The Best of First Take 2009!

Sunday 13 December 2009
SESSION 1 – 5 to 6.30 pm
SESSION 2 – 7.30 to 9.15 pm
The Substation Theatre
ENTRY BY DONATION (No minimum fee)
Sponsored by KODAK

First Take, happening every 1st Monday of the month at The Substation, is a popular screening of new & fresh local short films and is followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. A platform for new filmmakers and anyone who is interested in filmmaking to meet, exchange ideas and show their work. See the future talents of Singapore film!

For this special screening, we are presenting the audience favourites of each month, and a final vote is cast for the Top Favourite of First Take 2009! Come watch the most popular First Take films of each month and cast your vote to support your favorite film!

SESSION 1

1. OUR LAST DAY / KENNY TAN / 32 MIN / 2007 / PG

17 year-old Midori Nakamura leaves suburban Yokohama (Japan) with her family, and settles in to a new life in cosmopolitan Singapore. Shy and reserved, she finds it daunting and difficult adjusting to city-life in a foreign country, till she meets 15 year-old Reiko Sakaguchi, a cheery, outspoken girl studying in the same college.

2. (S) 439956 / ELGIN HO / 7 MIN / 2008 / PG

A reflective journey through one’s memory that will bring us closer to our hearts; a visual diary of a little corner in Singapore called Katong during the 90s. This film was made to challenge the conventional boundaries between a documentary and a fictional film.

3. PLATFORM 1932 / NAWWAR SYAHIRAH / 24 MIN / 2008 / PG

The once grand Tanjong Pagar Railway Station is fading away, but it remains significant to an atypical ‘community’ of diverse individuals, linked not only by the fact that their life stories would be incomplete without the existence of the Station, but also by their shared desire to preserve their own ways of life in a shared space between Singapore and Malaysia.

4. COFFEE: BLACK / RICH HO / 7 MIN / 2008 / PG

Coffee: Black is about a man at a café who does everything in his power to savor his perfect cup of coffee. He keenly absorbs every nuance of feeling in the experience only to discover that he had accidentally forfeited the most essential element of all.

5. A LION’S PRIDE / WESLEY AROOZOO / 8 MIN / 2008 / PG

During Chinese New Year, the Lion Dance Lion dances a celebratory dance to usher in prosperity and fortune. For the rest of the year, it is left abandoned, jobless and struggling in the wilderness.

6. THE ‘D’ECISION / LI MINGHUI & DAVID LEE LING WEI /
13 MIN / 2008 / PG

A short documentary film that explores the controversial issue of dying and the decisions that people have to make at a critical point in their life, as well as discovering the reasons for the decision made. There is no right or wrong answer, neither is there a definite answer, to the final decision. This film provokes the audience into thinking what the most appropriate solution is. It will challenge the audience to discover their reasons to their solutions.

SESSION 2

7. CRAB! / TEO CHRISTINA JOLENE / 24 MIN / 2009 / PG

Seng is a grown man who hasn’t quite grown up. Contented with spending his days at his father’s famous, albeit small, restaurant and lacking true ambition, his life is turned around when his father, Huat, falls sick. Not bearing to agitate his father, Seng has no choice but to plunge himself into the world of cooking, and a position of responsibility that he hasn’t quite the skills for. But this soon reveals itself to be the least of his worries.

8. CANS / LINUS KOH / 12 MIN / 2007 / PG

A story of persecution, rivalry and stigma faced by an old lady as she goes around the neighbourhood of Chai Chee picking up empty cans.

9. WINTER NIGHTS / LEE HUI KUAN / 17 MIN / 2008 / PG

After coming to the end of a relationship, a young woman who is living in denial must now confront the truth.

10. REDFICTION / GIRI ARNAGA & HOSSEIN KHODABANDEHLOO /
14 MIN / 2009 / PG

Marco seems to be delusional; from time to time he sees costumed bunnies interacting with him. He stumbles upon a mysterious advertisement while watching a midnight show claiming to sell a product that helps the consumer to achieve his goal. The product is called “REDFICTION”.

11. CASHLESS/ DEREK AND MELINDA TAN/ 34 MIN/ 2009/ PG

CASHLESS revolves around a man’s reckless pursuit of his misplaced cash after he mistakenly transfers an important sum of money meant for his mother into the wrong ATM account. When time and money are at stake, how far must he go before he finally finds himself? Starring Danny Jow, and featuring music by local bands The Lilac Saints and RustyNailz.