Experiments in Progress… Looking at cinema from a different angle and expanding the capacity of the mind.

Experience a different form of cinema with us at the inaugural Experimental Film Forum where on-screen alchemy plays out. Like experiments in the physical world these on-screen experiments in light, sound and image, have the potential to reach wondrous and explosive, if not baffling results that will contribute towards expanding our understanding of cinema.

The forum will open with a screening of the seminar film “Mysterious Object at Noon” (2000) by Thailand’s foremost experimental filmmaker, Apichatpong Weerasethakul. This feature length documentary documents the process of weaving a story from different sources via the Exquisite Corpse game played by a diverse group of people in rural Thailand as the film crew travels around the country. It is a curious take on a documentary, what constitutes a documentary and the mechanisms of making a documentary.

Other highlights include a showcase of Singapore experimental films curated by critically acclaimed Singapore experimental filmmaker, Victric Thng (Locust, 2003). This showcase will highlight past and recent experimental films from Singapore with a post-screening Q&A with the curator and filmmakers about their processes and approach to their films.

Other films to highlight include “The Commute” (2008) by León Siminiani which presents a highly convincing theory for those who face the daily grind of commuting to work, explored and enforced through the structured play of repeated images and a didactic voiceover. “Block B” (2008) by Chris Chong is another amazing work by our Malaysian neighbour, which weaves a tapestry of a microcosm within a larger manufactured universe, much like how we go about in our daily lives
amidst larger world events.

An introduction workshop on Super8 film will be conducted by Russel and Gozde Zehnder from Freestate Productions.
They will demonstrate the beauty of working with this rustic film medium, together with a screening of Super8 films
curated by Norwood Cheek.

There will also be an informal discussion forum on the brief history of experimental films in Southeast Asia, the recent spate of experimental films and the direction of experimental cinema. We will raise questions on what has been termed as an experimental film today, the trends of the experimental film movements in Southeast Asia and Europe and an introduction to a current project that bridges Southeast Asian and European experimental films via the Human Frames project.
Guest speakers include Mathias Ortmann (Asian Hot Shots Berlin, film festival), Silke Schmickl (Lowave, distributor), Tulapop Saenjaroen (Thai experimental filmmaker), and Victric Thng (Singaporean curator and experimental filmmaker).

Closing the forum will be the much talked about medium length film, “Earth” (2009) by Ho Tzu Nyen. This will be the Singapore premiere of this work of art fresh from the 66th Venice Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.