‘Fire’ and ‘Old Toilets’ win top prizes at the Singapore on Screen FASS Undergraduate Short Film Competition
March 20, 2013
Two very different films garnered the top prizes at FASS’ inaugural ‘Singapore on Screen’ Undergraduate Short Film competition when the final eight films were screened in competition on Saturday at the NUS Open Day at UTown . The winner in the fiction category was “Fire”, a moving piece that touched on intergenerational student activism and the 1989 ‘June 4th Incident’. The non-fiction winning film was completely different – “Old Toilets: Memoirs of a Daily Affair” was a fascinating, amusing, albeit discomfiting, personal historical account of Singapore’s toilet customs before modern sanitation. The runner-up films were equally diverse: ”Hello, Miss”, an dark urban chiller, and “The Broken Porcelain”, a reflection on the changing face on Chinatown(s).
Chris Yeo and the student film-makers of “Fire”
Chris Yeo and winning film-maker of “Old Toilets” Tan Shin
The event, organized by the Singapore Research Nexus (SRN) www.fas.nus.edu.sg/srn, was open to all undergraduates taking a module by FASS which involved film-production in 2012. The films had to be under 15 minutes in length, be related to Singapore and could be creative works, documentaries, genre-explorations or pieces of visual ethnography. On Saturday the top eight entries were screened to the public and the four judges gave illuminating commentaries after each film for the audience and young film-makers to savour. The judges were: celebrated local film-maker and FASS Alumnus Mr Chris Yeo (Chair), Dr Ingrid Hoofd (CNM), Dr Valerie Wee (English Literature), and Dr Ivan Kwek (Sociology). The winning films each won a $500 prize with the runners up each receiving $200. In summing up, Chris Yeo commended the high quality of the films and iterated his pleasant surprise at how FASS Students have created films that would outshine films produced by their contemporaries at prestigious film schools.
A/P Michelle Lazar, Head of the SRN, introduces the judges and films
While the judges were deliberating there was a screening of “Incorporating Film-making into Coursework at FASS” a short film of interviews with FASS Faculty Members who offer film as part of their courses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO8V5Uhf4h4&feature=youtu.be
For more details on the winners and to watch the top four films please click below:
Fire (produced for the Department of Chinese Studies module Understanding Modern China through Film) – Filmmakers: Chen Lingzi, Wang Yao, Aw Luo Min, Lee Sin Poh, Wu Si, Allison Angelene Swieca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX-rwyTvMWc&feature=context-gfa
Old Toilets (produced for the module Everyday Life of Chinese Singaporeans: Past & Present) – Filmmaker: Tan Shin
Hello, Miss (produced for the Department of English Language and Literature module Film Genres: Stars and Styles) – Filmmakers: Haikal Aziz, Corina Tan, Kenneth Ang, Tricia Chean, Yang Tzu Hsuan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0CVoD_4b1Q
The Broken Porcelain (produced for the module Understanding Modern China through Film) – Filmmakers: Dina Berrada, Foo Fang Yu,Wong Siew Fong, Sim Wen Yan, Chua Wei Fang