A space for the avant-garde. A refuge for the fringe.

Coming Home marks the beginning of The Substation's 2020/21 programme season and invites everyone whose lives have been touched by The Substation to ‘come home'. It offers a sneak peek into The Substation’s upcoming programming initiatives for the year: interdisciplinary performances by veteran artists in their own fields; exploration of alternative arts practices by a cohort of artists and the return of the film programme.

Originally intended as a physical 3-day weekend festival, the precautionary measures put in place due to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic required all arts centres to remain closed. Nonetheless, The Substation believes that the arts have the power to give hope, comfort and provide perspective in this uncertain times. Together with our artists and collaborators, we pressed on and challenged ourselves to find alternative ways to engage our audience and create meaningfully.

Taking the form of an online festival, Coming Home will feature:

• A virtual exhibition showcasing the works by artists of the Associate Artist Programme

• A series of short films by Singaporean filmmaker Russell Morton that were adapted from three theatre works by Lina Yu, Ramith Ramesh and Zelda Tatiana Ng

• A film dialogue where established and emerging filmmakers discusses the relevance of the cinema in a post-COVID world

To learn more about the artists involved, watch them on our YouTube channel or IGTV.

26 June: Associate Artist Programme Showcase

The Substation's Associate Artist Programme (AAP) is a year-long programme where artists and collectives are invited to engage in a process-driven development of existing or new works. This year's selection is based on artists who engage in collaborative and collective practices, with many of them being active organisers and key members in their community.

The showcase, which will take the form of a virtual exhibition, offers snapshots of the ideas and projects that our associate artists are exploring or developing at present. Their work and methodologies highlights the different approaches to artistic practice.  

Featuring:

• Artist Caravan (AC)

• Ayer Ayer Project

• AWKNDAFFR

• BRACK

• Chu Hao Pei

• Farhan Idris

• Fertile Art Refinery (FAR) 

• Lai Yu Tong

• Lee Sze-Chin

• Shaiful Risan

• Straits Records

• Stephanie Chan

27 June: Theatre Triple Bill

7.30pm - 9.30pm / Zoom Webinar / Free admission

This event is fully subscribed! Due to the limited capacity for the Zoom webinar, we are unable to accept additional registration via Zoom.

If you have yet to register, please write to us at outreach@substation.org, and we will send you a private viewing link to the live stream of Zoom webinar.

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Inspired by the virtual collaborations that arose during the pandemic, whether it's through FaceTime-directed portraits or cross-border Zoom rehearsals, the theatre triple bill is a series of short films written and/or performed by theatre practitioners Lina Yu, Ramith Ramesh and Zelda Tatiana Ng in collaboration with Singaporean filmmaker Russell Morton for The Substation’s new programme, Coming Home.

The three works were originally intended to be a theatrical production. However, with the circuit breaker announcements and the need for arts venues to remain close in Phase 1, rehearsal processes had to shut down prematurely and The Substation had to find new ways of presenting the works. 

Produced and directed through the cinematic lens of Russell Morton, the writing, direction, design and performance of the three productions are now reinterpreted and presented in three distinct ways: Lina Yu’s The Ecosystem’s script and narrative arc being adapted for the screen; a documentation of a cross-border Kutiyattam performance by Ramith Ramesh in a blackbox; and lastly, At the End of the World…, a collaborative post-production which will see Russell Morton creating a conceptual piece based on the pre-recorded footages and sound bites provided by Zelda Tatiana Ng. 

Programme Schedule:

7:30 PM - 8:00 PM: The Ecosystem (Lina Yu)

8:00 PM - 8:30 PM: Kutiyattam (Ramith Ramesh)

8:30 PM - 9:00 PM: At the End of the World… (Zelda Tatiana Ng)

9:00 PM - 9:30 PM: Post-screening Dialogue

The Ecosystem 

Playwright: Lina Yu
Actor: Lina Yu
Language: English, Mandarin, Hokkien

Perhaps they say it all
Perhaps they say nothing at all
Perhaps everything lies in the beholder
Who knows what lies on the other shore

Maybe they have never met
Maybe they knew each other before
So when were they born?
No one ever knows for sure

Perhaps you’ll recognise some of them
Perhaps you’ll meet them for the first time
Find your way into this ecosystem
Where they thrive, or maybe...

The Ecosystem is the continuation of an original piece created by Lina during her training at the Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), exploring identity through culture and the world we live in. Due to the current climate, the piece has now taken on a new breath through film. What is the “present” in which we live?

Kutiyattam

Actor: Kalamandalam Ramith Ramesh
Drummer: Kalamandalam Rahul T S
Language: Non-verbal

A form of traditional Indian theatre that dates back to two millennia, Kutiyattam draws on the plays of eminent Sanskrit dramatists of India.

Ramith will be performing “Pakshi sthobham” and the conversation between Ravana and Jadayu, one of the most iconic performances of Kutiyattam adapted from Jatayu Vadha (The Killing of Jatayu), an excerpt from the Hindu epic Ramayana. 

The Jatayu Vadha is a story where the evil king Ravana kidnaps Sita, the virtuous wife of Prince Rama. Prince Rama and Sita were in exile from their own country. On his flying magical chariot, Ravana attempts to kidnap Sita in order to bring her to his capital, Lanka (his capital). 

Jatayu was a wise vulture, a demigod that could speak the human language and an old friend of Rama’s father. He bears his own legend of competing with his brother for flying nearest to the sun. Unfortunately, his powers have weakened due to old age. Still, he tried to rescue Sita from Ravana. Being a strong knight, Ravana cut off Jatayu’s wings, and the old Jatayu fell on the ground, bruised and battered. Jatayu lived to tell Rama about Sita’s kidnapping.

At the End of the World…  在世界的尽头。。。

Director/Playwright : Zelda Tatiana Ng  顏橦
Produced by: GroundZ-0  原。空間
Voice Actor/Sound: Zelda Tatiana Ng  顏橦
Actor: Wendy Toh 卓慧玲
Original Script: Kok Heng Leun  郭慶亮
Language: English

Written by Kok Heng Leun in the 90’s and performed by Zelda, she rewrote it in 2003 as part of her graduation piece at ITI. This was a piece inspired by a real-life story. ‘At the End of the World…’ is a poetic presentation about a woman’s yearning and search for the meaning of love and her existence. Her reality and memories entwined with the exophysical realm, creating layered and multiple realities in a surrealistic world.

She feels the world is constantly ending. She thought she was happily married, only to find her reality was nothing of what she perceived... She was lost. She went on a journey of pilgrimage and found refuge in a surrealistic realm - having a conversation with the supreme spiritual power. She did the radical act of seducing the power... She just needed an outlet - A way to feel alive again! But her act was against all morals and social values. So, is her existence valid?

28 June: A Reel Roundtable

The common path for the independent film typically passes through 4 distinct stages: production; festival/sales; distributor; exhibitor. Each stage functions as a cog in the wheel of the industry, working in tandem while facing strained pressures of each other's roles in an interdependent film ecology. In this roundtable, The Substation invites various key players in the industry to share strategies they have applied in their own sectors in hopes of sparking an optimistic shift towards sustainable film practices.

Note:
This is a Zoom webinar registered event where only 100 participants will be allowed in. Please register only if you're able to attend.

The roundtable will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule whereby all information gleaned from event will be for general knowledge only and should not be attributable to specific speakers. Any recording of the event by the organiser will be strictly for internal archiving only, and no other recordings will be permitted by our participants.

Junxiang enjoys a good comedy and is grateful to be able to pursue a career in filmmaking. His debut short film Give Yourself a Chance was awarded at the Very Short International Festival 2012. His second, I Will Die screened at Singapore International Film Festival 2014. His most recent effort, Piece of Meat (2019), co-directed with Jerrold Chong, enjoyed its premiere at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes and subsequently travelled to Annecy and Busan.

As a producer under Eric Khoo's Zhao Wei Films, he has produced a number of feature films including In The Room (Toronto 2016), Apprentice (Un Certain Regard 2016), Ramen Teh (Berlin Culinary Cinema 2018) and Buffalo Boys (Fantasia Film Festival 2018). He has also served as producer for both HBO Asia anthology series Folklore (2018) and Food Lore (2019).

Minli runs the boutique chain of cinemas, Filmgarde, which launched the first multiplex in Southeast Asia to be fully fitted with the immersive 3D sound technology AuroMax, and was the first cinema chain in Singapore to make its digital platforms including its website and ticketing portals available in dual languages – English and Chinese, for greater accessibility in 2018. She holds a M.Sc. in Political Science and is at present pursuing a doctorate in Cultural Studies in her personal time. She has a deep interest in the arts and culture and supports various intercultural initiatives and programmes around the region. She is currently a board member of the Singapore International Film Festival and the Asian Film Archive. 

Thong Kay Wee is the Programmes and Outreach Officer at the Asian Film Archive (AFA). He is responsible for devising programming strategies and partnership tie ups to promote the rich film heritage of Singapore and Asia as part of the AFA’s mission. Since 2014, he has presided over 30 different film-centric programmes for the institution, including curating the exhibition Celluloid Void: The Lost Films of Southeast Asia (2015 - 2016) and producing for the multidisciplinary series State of Motion (2016 - 2020) as a longstanding commission project of National Arts Council (NAC)’s Singapore Art Week. He is also the programmer for Singular Screens, the film programme presented under Singapore International Festival of the Arts (SIFA) since 2018. He is currently overseeing the regular film screening programmes at the Oldham Theatre focusing on both classic and contemporary Asian film titles.

Vincent Quek is the founder and CEO of Anticipate Pictures, A local film distribution company that focuses on arthouse, independent films and documentaries from around the world, bringing them into the Singapore market for meaningful distribution. Before Anticipate, he worked at The Substation, a non-profit arts centre for the now-defunct Moving Images Programme, which championed local filmmakers’ works in Singapore and overseas. He hold a B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) in Film Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.