Prolific Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua and filmmakers John Clang and Lavender Chang are reuniting after “A Love Unknown” (2020), which Clang directed and Chang shot. This time around, they have teamed for “Absent Smile,” co-directed by Chang and Clang, which is world premiering at the Singapore International Film Festival.
Clang is based in New York and visits his parents in Singapore intermittently. “Absent Smile” is a document of Clang’s parents and their mixed feelings of longing yet support for their son, using the format of family portraiture augmented with digital means.
“Aging and separation are common occurrences that many are going through in our time. It is a theme that is close to our hearts that we may also find ourselves avoiding bringing it up. While modern technology seems to help to caress our longings for our loved ones, it also fuels the reasoning for the prolonged absence. However, this...
Clang is based in New York and visits his parents in Singapore intermittently. “Absent Smile” is a document of Clang’s parents and their mixed feelings of longing yet support for their son, using the format of family portraiture augmented with digital means.
“Aging and separation are common occurrences that many are going through in our time. It is a theme that is close to our hearts that we may also find ourselves avoiding bringing it up. While modern technology seems to help to caress our longings for our loved ones, it also fuels the reasoning for the prolonged absence. However, this...
- 11/25/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
While the concept of the family portrait makes us think of the obligatory detail in a person’s living room or office, put in a different context, the mundane becomes something quite extraordinary deserving the viewer’s full attention. Especially for families living apart, these pictures become something concrete when it comes to remembering loved ones and shared moments, which turns out to be even more relevant in the age of global nomad moving where work and steady pay is available. In their collaborative effort “Absent Smile” Lavender Chang and John Clang, both with a background in photography, attempt to, as it says quite fittingly on the latter’s homepage, to absorb the “seemingly mundane and banal external stimuli” and convey a more intimate picture of people and places, in this case Clang’s parents living in Singapore. The result is a documentary, which often borders on being a museum installation,...
- 11/21/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Kazakh filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s thriller “Assault,” which previously played Rotterdam, will open the 33rd Singapore International Film Festival.
Singaporean film “#LookAtMe,” which was denied certification by local authorities, remains part of the lineup, but will not screen at the festival. “#LookAtMe will not be screened at the 33rd Singapore International Film Festival as it has been refused classification by the Infocomm Media Development Authority,” says a note on the festival website.
Films in competition at the festival’s Asian feature film competition, the Silver Screen Awards, include “Archaeology Of Love” (South Korea) by Lee Wan-min; “Arnold Is A Model Student” (Thailand-Singapore-France-Netherlands-Philippines) by Sorayos Prapapan; “Autobiography” (Indonesia-France-Germany-Poland-Singapore-Philippines-Qatar) by Makbul Mubarak “The Cloud Messenger” (India) by Rahat Mahajan; “Convenience Store” (Russia-Slovenia-Turkey) by Michael Borodin; “Gaga” (Taiwan) by Laha Mebow; “Joyland” (Pakistan) by Saim Sadiq; “Leonor Will Never Die” (Philippines) by Martika Ramirez Escobar; and “Summer With Hope” (Canada-Iran) by Sadaf Foroughi.
Singaporean film “#LookAtMe,” which was denied certification by local authorities, remains part of the lineup, but will not screen at the festival. “#LookAtMe will not be screened at the 33rd Singapore International Film Festival as it has been refused classification by the Infocomm Media Development Authority,” says a note on the festival website.
Films in competition at the festival’s Asian feature film competition, the Silver Screen Awards, include “Archaeology Of Love” (South Korea) by Lee Wan-min; “Arnold Is A Model Student” (Thailand-Singapore-France-Netherlands-Philippines) by Sorayos Prapapan; “Autobiography” (Indonesia-France-Germany-Poland-Singapore-Philippines-Qatar) by Makbul Mubarak “The Cloud Messenger” (India) by Rahat Mahajan; “Convenience Store” (Russia-Slovenia-Turkey) by Michael Borodin; “Gaga” (Taiwan) by Laha Mebow; “Joyland” (Pakistan) by Saim Sadiq; “Leonor Will Never Die” (Philippines) by Martika Ramirez Escobar; and “Summer With Hope” (Canada-Iran) by Sadaf Foroughi.
- 10/27/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Banned feature #LookAtMe remains in the line-up.
Satircal thriller Assault by Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov is set to open the Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff), marking the first time a film from Central Asia has been selected to lead the event.
The full programme of 101 films from 54 countries – including nine titles for its main competition (see below) – were unveiled today for the festival’s 33rd edition, which will run from November 24 to December 4 and marks Sgiff’s first fully in-person event since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Yerzhanov is a leading figure in Kazakh cinema with several features...
Satircal thriller Assault by Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov is set to open the Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff), marking the first time a film from Central Asia has been selected to lead the event.
The full programme of 101 films from 54 countries – including nine titles for its main competition (see below) – were unveiled today for the festival’s 33rd edition, which will run from November 24 to December 4 and marks Sgiff’s first fully in-person event since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Yerzhanov is a leading figure in Kazakh cinema with several features...
- 10/26/2022
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua has amassed an impressive body of work in a relatively short period of time. Adullaah Mohammad Saad’s “Rehana,” a Singapore/Bangladesh co-production led by Chua’s Potocol, will pay at Un Certain Regard. “A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery” (2016) by Philippines auteur Lav Diaz had considerable festival play, including at Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian and Busan; Ying Liang’s “A Family Tour” (2018) was at Locarno, New York and London; Bradley Liew’s “Motel Acacia” played Tokyo, Taipei and Bucheon; John Clang’s “A Love Unknown” (2020) bowed at Rotterdam; while Raya Martin’s “Death of Nintendo” (2020) debuted at Berlin.
His other Cannes trips accompanied “A Yellow Bird” by K. Rajagopal, which was at the Cinéfondation L’Atelier in 2014 followed by a premiere at the 2016 Critics’ Week. In 2019, he produced “The Women” by The Maw Naing, which was also at Cinéfondation.
What attracted you to “Rehana?” How did you meet Saad?...
His other Cannes trips accompanied “A Yellow Bird” by K. Rajagopal, which was at the Cinéfondation L’Atelier in 2014 followed by a premiere at the 2016 Critics’ Week. In 2019, he produced “The Women” by The Maw Naing, which was also at Cinéfondation.
What attracted you to “Rehana?” How did you meet Saad?...
- 7/6/2021
- by Carole Horst
- Variety Film + TV
The webinar takes place today at 9am UK time (6pm Busan time).
The latest in our ScreenDaily Talks live Q&a series will take place on Monday October 26 at 9am UK time (6pm Busan time) and will explore how filmmaking is safely restarting in Asia. This instalment of ScreenDaily Talks is sponsored by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
Click here to register
Experts from across Asia will discuss safe shooting protocols in different territories, and also how producers are nimbly re-imagining location shooting and the refinancing of films. We also look ahead to the 2021 production pipeline, including trends...
The latest in our ScreenDaily Talks live Q&a series will take place on Monday October 26 at 9am UK time (6pm Busan time) and will explore how filmmaking is safely restarting in Asia. This instalment of ScreenDaily Talks is sponsored by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
Click here to register
Experts from across Asia will discuss safe shooting protocols in different territories, and also how producers are nimbly re-imagining location shooting and the refinancing of films. We also look ahead to the 2021 production pipeline, including trends...
- 10/26/2020
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Over the past decade, Singaporean films have routinely been selected for A-list international film festivals and have won accolades worldwide. While the world trained its eyes on the city-state in 2018 thanks to “Crazy Rich Asians,” the global Singaporean success story of the year was Yeo Siew Hua’s “A Land Imagined,” winning three awards at Locarno, including the Golden Leopard. The film is currently on release in Singapore and France, and a wider rollout is imminent, with sales agent Visit Films closing distribution deals on eight more territories.
Yeo and his feted contemporaries are not resting on their laurels. They are forging ahead with new projects.
“ ‘Stranger Eyes’ is about ways of seeing in this era of total surveillance and what it means to live as an image to be seen by others,” Yeo told Variety about his next project, which is also set in Singapore.
Anthony Chen won the...
Yeo and his feted contemporaries are not resting on their laurels. They are forging ahead with new projects.
“ ‘Stranger Eyes’ is about ways of seeing in this era of total surveillance and what it means to live as an image to be seen by others,” Yeo told Variety about his next project, which is also set in Singapore.
Anthony Chen won the...
- 3/19/2019
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Eighteen debut films eligible for award, worth Bright Future Award, worth €10,000.
Source: Iffr
Impermanence
International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), which runs 24 Jan to 4 Feb, has announced the full line-up of its Bright Future programme, including the titles that will compete for the Bright Future Award.
Scroll down for the full line-up
The competition for the Bright Future Award 2018, worth €10,000, consists of eighteen debut films, including Impermanence by young Chinese filmmaker Zeng Zeng, German film Ella Und Nell by Aline Chukwuedo and Counting Tiles by Lebanese filmmaker Cynthia Choucair.
Other world premieres include Christopher Makoto Yogi’s debut August At Akiko, The Heart by Swedish filmmaker Fanni Metelius and Egyptian film Poisonous Roses by Ahmed Fawzi Saleh, and La Estrella Errante by Spanish filmmaker Alberto Gracia, who won the Fipresci Award with his feature debut The Fifth Gospel Of Kaspar Hauser at Iffr 2013.
Read more: ’Jimmie’, ‘The Death Of Stalin’ to bookend Rotterdam film festival
The jury for the...
Source: Iffr
Impermanence
International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), which runs 24 Jan to 4 Feb, has announced the full line-up of its Bright Future programme, including the titles that will compete for the Bright Future Award.
Scroll down for the full line-up
The competition for the Bright Future Award 2018, worth €10,000, consists of eighteen debut films, including Impermanence by young Chinese filmmaker Zeng Zeng, German film Ella Und Nell by Aline Chukwuedo and Counting Tiles by Lebanese filmmaker Cynthia Choucair.
Other world premieres include Christopher Makoto Yogi’s debut August At Akiko, The Heart by Swedish filmmaker Fanni Metelius and Egyptian film Poisonous Roses by Ahmed Fawzi Saleh, and La Estrella Errante by Spanish filmmaker Alberto Gracia, who won the Fipresci Award with his feature debut The Fifth Gospel Of Kaspar Hauser at Iffr 2013.
Read more: ’Jimmie’, ‘The Death Of Stalin’ to bookend Rotterdam film festival
The jury for the...
- 1/5/2018
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
In our last article, we went over the history and exciting things the Brooklyn Film Festival offers its contestants. And now it’s time to meet the films and the winners.
16Mmonster: directed by Jacob Kindlon; a 12 minute short from the Us.
20 Years Of Madness: directed by Jeremy Royce; a 90 minute documentary from the Us.
Abby Singer/Songwriter: Directed by Onur Tukel , a 75 minute film from the Us.
Abigail Deville’S Harlem Stories: Directed by Nick Ravich, a 7 minute American documentary.
After A Dream: Directed by Tobias Schmuecking, a 17 minute short from Germany.
And It Was Good: Directed by Graham Waterston, a 19 minute short from the Us.
Winner of the Short Narrative Spirit Award
Big Bag: Directed by Ricardo Martin Coloma, a 13 minute animation from Spain.
Block And Piled: Directed by Marc Riba & Anna Solanas, a 5 minute animation from Spain.
Blue-eyed Me: Directed by Alexey Marfin, a 7 minute short from England.
16Mmonster: directed by Jacob Kindlon; a 12 minute short from the Us.
20 Years Of Madness: directed by Jeremy Royce; a 90 minute documentary from the Us.
Abby Singer/Songwriter: Directed by Onur Tukel , a 75 minute film from the Us.
Abigail Deville’S Harlem Stories: Directed by Nick Ravich, a 7 minute American documentary.
After A Dream: Directed by Tobias Schmuecking, a 17 minute short from Germany.
And It Was Good: Directed by Graham Waterston, a 19 minute short from the Us.
Winner of the Short Narrative Spirit Award
Big Bag: Directed by Ricardo Martin Coloma, a 13 minute animation from Spain.
Block And Piled: Directed by Marc Riba & Anna Solanas, a 5 minute animation from Spain.
Blue-eyed Me: Directed by Alexey Marfin, a 7 minute short from England.
- 8/23/2015
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
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