing purposes?

M: Once in a while…I get an email from some academic saying he wants to show this to his students either here or in Australia. Or some student wanting to interview me for his thesis. In fact, the first overseas contacts I had after making ‘Singapore Rebel’ were International Body for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders. This was because there was a possible threat of a 2 years imprisonment and up to $100,000 fine. So I became a mini celebrity in the eyes of the international human rights organizations. In terms of local people emailing me to know more about me, I got very few. I would say my blog is not very widely read as well.

J: Your blog? (unconvinced)

M: Because most people do not go on the net to read political stuff. Hits are very low.

J: Sadly, this is something very real. When I look at the blogs that garner the most visits, I realize people like to know more about what people are eating, wearing, doing, the latest colour of their hair and frivolous stuff like that.

M: I mean, look at Xia Xue and Mr Brown.

J: Before the incident of the 3 lecturers, did you always have the sense of wanting to speak up for the underdog? Where did that come from?

M: I was born with it. I mean I read Francis Seow’s ‘To Catch a Tartar’, which was quite a revelatory book to me. But a lot of people have read it as well but they don’t do the same thing as I do. (pause) A lot of people went through the same education as me. I have been educated only locally all my life. So I think it comes down to the fact that I was born with a conscience. I was born with a sense of…. Not being able to sleep peacefully if I see injustice and I don’t do anything about it.

J: This is really amazing. I mean I spent 3 years overseas studying and whenever I hear news like that overseas, it angers me and embarrases me a lot too. But less so when I am back home. But for you, you’ve always been here.

M: So, I would call myself a ‘freak’ of PAP’s education system. My first school was basically PAP kindergarten.

J: Did your parents influence you in anyway?

M: Not at all. (pause) If I were to trace back to the seed of this sense of discontent, I would say it goes back to my birth! So you can say I was born with it, though ‘To Catch a Tartar’ opened me to a darker side of political history and detention without trial.

J: So when you had these feelings back in those days, did you tell yourself when you grow up, you want to do something about it?

M; Well, it perturbs me everytime I see people being bullied. But, I didn’t tell myself I needed to do something about it. So, I held back. (beat) I think maybe it is due to the social climate here as well…. Not to provoke authorities, not to overstep OB markers. So I was quite a kiasu Singaporean in that sense, but issues still bugged me and cause me sleepless hours at night. (beat) So, as I got older, I became more likely to act upon my concerns. Hence, I made the little short film about Chee Soon Juan. And after it was banned and under police investigation, I took a very different path from the 3 lecturers. I decided to make everything public instead of hush hush. I think in that sense it protected me because it would make them look bad if they prosecuted me.

J: How do the people around you in your life feel about your sense of righteousness?

M: My mum doesn’t know. I would only let her know if they decided to prosecute me but they didn’t. She doesn’t read newspapers and she hardly watches news. I have 2 older brothers – they know and they are quietly sympathetic. They thought it was ridiculous to investigate me for such a minor issue. People in the industry know but I was still performing my job as a freelance editor. It did not affect my income, my ricebowl. I was kinda blessed in a sense. (Pause) Ironically, I still do editing for Mediacorp TV shows.

J: Does it seem like a double life to you?

M: Yeah, I always tell people I wear 2 hats very frankly. But 90% of my time, I am a freelance editor, the remaining 10% of my time, I spend thinking about politics and trying to make films that have a political message.

J: I feel it takes a lot of training to be able to wear 2 hats like this.

M: Actually a lot of people in their lives wear 3 hats, 4 hats. I don’t think it is that much of a skill to juggle such things. For me, it is quite natural. I don’t find it a chore, I don’t find it a task to do it. I quite enjoy it.

2.00 am

Jeremy: How's the edit going?
Martyn: Think maybe 3 plus can finish. (pause) By the way, Jeremy do your job... this translation doesn't seem right.
Jeremy: ...... (contemplating) How about 'This is God's gift to us.'
Martyn: Mmm... (typing it out) Thiiis eees gaawwwd's gift toooo uusss. (beat) Gift. Mmm...
Jeremy: Can you also replace Ivan's face with a more 'average' face when this line is said. Something's a bit wrong with that combination.
Martyn: I see your point.
Jeremy: One last comment. I find inserting the balloon view of the pink dot in between the time lapse bits very disorientating.
Martyn: Oh, that's the 'mind-fuck' bit.
Jeremy: Mind-fuck?
Martyn: Yeah. Hard to explain what is 'Mind-fuck' exactly.

J: So what are you like outside making political films?

M; I am probably one of two editors in Singapore who has worked with Jack Neo 4 times. This is stuff I do to pay my bills. I have edited with Eric Khoo, Jack Neo. I do a lot of stuff for government corporate videos. So I am very normal video editor.

J: Are you married?

M: No, I am not.

J: Would it have been more difficult if you were married?

M: It would be more difficult as a freelance person if you are married because the income is not stable and the cheques come in late. (beat) But as far as doing political stuff is concerned, it is an open-ended question. It is a good question. Err…. I don’t think many Singaporean women would want to be with a guy who provokes the authority out of the blue, makes it a point to provoke the authority and does not benefit him financially.

J: I was watching ‘Singapore Rebel’ and I saw the scenes with the kids… I mean for me, I still find it hard how he can bring his kids or wife along…

M: My respect for him comes from him being not afraid to let his family know of what he believes in. He gets his kids involved in what he does. A couple of his kids have gone to distribute political flyers with him. So he keeps them involved. (Beat) None of the PAP politicians I know currently involve their kids. So for him, he is unique.

J: Perhaps, If I were in an incumbent position, the drive to is less?

M: Well, if you are in a position to better people’s lives, you should get your kids involved. If you are in politics to better yourself, to lead a comfortable life, then it does not benefit them to get their kids involved.

J: If you were charged a result of making ‘Singapore Rebel’, do you think you would have entered politics?

M: No, I would not ever enter politics. I don’t like politicians. I don’t trust them. And my job as a filmmaker, as a citizen, as a blogger is basically to check on what is being said by politicians. Even if it is the opposition.

J: More on filmmaking now, do you have any plans to make films out of the political thread you’ve always been following?

M: Currently, I am too busy editing, mainly TV work, not much film. Honestly, the way I see it, we do not have a film industry yet. I define a film industry as something that can sustain a large pool of professionals who do nothing but make films. We don’t have that. We have a TV industry. The only 2 persons I know who can survive just by making feature films is Jack Neo and Kelvin Tong. The rest of the people – cameraman, gaffers, grips, editors, most of us do TV work or TV commercials. Once in a while, we do a film. But the budget for film… if you ask any freelancers out there… it is usually lower than TV work or TV commercials. (pause) So sad to say, we kid ourselves saying we have a film industry when we actually don’t. (beat) Compare us to a city like Jakarta, KL or Ho Chi Minh. I think they make more films than us.

J: I guess many things are working against us, like small market size.

M: I guess. However, I must say that despite my battles with MDA on film censorship, the Singapore Film Commission does give out a lot of money to support independent films. I don’t this happens in our neighbouring countries. So the money is there though somehow the good scripts are not there. (pause) This, I think is somehow related to the political climate that we live in. People are just afraid to step out of their boundaries, afraid to think out of the box. So we don’t make challenging works.

J: If you were to make a feature film, would it touch on politics as well?

M: It would definitely have politics as a background.

J: I mean you’ve watched a draft of ‘Sandcastle’ by Boo Junfeng. Would you say that it is something you would have liked to make?

M: Well I told Junfeng that I loved the story. Something I would have very much liked to direct.

J: Any other new topics on your mind right now?

M: I always wanted to interview Lee Kuan Yew and Chia Thye Poh (political prisoner).

J: Just a whim or do you have a concrete aim to do that?

M: I do. I hope I can interview him in the basement of his home, where PAP was supposedly born.

J: Finally, something I always ask in my other interviews. Would you starve for the sake of art?

M: That’s a good one man. (pause) No I will not starve because starving hurts the body and I will not do anything to hurt my body just for the sake of art. (beat) But, if I were to make art and if I were to be prosecuted for it, I would go on a hunger strike to protest against the injustice of my prosecution. But I will not starve myself just to make a film, or to finish a painting or to write a book. I don’t think it’s worth it. I think the human body is quite sacred. But when pushed to the limits by injustice, it might then be worth it to use your body to make that statement.

_______________________________

Though 'Singapore Rebel' started off as a blog to promote the film, it's become a treasure trove important socio-political news and views that Martyn's collected since 2004. All his films (vieweable online) are linked here too.

You can view his films directly from these links

Singapore Rebel - It's the story of opposition politician Chee Soon Juan, who has been imprisoned twice for championing democratic change in Singapore.

Nation Builders -A documentation of people left behind in Singapore's economic rise.

Speakers Cornered - A recording of the only public protest held in Singapore during the IMF-World Bank meeting in 2006.

Zahari's 17 years - An interview with Said Zahari, a staunch anti-colonial newspaper editor who was accused of involvement in pro-communist activities and subsequently detained without trial from 1963 to 1979.

3.30 am

Jeremy: Hey, they are wondering whether to leave the party or wait for me to deliver the video.
Martyn: Are they going to suggest changes after they watch?
Jeremy: No la. Don't worry. (pause) So how long more?
Martyn: Saving now already... So effectively, we only took half an hour more than last year, with so many more tapes this year.
Jeremy: That's why we chose you ma.
So here's Martyn's (with Natalie Soh) final cut. Till today, it's got 6690 views on YouTube.

Filament 2010: The Second Night

It's hard not to be wary when one attends a session of student short film projects, because even if the films are consistently well-made, the films' stylistic and narrative approaches tend to run together, and the audience of classmates often reacts to every credit like an in-joke that one won't get.

It's hard not to feel grateful, then, that Filament 2010 (or at least the night I attended, the second of two) avoided all these pitfalls. Not only did the screening comprise just a short slate of four disparate final-year films—one documentary, two fictions, and another in between—there were interesting thematic connections from film to film, and the Substation theatre was packed full of appreciative non-hecklers (I assume they were NTU Wee Kim Wee School-mates). Anyway, on to the films themselves:

A New Hope (Dir: Chermaine Ong)
A simple talking-heads documentary about two HIV-positive people in Thailand. One is Su, a child who contracted the illness from her HIV-positive parents. The other is Pong, an HIV-positive mother who wonders if her boyfriend and daughter have it as well. Both are victims of Thailand's (ironically) successful HIV campaigns, which have brought down infection rates but stigmatised those who have the disease, no matter how they contracted it.

The film liberally stirs in interviews with both Pong and Su, as well as scenes in which Pong's loved ones undergo HIV tests. Because Pong and Su aren't closely related by blood or geography, this makes for a somewhat disjointed film when we jump from one to the other. I was surprised that the filmmakers didn't hinge more strongly on linking Su's testimonies of being bullied with the anticipation of the HIV test results for Pong's daughter (since a positive result means she would come to face similar problems). Though perhaps it speaks well that the filmmakers don't try to sensationalise these proceedings, and the very fact that these are real issues faced by a near-invisible group of people makes their film worthy of attention and praise.

Epiphany (Dir: Han Xuemei)
Oddly, the screenwriter of Epiphany isn't listed among those credited in the programme booklet, even though the raison d'être of the film is to show off his/her cleverness at intertwining characters. The film revolves around characters who get involved in brushes with death, or are losing their will to live: A girl stands on the edge of an HDB roof. An old granny walks onto a road to pick up her fallen groceries. A man has to leave his wife and daughter. Other characters include their loved ones and the bystanders to their verge-of-death incidents, and what's clever is that these roles sometimes overlap with the main characters as well. As we watch the film unfold, the fun is in seeing how it draws ever more links among the characters, and how it keeps throwing up morbid, fake-out "cliffhangers". I've lost track of the numerous screeching brakes and exchanging of glances, but my favourite was when something (or someone...?) lands on the windscreen of the man's car, followed by a quick cut to a different scene altogether.

The film's ending brings its three main characters together, though in a rather simplistic, oversentimental way, and it's followed by a John Milton quote—"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world"—that seems incongruous in its profundity compared to all the pulp-fictiony stuff that's led up to it. The problem is that, even though the ending implies that these characters have found new connections and reasons to live, nothing has truly been solved. The film's messy web of estranged parents, children and lovers continues to linger...

Post-Love (Dir: Amanda Lee, Ng Xi Jie)

Post-Love combines A New Hope's under-heard voices of a minority group and Epiphany's show-offy fictions. This time, the interview subjects are the Singaporean elderly, but what's interesting is the topic: their thoughts on love. But then, a huge problem: what happens when your interviewees rehearse old clichés about genders (men are lecherous/women are menopausal) and then-vs-now ("kids these days" are more romance-focused and liberal)?

The filmmakers' clever answer is to amp up and play around with these clichés, so that they're both reanimated and not taken too seriously, even if we aren't learning much that's new and perhaps running the risk of reinforcing stereotypes. They do this by: 1) intercutting the interviews with exaggerated skits of old couples or to-the-camera exposés of "prostitutes", "PRC women", "potential suitors", etc., replete with deliberately unconvincing makeup and overbaked gestures; and 2) playing around with their subtitles. Notably, one interview involves a leering old man euphemising in Mandarin about lighting candles and popping champagne, while the English subtitles next to his head go wild with pleasure, revealing each word as he says it and popping into a bigger font-size at every insinuation.

And then there are the flashes of insight, as when one woman reveals that she's gotten used to loneliness, due to the impracticality of finding a compatible suitor at her age, and the inevitable mistrust that arises from wondering about his possible ulterior motives, such as money. There's also a precious moment framing an elderly couple sitting a width apart from each other on a couch, illuminated by the light of the TV, while the space between them fills with the exchange between the filmmakers that led to this moment: we learn that this was as far as one of them could get to having his grandparents be intimate for the camera. We may doubt the truth of the exchange, given all the pantomime that's come before, but if so it'd still be a nice and revealing enactment. Not everything works in Post-Love, but it's a grand display of documentarians working with what they've got, and it's dotted with moments like these that need no improvement.

Zombies Saved My Cold Dead Heart (Dir: Erwin Nah)
Neither as politically important as A New Hope or as conceptually creative as the other two films, nearly two weeks later Zombies continues to stick in the back of my mind, and not just because it was the last film of the night. It's more because the bespectacled dork and the girl he meets looked cute together, even though they seemed more awkward than they needed to because their dialogue was delivered too slowly and the pauses were too long. And that's before I've mentioned the content of the dialogue, in which they poke fun at the tropes of romantic comedies, none of which this film ever tries to subvert.

A rom-com like this is a cold dead proposition: you know exactly what it is, where it's going to go, and pretty much whether or not you're going to like it. Far too late into the film, there is a intertitle that pauses the story to warn "cynical viewers" and "art-house aficionados" that they're not going to like what happens next. It's a fair point, but really? Only now? What saves this film are not zombies (which it could well have done better with), but the fleetingly funny snapshots of our hero's imagination, and our sheer belief in the ability of heartbroken, well-intentioned people to find their way back into love. I wasn't unsusceptible.

The day the film community came out in full force and in PINK too

We did it!!!  Jasmine Ng (Head of the Pink Dot video) and David Shiyang Liu rejoicing in exaggerated fashion as they witness the pink heart formed by 4000 people at Hong Lim Park.

Judging from recent activities, it seems the film community is showing a lot of signs of solidarity. There was a time when people complained that we do not come together and join our efforts like our Malaysian filmmakers. But that should easily dispelled from what the community pulled off at the Pink Dot event today. Pink Dot is a event where all Singaporeans who believe in the freedom to love come to Hong Lim Park to form a human pink dot as a show of their support for this cause. Within a week, at least 15 filmmakers were mobilised by Jasmine Ng and Jeremy Sing to help document the event into a video (aimed to be ready the next morning!) (Apparently, more than 15 turned up). 

These names included Brian Gothong Tan, Leon Cheo, Lee Wong, Chris Yeo, David Shiyang Liu, Nicole Midori, Ghazi Alqudcy, Ezzam Rahman, Martyn See, Natalie Soh, He Shu Ming and some of students from NTU ADM and La Salle. Boo Junfeng was supposed to be part of this but he was attending his film premier in Cannes. Apart from the team other filmmakers were also spotted in the crowd like Tan Pin Pin, James Leong and Lynn Lee.

David Shiyang Liu prepares his 'gun'

Brian Gothong Tan's (left) parting look before he goes to shoot; Chris Yeo taking instructions from Jasmine Ng

Nicole Midori (2nd from left) frames her shot while David listens to a very meticulous Jasmine

Chris Yeo and Leon Cheo fix some last minute sound hiccups

Seeking shelter and liquid sustenance before the crowds flood in

James Leong, Lynn Lee pose for a shot with Leon and Ji from my (Jeremy) shooting team

It is 6pm and one of our editors, Martyn See (right) has come in to start work

SINdie at PINK Dot! Grace and me

A D Chan with me after the crowd dispersed

Ghazi Alqudcy breaks out in laughter after 'Ivana' and 'Glenda' finish reciting the Singapore pledge. Guess which 2 famous arts personalities Ivana and Glenda are...

Ezzam Rahman and Ghazi Alqudcy look on as 'Glenda' signs the TALENT RELEASE FORM!

Lee Wong leads the pack back to Furama Hotel after the event

Inside this packed room in Furama are where the hundreds of photos, videos and press releases will start circulating