Toronto Singapore Film Festival 2007
Just wanted to introduce everyone to an emerging Toronto cinematic tradition…the Toronto Singapore Film Festival!
Check out this note from the organizers:
“In a city where it’s joked that film festivals manifest as frequently as say, bodily functions, it’s always easier to ignore their regularity than pause to contemplate their existence. While I’m not sorry that the Toronto-Singapore Film Festival is part of Toronto’s growing infantry of ethnic, national, interest or genre-oriented film festivals, I’m curious how Singaporean films will appeal to the fickle nature of taste, particularly when Singapore doesn’t readily figure in cinematic imaginations of “Asia”.
One way to approach this year’s line-up is to look at the polyglot nature of the films’ languages. While they’re familiar tongues, some may be surprised that “Singaporean” isn’t one of them – and that’s simply because they’re all Singaporean languages. Another way is to look at the influence of genres in the films. The iconic ones all appear in some form: action, comedy, drama, horror, politics and romance; while some mix two or more, others opt to transcend them. There’s yet another way, and that’s to allow the culture on your plate to seduce you – without knowledge of its nutritional benefits.
Singapore’s modest filmmaking resurgence over the past decade is unlike the jazzy industry it had in the ’50s. But with state commitment to infrastructure brewing, there’s no shortage of aspirations towards something better. Of the several indie features from 2006, we’re pleased to screen three: The Art of Flirting (Kan Lume), S11 (Gilbert Chan and Joshua Chiang), and The High Cost of Living (Leonard Lai), the latter two having had short theatrical runs in Singapore. Three shorts complete the fiction titles: G-23 (Anthony Chen), Heave (Gek Li San and Ngiam Shin Shin) and Pontianak (Raihan Harun).
We’re also proud to host Martyn See’s two latest documentary short subjects, Zahari’s 17 Years and Speakers Cornered. The most remarkable thing about them is that they have yet to premiere officially in Singapore. While the reasons elude even See, both films offer generous clues, as does his first documentary, 2005′s Singapore Rebel. Because See’s interests have clashed with legislation that proscribes the making of “political films”, his works have wound up being staples at freedom and human rights film festivals – a circumstance that says a lot about political expression in Singapore.
This Toronto-Singapore Film Festival sprouted a year ago, the result of passion fertilizing a handful of grassroots. It’s easily one of Toronto’s smallest and shortest public film festivals, but in the minds of those behind its cultivation, hopes for its posterity are huge. Thanks for watching us grow.”
Tickets will be available for purchase and pick-up here at The Little Video Shop (they’re also available online), so expand your theatric horizons and check out some great Singaporean cinema this coming March!