First Take – March 2010

Monday 1 March, 8 pm
The Substation Theatre
Free admission, Donations welcome

March’s First Take brings you stories from days of yore, and emotional struggles before getting to that happy place. Find out more about Singapore’s history and how we rise from the ashes this month at The Substation, the place for screenings, discussions and more!

1. BARBER IN THE ALLEY/ SAM KANG LI/ 6 MIN/ 2009/ PG

A photo-audio documentary about a 70-year-old barber who reclaims space on the streets to continue his trade amidst the forces of the Singapore economy that have pushed him out of regular shop spaces. This video is part of a larger multimedia journalism package, Reclaim Land: The fight for space in Singapore, at http://reclaimland.sg

Sam Kang Li was the photographer for Barber In The Alley, one of the many stories in Reclaim Land: The fight for space in Singapore. With a group of three other journalism students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Kang Li hopes to tell stories to people through new multimedia. Kang Li had
previously interned for half a year in Nepal at The Nepali Times, where he
covered the rise of the Maoist government to power in the country’s elections
that saw it move from a monarchy to a republic.

2. CINEMANTIQUE/ SUZIE KNIGHT/ 13 MIN/ 2009/ PG

A nostalgic foray into Singapore’s cinematic past

Suzie Knight is a recent graduate of Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Film Sound and Video program. Her primary interests lie in European film history and Western literature. Singapore’s historical background, particularly of youth culture in the 60s and 70s, are one of the things that inspires her. Cinemantique is her graduation documentary project.

3. RUST/ PARISSA TOSIF/ 4 MIN/ 2009/ PG

How do you measure pain? Why can his be greater than yours? We all face it, can it be in numbers

Shot, edited and produced over an intensive 24 hours, Rust explores an interpretation of the theme ‘Pain’ given by the Fly By Night 2009 organizers.

4. LINGER/ SIM BEELI/ 15 MIN/ 2009/ PG

Based on true events, Linger touches on the theme of loss, grief and self-salvation. It depicts the process of grieving that a daughter and her father have to go through in the shadows of a sudden loss. As both characters grieve in their own ways, they are forced to face the past, their regrets and eventually, each other

Beeli is a freelance editor and filmmaker. Her films have won the Singapore 4As Students Creative Awards Gold Prize, Best of Show for the Southwest District, Best Technical Award at 2005 Canon Digital Video Festival. She also directed 2 other shorts,
Twenty Four Seven (2004) and Meeting Zoe (2005). Beeli recently
graduated from RMIT University with a Master of Creative Media in
Film and Television Production

5. HOW DID I DIE? / RYAN BOEY/ 4 MIN/ 2009/ PG

How would someone react to his own death when he realizes it was due to a stupid reason? What would a dead man be thinking of, in his final hours of brain activity after his heart stops? How did I Die? is one of the ten winning films in the Fly By Night Video Challenge. It was scripted, directed, filmed and edited in 41 hours, as part of a challenge requirement, with ‘pain’ as the given theme. Ryan, along with his teammates, Leong Wene, Joseph Chua, Ye Ling Qing, represent Republic Polytechnic, from the Interactive Digital Media faculty.

An aspiring Actor cum Director, Ryan Boey graduated from Republic Polytechnic with a diploma in Interactive Digital Media (DIDM). To date, he has directed, edited and performed in four films, three of which has been showcased in Republic Polytechnic’s Open House. His films include Chasing Lights, The Saturdays, How Did I Die? and The Interview, which won the inter-DIDM video challenge. In his free time, he works as a freelance events photographer. His short films can be found on youtube

6. STRUGGLE/ GUO WENXU/ 3 MIN/ 2009/ PG

An undercover cop and his inner struggle with his identity crisis, explored through a series of montages.

Guo Wenxu is currently studying at Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. Struggle has taken part in 2009′s edition of Objectifs’ Fly By Night competition

7. HAPPY PLACE/ JEEVAN NATHAN/ 10 MIN/ 2008/ PG

Happy Place is a dark whimsical tale about hope, love, loss and acceptance. It is a story of a brother, Daniel, trying to save his dying sister, (Victoria) from the “evil”. Using drawings and imagination, Daniel takes her away from the “bad house” and into… the happy place

Jeevan studied filmmaking in Singapore and later furthered his education at the prestigious New York Film Academy in California. He has been working in Singapore since 2003 on various projects for television, corporate organizations and short films. In 2005, he started Monochromatic Pictures to embark on creative projects he could call his own. Happy Place
is his first official short film.