SINGAPORE GAGA

Postcard from Poland

2006-04-16T17:35:00.000+08:00

Singapore GaGa is screening at Warsaw University, I got an email from one of the organisers, about how GaGa is received there

"I love Singapore GaGa. You managed to make it a warm film about home without being nostalgic. There's also this part with Ying where he sings this "Polish Mazurka" song, which is in a way my favourite part. Here's why.

First of all - Poles have an inferiority complex (no one knows our country which is perceived as a country of farmers and manual labourers), mainly because Poland remains unknown to the world. Seeing a foreigner who can say a few words in Polish, knows some famous Poles, or - like in your film - is able to sing a song, is so
fantastic!

The part with Ying singing the song is great, gives a very nice feeling. The song's title is actually "Szla dzieweczka do laseczka"("A maiden going to the woods") and isn't a "mazurek" (which is a type of dance and a name for the music played to it). But what's funny in the scene, is that Ying didn't have any problems with his act before, but when he had sung this Polish song - his joggling went wrong. I find it ironic and funny, as quite a lot of Poles consider their homeland a place where things tend to go wrong.

Thank you again for your film!

Walden in New South Wales

2006-04-11T14:23:00.000+08:00

This trip Down Under is an escape from GaGa now that it is vested in more than able hands. And so it was serendipitous when hiking in the Blue Mountains that I stumbled onto a cottage that reminded me so much of the one Thoreau lived in on Walden. This stone one-room hut has a bed, a fire place, a stove an also a small table. It belonged to a poet who came here to escape her four children. It does not have electricity but has an outhouse. A retreat for her to retreat into herself, into nature, so nourished, she could continue to give.

Sydney

2006-04-06T21:30:00.000+08:00

In Sydney and screened GaGa at the University of Technology. It was here where I was the Asia Artist in Residence in 2004. And it was here when GaGa (the idea of it) was conceived. So this was a homecoming where I brought the baby home to be viewed. But this picture is not of the screening but the 9km walk I took from Spit to Manly on beautiful day, Life as it should be lived

Warsaw University

2006-03-29T11:19:00.000+08:00

Singapore GaGa has been invited to screen at Warsaw University. They have asked me to send them the subtitles list ahead of time so that they can translate it to Polish. This will be interesting.

Neighbour

2006-03-24T14:19:00.000+08:00

A friend said yesterday and said she saw her neighbour in Singapore GaGa, no, not as a subject but as a passerby in the MRT scene.

Audience

2006-03-20T19:44:00.000+08:00

A picture taken of the audience yesterday, which was the last day where I was to take the Q&A, its hard to say if there was a general profile of the audience. They weren't the film festival types, they were mostly youngish 25-40? About a third of them heard about GaGa from friends. The rest through blogs, press reviews, and even our (Chinese) radio interview. By next weekend, we will have had 9 full house screenings. This has been an exhausting albeit wonderful ride. Its the best part about film making, sharing the fruits of our labours and meeting the people for whom this film was meant for.

Chinese cheat sheet v2

2006-03-20T11:43:00.000+08:00

反讽 = ironic
颠覆 (意思) = subversive intentions
拼凑 = to montage (verb)
怀旧 = nostalgic

Straits Times Review 15 March 2006

2006-03-20T11:36:00.000+08:00

March 15, 2006
 Going GaGa  Warm, whimsical and witty, Tan Pin Pin's documentary shows her curiosity and empathy for her subjects
By Ong Sor Fern

SINGAPORE GAGA  55 minutes/Now showing/****

IF YOU watch just one made-in-Singapore film this year, make it Singapore GaGa.
Tan Pin Pin's documentary, which debuted at the Singapore International Film Festival last year, is finally getting a well-deserved, if tiny, commercial window at the Arts House's Screening Room.

And it is well worth making the trek there to watch this warm, whimsical and witty film.

Out of one simple guiding principle - capturing Singapore through its soundscapes - Tan has spun an engaging and affectionate tapestry of the Republic. The film is also positive proof that criticism and celebration of national identity can go hand in hand.

On first encounter, this looks like a patchwork quilt of random vignettes.

The film wanders from the grand spectacle of the National Day parades to the neighbourhood cosiness of a madrasah celebrating its sports day with tudung-clad schoolgirls singing cheerleading chants that code-switch cheerfully between Arabic and English.

The avant-garde artistry of pianist Margaret Leng-Tan is set in counterpoint to the simple rhythmic ditty conjured by Liang Yu Tao as she hawks tissue paper to passersby at the MRT station.

But as the film unspools, it reveals itself to be slyly subversive as well. Tan declares her intention, with so much unassuming subtlety that casual viewers will miss it on first encounter, from the beginning.

The bombast of the National Day parade opening is undercut in the next scene by the lonely sight of busker Melvyn Cedello singing a mournful love ballad: 'Wasted days and wasted nights, I have left for you behind/for you don't belong to me/your heart belongs to someone else.'

Tan observes, not only acutely but also with an unflinchingly critical eye. In ferreting out the lost, the marginalised and the forgotten, she insists that Singaporeans see themselves, warts and all.

As her camera captures the well-heeled office crowd at Raffles Place hurrying unseeingly past Gn Kok Lin, an elderly man in clogs and ratty sweat-stained shirt playing insistently on his harmonica and juggling tennis balls, Tan's gaze contains within its unwavering focus a quiet rebuke.

But the wonderful thing about Tan is that she is never dictatorial in tone. Like the best documentary film-makers, she possesses not only great curiosity but genuine empathy for her eccentric subjects. She is never patronising.
In training her cameras on buskers like Gn and Liang, she gently insists on inclusion, reminding Singaporeans that such personalities exist in our midst whether we see them or not. And she revels in the diversity that these odd sparks bring to our clean structured Republic.

There is no greater exemplar of Tan's celebration of the quotidian than in a wonderful sequence in the middle of the film, when she sets Leng-Tan, with her toy piano, in the middle of a void deck and has the world-renowned Singapore-born artist play composer John Cage's 4'33'. During the piece, which is four minutes 33 seconds of silence, the ambient noise of the average HDB void deck takes centrestage.

In moments like these, the film evokes more warm fuzzy pride in being Singaporean than all the grandiose fireworks of National Day.

100.3FM

2006-03-15T12:33:00.000+08:00

At 8.30-9.30 am every morning on 100.3FM, the mandarin radio channel there is a show called 家事天下事 (everything under the sun) where a regular congregation of chinese speaking gliteratti meet to chat on air about the issues of the day. Its tone depends on the people who come that morning. On the show yesterday, the regulars there were Lee Huay Leng, from the China Desk at Zaobao and Kok Heng Leun from the Drama Box. We discussed amongst other things, Singapore GaGa and then we moved on to the headline story in Zaobao. The discussion centred not on the story itself but the choice of word to describe Singapore in the headlines which was "zu guo", or motherland, the English approximation.

They talked about, amongst other things, whether that signaled a paradigm shift in our perception of ourselves. For zu guo had until yesterday always been used to describe China/India etc, the land of our forebears. The bantering was as swift as it was sharp, like nothing I have ever heard in the English radio channels in Singapore. I have not felt such a sense of freedom of expression in the media. Does the English language spoken by non native tongues constrict expression?

From left, Qian Xi, Huay Leng and Heng Leun

Gek Sim

2006-03-13T18:03:00.000+08:00

It occurred to me that Singapore GaGa, for all its bright rallying calls, is really a documentary about being Gek Sim (hokkien), the nearest English equivalent is heartbroken. But Gek Sim is more precise because it is more lingering, more persistent, and is always there, it doesn't just go away. Some audience tell me they come out feeling very sad, but they don't know why. Now I have a word for them. They sensed the Gek Sim undercurrent. But its a feeling caused by one's life here in Singapore. So its very personal, yet shared by many living here too. What I did, without being conscious at first, was to articulate that sense of ennui.

The only words one needs to know

2006-03-07T16:32:00.000+08:00

We are trying very hard to reach the non English speaking audience, so that means seeking out the Chinese media outlets and giving interviews in Chinese. Teng Qianxi, publicist and translator wrote me a Chinese Cheat Sheet for GaGa's Chinese media interviews, I will be fine, but words like ventriloquist, or clog stomping busker need some memorising

Sounds I cherish & can’t live without =
这是我最珍惜而对我最宝贵的本地声音

Chinese subtitles = 中文字幕

Want to reach out to Chinese-speaking audience =
这次我要吸引到讲中文的观众

Because I think they would really enjoy the characters portrayed in the film =
因为我觉得他们会很喜欢看电影里头的人物

At the time, I just wanted to record these sounds before they vanish. = 我当时希望在它们消失前把这些音响纪录下来

Serendipitiously came across several of the people in the film. = 很多这些人物我是无意中发现的，甚至碰到他们时就马上赶回家拿摄影机把他们录下来

Originally didn’t expect it to be screened, but I’m very happy because I hope it’ll let Singaporeans be more aware and appreciative of their own environment. = 没预料到Singapore GaGa 能够在戏院放映，但我很高兴因为我希望它能让新加破人能更加注意和欣赏自己的环境。

Lie back and enjoy

2006-03-06T15:33:00.000+08:00

I was very happy to hear that the tickets for the Singapore GaGa at the Bangkok International Film Festival screening were sold out. As I stepped into the cinema to introduce the film, instead of sea of faces, I found a dimly lit well spaced cinema with the audience all lying flat in their reclining seats. This was the make out cinema and Singapore GaGa was showing there. I wanted to tell the audience that this was no make out movie, (it was double billed with Moving House about exhuming your own parents). The Q&A was reasonably subdued and I guess, being supine might have something to do with it

Alex and Mr Yew

2006-03-02T17:55:00.000+08:00

I went to The Jazz @ Southbridge bar last night at the invitation of Mr Yew Hong Chow who was jamming with Jacinta Abishaganaden at the launch of her new Album. Guess who I met? but Alex who was there to support his daughter. He said "What do we have to live for but for our children?" I took many pictures, but this is a memorable one. And yes, the album is great, I urge you all to buy it, Jazz renditions of evergreen Mandarin songs. For those new to Singapore GaGa, Alex and Yew Hong Chow played a harmonica & guitar duet in GaGa and they were amazing.

A view from the trenches

2006-02-14T12:12:00.000+08:00

Qianxi bent over stamping 1600 Singapore GaGa postcards with "Opens March 11. The Arts House"

So easy to forget

2006-02-10T20:21:00.000+08:00

We just finished subtitling GaGa in Mandarin for the opening on the 11 March. So all the non Chinese bits that didn't have Chinese subtitles will now have it - in addition to English subtitles. I always felt guilty about not having Chinese subtitles since my last work Moving House, when the family who was featured said that they didn't understand what was said. So this time, Dan Feng so kindly volunteered and Frameworks spared some time, and we spent two days subtitling. Its so basic isn't it? I should have done this sooner.

GaGa is screening in Bangkok International Film Festival in two weeks together with Moving House. It should be interesting to see it together. what will people think about Singapore, what will they think of me!

Rotterdam Hooray.

2006-02-08T20:39:00.000+08:00

Rotterdam is the best festival in the world. Where else can you have a conference on preservation of super 8 film, together with a conference about the Hubert bals Fund (which encourages film production in countries with very litte infrastructure), a side bar of must see Philippines films with a film market bringing together the likes of the wild bunch, focus films and everyone in between? If you get a chance, you must go. Cannes scared the hell out of me, but Rotterdam, I found it big yet very approachable and very well organised - they even send you a list of people who view your film in the video library so you could follow up with them. Many highlights, one I had coffee with Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader, who has more than he ever imagines, to do with my film education and I stumbled onto a film "the Last Wish" (1994) about Singapore made by a Fillipino director about the Flor Contemplacion hanging where I felt very very embarrased to be Singaporean. When a young Singaporean was interviewed on the street, she said "Filipinos were overreacting to the hanging"

During the GaGa screening, a dutch journalist Peter Van Buren asked me what was so special about Singapore GaGa, for him, it was a charming little portrait of Singapore, some singing, some dancing. But so what? I didn't know how to answer him, how do you explain that it resonated for me because the songs and sounds I had showcased were inextricably tied to my life here, they were me and I them, and it was an attempt to communicate a view of Singapore with other Singaporeans by tapping into our communal aural memory. what a mouthful. Then he asked if I thought this was good enough, Shouldn't I be more universal? Perhaps i will attempt that next, but for now, this is good enough

In the photo, the wall is plastered with film posters all vying for attention, try to spot the GaGa one.

Keep good notes

2006-02-07T15:30:00.000+08:00

At the screening at the university, I was confronted with a roomful of students wielding pen and notebook scribbling down every answer to every question, as if what I had to say was the final word on the subject. Most questions started with the phrase "Did you intend ......". They had an impression of it and they wanted to check if they were correct. Don't believe anything I say! for the author is the most unreliable commentator of her work. There are many readings and theirs are just as valid if they could substantiate it.

They were looking for affirmation of their interpretations, I wanted to tell them that they don't need me to tell them whether they were right or wrong, infact, right or wrong doesn't seem applicable. Is there only one right answer to each question. In the case of films, they feel that the director is privy to the "correct" interpretation. This can't be further from the truth

Rotterdam International Film Festival

2006-01-22T23:12:00.000+08:00

A couple of thousand people are going to descend on Rotterdam festival next week to watch films, wheeling and dealing along the way. Jo and I spent the day, going through the festival guest directory marking out a list of people we'd like to invite to the Screening next week then sending off emails to let them know about the screening. Some people we know, most we don't. We look out for keywords in their profiles like "Asian", "experimental", "documentaries". We don't truck with people who do Vera Drake (these directories list their profiles in terms of film choices) Of course we know word of mouth is better than cold calls, emails can be deleted with a flick of a wrist like what we do to nigerian lottery notifications but how does one even start to have word of mouth? We leave no stone unturned.

Singapore GaGa screens at NUS tomorrow, the Uni Scholars Programme has booked the it through the travelling short film programme. The administrator told us that the response is very good and they will have simultaneous screenings in two rooms, so they asked us to bring an extra copy. I would have never imagined it, when I was making GaGa that it'd be roadshow, and I one of its vaudevillians

I packed have the tapes, posters, flyers, namecards, ovaltine biscuits, vit C tablets for Rotterdam. This is going to be interesting.

Kuala Lumpur 2-4 Dec

2005-12-06T00:23:00.000+08:00

Young Man "How do you make award winning films"
Me "Don't think about awards when you are making it"
Young Man "How then do you get your films seen in festivals"
Me You have to toil in the dark and hope someone notices you, or have really good PR and very good luck

A Chinese journalist: "Do Singaporeans feel that Malaysians are culturally superior to them"
Me: "Yes I think Singaporeans feel they are superior over Malaysians over most things"
Chinese Journalist "Even in terms of 'culture"
Me, Maybe Not

Giddy from jet lag after Berlin and Nantes, I left for KL on a NICE bus the day after coming back from Singapore. This was trip I was most curious about. A Malaysian reaction to Singapore GaGa. KL was becoming more gridlocked by the minute because some arterial roads were closed for a motorcade rehearsals for a coming ministerial conference. As if KL was not congested enough! It was so nice to see David again after almost two years. We were in the trenches together making a five part TV series , we had bitten off more than we could chew as we were trying out new production methods, like commissioning local directors from countries with little TV documentary experience. The fact that we finished it was largely due to him, he picked up all the pieces, plugged the gaps when these directors did not deliver. It was an ultimately gratifying series, picked up two Asian TV awards, but only in retrospect. As an antidote to that prolonged purgatory, he had gone back to Malaysia, started his own company, got married, and started making corporates, myself, I made Singapore GaGa. Because of the traffic, we walked all the way from KLCC to the National Art Gallery where it was to be screened. It was a cosy screening, only about 15 people, but the Q&A was intense. After finding out about how Singaporeans reacted to it, the audience wanted to know what i thought of Malaysian filmmakers and films. They said that some Singaporeans had come a few years ago and pooh poohed Malaysian films. They also wanted to know how Singapore GaGa was received in Singapore. A very engaging conversation followed about the differences between Singaporean and Malaysian films. I told them that they were head and shoulders ahead of us and told them why.

Days later, inthe Star Newspaper, Andrew Sia its chief weekend Star reporter wrote a review "Singapore Gaga highlights the Singapore we never knew, the one far, far away from the Spirit of Sentosa and Orchard Road. By showcasing the songs, sounds (and even silence!) of the city-state... it presents a brilliant “alternative” ga-ga view of the go-go Lion City.

I used that quote for the poster, i hope he doesn't mind

Nantes Une Dollar, Une Dollar, Bonjour Une Dollar

2005-12-01T19:27:00.000+08:00

Yes, Yes, they are really queuing up to watch Singapore GaGa.

IN SINGAPORE YOU HAVE ONE NATIONAL TREASURE, IN EGYPT, WE HAVE HUNDREDS! Egyptian film critic annouced to the audience during the Q&A

I have to say that the Festival des tre Continents, Nantes is my favourite film festival. Sited in a beautiful walkable French city, it is intimate, personal and film focused with a very long and affecting aftertaste. The slate is small, only 93 films are screened over 8 days, (the competition segment has only 16 films), the atmosphere convivial, livened with cheap and good alcohol at the cinematique café. Sometimes when we didn’t have a common language, we talked through sign language or with just a nod, a smile. We stayed in the same hotel as Tsai Ming Liang who there to promote wayward cloud - it was having a run in Paris that weekend - we went up to say hello though i doubt he will remember me, then again maybe...

Years ago, I met him at the in bangkok Film Festival, and all I could say in my star struck state was "I really like you, really like you" over and over again,

The first thing Josephine Seetoh and I did when we got there was to put up posters and postcards, to raise some awareness about the film, must have worked, while the first was half, the second screening was filled

There was a sense of discovery in the air. It was here that I saw my first Afghan film, my first Tunisian film (in a sidebar showcasing Tunisian films from 1920 onwards), my first Tadjikistan film. I do not mean to say that I did not have a chance to see them at the Singapore International Film Festival. It’s just that the selection here is so small and so exclusively presented (directors were flown in specially), one had the feeling that it would be a great loss not to see them and not to meet the people who made it. The films themselves did not disappoint.

The one thing that united the official selections, it was that the films felt very singular, you could feel the personality of the maker coming through. It was their view of themselves, their surroundings and their countries, that shone through. They all had something to say and they said it clearly, persuasively and urgently. No battery farmed films over here, these were exquisitely handcrafted films, films wrought into existence by careful parents. Here the effort to birth the film was appreciated. No cell phones rang , and audiences were still, No questions about film budgets or shooting formats. Here, I had the longest and most rigourous Q&A in my life at Singapore GaGa’s two screenings. Speaking through and interpreter, I never felt so drained by the curious audience who wanted to know everything about Singapore and about Singapore GaGa. This was the first Singaporean film shown in the festival’s 27 year old history. The question that caught me most unawares was " did government officials follow you here to Nantes", Did they think Singapore was North Korea or Burma? Caught off guard I said" they have better things to do" which is probably not something they want to hear

My biggest thrill ever was to see The tissue Lady's Song (Ms Liang) subtitled in French "Une Dollar, Une Dollar, Bonjour Une Dollar", Never in my dreams would I or she imagine that happening, One dollar song in french

Berlin 2

2005-11-22T20:07:00.000+08:00

It snowed.

We passed a building that looked very graceful - like a modernist Singapore City Hall but without the pretentious flourishes. It turns out that this used to be where Goebbels commanded his post. What I found most hard to swallow was that this building is now repurposed as the the Central Bank of Germany. I have never worked in a space with evil seeping through the bricks. How does one cope with that kind of memory, day in day out, but to force oneself to forget. Here in Singapore, one has to force oneself to remember.

She also told me that the most harrowing thing for a young German was to find out that her grandparents were Nazis. She herself had to pluck up enough courage to finally ask her granddaddy what he did during the war. Her granddaddy was a driver of food supplies, and he had the photos to prove it. Did he save the photos for a moment like this to prove his innocence to the people important to him?

All through all our walk, she regaled me with escape stories.She pointed out the window where an East German escaped. Using a flying fox pulley, he lowered his wife and kids into the safety of the West. Everywhere drama in real life, now told as urban legends by the young.

I am now back in Singapore for a few days preparing for the Festival of Three Continents, my office is full of posters, postcards, tapes to bring over. Singapore GaGa is screening in Malaysia at the same time. I want to go to that screening more than anything else, but it overlaps.

Berlin

2005-11-17T23:45:00.000+08:00

Singapore GaGa screened at the Berlin House of World Cultures last night to a crowd of about 30 plus people. It was part of a film programme emotionally curated by Philip Cheah. Titled "Whose terror is it anyway", it featured Southeast Asian Films which resist, articulate and in the process, ameliorate the effects of authoritarian regimes. Featured were works by Lav Diaz, Garin, Amir Mohammed. regulars at SIFF. I was excited because it was my first time attending a screening of non- SIngaporeans.

I had only one question in my mind when I saw the audience. Why would anyone come on pityfully cold night (near zero) pay good money to see an obscure film about marginal Singaporeans? Did Singapore GaGa, wearing its localness on its sleeve reach beyond the audience it was made for? This was the second screening and apparently the first was better attended. Berliners must be voracious consumers of culture and/or the programmers must have primed them well, I could only postulate. The Q&A, was handled with verve by Shaheen, in a few arched questions, he sketched a context for GaGa's screening and its making.

Comments from the audience, "Singapore looks so antisceptic compared to Berlin, yet the people are so warm"
"SIngapore is a black hole in my mind, so this give me an idea of the country and its people"
"We had to learn to play the recorders too and it scarred us"
"I didn't know Singapore was so diverse"
"I felt a moment of fear when I saw the kids wearing headscarfs"
and of course, the perenial "what camera did you shoot on"

Post screening, had drinks with Annette from the Filmmuseum - who has promised to take me on a tour of former GDR sites as I was interested in socialist architecture. She will also take me to the archive. Onward and upward