Spirits of cinema - short films by 13 Little Pictures

4 December, 2017 - 21:00
Cinematek, Brussels

Spirits of cinema was first presented by the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE College of the Arts in January 2016. Curated by 13 Little Pictures and Melanie Pocock, Assistant Curator, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE College of the Arts.

Kopi Julia (Julia's Coffee)

Tan Bee Thiam
,
SG
,
2013
,
7'

One rainy day, Ikram brings his friend and classmate Rashad home to feed his stepmother Julia, a blood-sucking spirit. When Julia starts flirting with Rashad Ikram flies into a rage of jealousy, revealing tensions in their relationship. Adapted from a short story by Faizal Sulaiman, Kopi Julia fuses two film genres—the silent film, and 1950s Malay horror.

Tickets

Sherman Ong
,
SG
,
2010
,
colour
,
10'

In Tickets, Xiao Jing, a cinema ticket seller, reflects on her arrival in Singapore and aspirations to become an actress. Blurring documentary and fiction, the film highlights immigrants’ difficulties integrating into local society, and their search for personal identity. Sherman Ong filmed Tickets at the former Oriental Theatre, a cinema built in the 1920s by film distribution company Shaw Organisation.

A Lion’s Pride

Wesley Leon Aroozoo
,
SG
,
2008
,
colour
,
8'

A Lion’s Pride follows the return of a lion dancer to his ‘natural’ habitat in the jungle after performing during Chinese New Year. There, he hunts for prey and meets a female lion with whom he falls in love. A Lion’s Pride is Aroozoo’s sixth short film, and reflects his unique comic style. In the film, the lion—the national symbol of Singapore and icon of Chinese culture—becomes a funny, humanlike character.

My Father After Dinner

Gladys Ng
,
SG
,
2015
,
colour
,
16'

My Father After Dinner is a semi-autobiographical film about Gladys Ng's relationship with her father. Featuring her father in the title role, it tells the story of a man who carefully prepares dinner for his children every time they visit him over the weekend. The film was recently awarded Best Singapore Short Film Award at the 26th Singapore International Film Festival.

‘When I was growing up I observed my father’s culinary obsessions, and how he prepared food for our family dinner every Sunday. It is always a blissful occasion, when the house would come to life with joy and laughter.’ — Gladys Ng

Animal Spirits

Daniel Hui
,
SG
,
2013
,
colour
,
9'

Animal Spirits compares the experiences of an American woman moving to Los Angeles with those of a Korean immigrant living and studying in the United States. In the film the two main characters frequently address the camera, sharing intimate thoughts and confessions through conversation and written text. These confessions reveal the impact of economies on individuals, and the financial and emotional bonds that tie families and partners.

An Autumn Afternoon

Lei Yuan Bin
,
SG
,
2015
,
colour
,
9'

A new film by Lei Yuan Bin, An Autumn Afternoon pays homage to Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. Shot in Japan, it shows lingering views of recurring motifs in Ozu’s films—trains, family outings, and children taking pictures. Known for his observational approach to filmmaking in works such as 03-Flats (2014) and White Days (2010), Lei updates Ozu’s style with his own sense of composition, duration, and pace.

Silent Light

Liao Jiekai
,
SG
,
2015
,
16mm
,
colour
,
12'

In Silent Light, Liao Jiekai experiments with the physical texture of film, presenting broken views of empty sites in Singapore alongside images of his grandmother’s funeral. The sequences are accompanied by a sound recording of an interview with a woman recalling her memories of growing up in Singapore in the early 1940s. Shot on expired 16 mm film stock, the film literally brings the past to life; a quality enhanced by its evocative sound.

The Minotaur

Yeo Siew Hua
,
SG
,
2015
,
HD
,
colour
,
13'

A young boy is feeling worried about his afterlife after killing a snail. Unable to sleep, he seeks out his grandfather for solace. Instead of comfort, his grandfather offers him a mix of myth and fables that equally intrigues and terrorizes him.

The Minotaur is part of a larger collection of works that explores the Chinese conception of hell. Combining horror aesthetics, mythical storytelling, and percussive soundscapes, the film captures a sense of mystery and foreboding. Drawing on Yeo’s interests in the relationships between storytelling and personal identity, the film plays with well known myths from both Greek and Chinese cultures and how they shape our belief systems. Yeo worked with other artists on various aspects of the film; Mark Thia made the mask worn by the Minotaur, Mike Chang and Adeline Setiawan made the costume for the minotaur, and music collective SA(仨) composed and performed the soundtrack with Bani Haykal on the drums.