59th Berlinale about to begin

I don’t know about you, but for me, somehow, this new year doesn’t feel like it’s all that new really, Ox or not. Meltdown, downturn, down-sizing, shrinking economies and what not – again I call for some balance in the act and welcome the prospect of mixing in some bears with all the bulls (well, if there’s a need actually…) And then, for detractors, there still is this opulent new design for this year’s Berlin International Film Festival going into edition 59: whether it be underfed stars, snow flakes with an inferiority complex or just plain dots – you decide. In any case, it all star(t)s February 5 and you can take a look at the programme* right: here.

* and I want to point out one highlight amongst the many: “Tanjong Rhu (The Casuarina Cove)”, very good new short film by Boo Junfeng, Singapore, will have its WP on Saturday, 7^th!

show times:

TANJONG RHU

International 7.2./17:00
Cubix 7 & 8 Interlock 9.2./22:30
Zoo Palast 1 13.2./19:00
CinemaxX 7 14.2./10:30
International 15.2./14:00

(pic©berlinale.de)

AHSB 2009: winners all around

According to all sources, the second edition of ASIAN HOT SHOTS BERLIN film festival which wrapped January 18^th with its official Awards Ceremony and Closing Film, has been a success. Steady crowds found their way to the screenings at cinema Babylon, witnessed an ambitious shorts competition, a diverse programme and inspiring discussion panels, and also took part in the audience voting to determine the green chilies award winners in the festival’s two categories for short and feature length films. An additional special award, the Manfred Durniok Prize, was introduced this year in recognition of outstanding achievements in furthering the idea and value of Asian-European cultural exchange in the medium of film. Since it is a widely held belief that any image says more than a thousand words, I shall leave it to the award winning pictures to testify to the strength of this year’s competitions and end with the following: AHSB organizers would like to thank everybody involved, our more than 30 international guests as well as our honourable sponsors for making this possible; we are looking forward to our continued cooperation and hope to see you again next year!

2009 winners are:

Best Feature Film:

1^st Place (shared)

Jay (Francis Xavier Pasion, Philippines (2008))
Salawati (Marc X. Grigoroff, Singapore (2008))

2^nd Place

Invisible Children (Brian Gothong Tan, Singapore (2008))

Best Short Film:

1^st Place

God Only Knows (Mark V. Reyes, Philippines (2008))

2^nd Place

Hoolahoop Soundings (Edwin, Indonesia (2008))

Manfred Durniok Award:

Die Legende von Shiva und Parvati (Krishna Saraswati, Germany/India (2008))

Congratulations to all who took part!

(pic©green chilies e.V.)

key visuals – AHSB 2009

The countdown is on and before you know it ASIAN HOT SHOTS BERLIN kicks off January 13^th to bring you an eclectic line-up of films carefully selected from across Asia, obviously. I’ve posted and detailed the numerous recommendable entries from Singapore before, so now I shall give you the complete programme as it can be ((p)re)viewed: here.

NOT TO BE MISSED, NONE OF IT!

(pic©green chilies e.V.)

Singapore galore @ AHSB 2009

I am not one to exaggerate, but this one sure looks huge!

ASIAN HOT SHOTS BERLIN, the newly established independent film festival in Germany’s capital, will go into its second edition January 13-18 next year, and the programme has finally been concluded (and can be viewed in full here). Many exciting new films from across the Asian region – and some nice odd ones among them – have been selected and each and every one of them deserves their packed house full of that famously sophisticated, appreciative and discerning audience Berlin is known for.

By now, I guess, none of you will be surprised any more to find me particularly pleased with the truly remarkable share of films from Singapore included, so here’s an excerpt for you:

• Invisible Children (2008) by Brian Gothong Tan, EP in competition
  preceded by After The Rain (2007) by Royston Tan, EP
• Salawati (2008) by Marc X Grigoroff, EP in competition
• Homeless FC (2007) by Lynn Lee & James Leong, GP
• Women Who Love Women (2007) by Lim Mayling, EP
  preceded by The Library (2008) by Joshua Lim, IP
• Gone Shopping (2008/Director’s Cut) by Wee Li Lin, GP
  

The festival’s trademark Singapore Hot Shots:

• My Blue Heaven by Chai Yee-wei
• 4 Dishes by Leon Cheo (in competition)
• Girl in a Red Sarong by Jeremy Sing (in competition)
• Stopdelete by Shaun Koh
• The Inner City by Liao Jiekai (in competition)
• Reflections by Ho Tzu-Nyen
• Bedok Jetty by Boo Junfeng
• Love Me Yesterday by Wesley Leon Aroozoo

Short films “Keluar Baris” by Boo Junfeng and “Londres – London” by Eva Tang will be part of a special queer shorts screening,

plus

Crows watch the curious stage and vanity by Eddie Wong will be shown in the Experimental Shorts programme – a World Premiere!

Media artist Sookoon Ang’s work “Let go Aviary” will be part of the festival’s video art exhibition.

By all standards, I think this is an impressive lineup, which makes Singapore the strongest nation by number of entries after the national focus for 2009, Indonesia, and Japan.

AHSB competitions, which will be decided by audience voting, award prizes for 1^st place and runner-up. They come with a prize money total of € 1000 for the winner and € 500 for 2^nd place in each of the two categories alike.

Good luck and a Happy New Year, everyone!

(pic©green chilies e.V.)

Meet the angry man

Yes, Philip Roth is at it again, you guessed it. With his latest novel, “Indignation”, he continues doing what he always does: pitting ignorance against pride and vanity. If that should sound like the set-up for some US presidential election to you, you’re most probably right. In fact, it reminds me of the set-up of almost every US presidential election you could think of, no? Anyway, here is an opportunity to have another encounter with an American literary eminence and a most prolific and important writer, a voice I would never want to miss. With this new one he returns to the States as they appear to have been working back in 1951 during the Korean War. Whatever the general mind-set might have been back then – and things may not always appear prettier in retrospect – people sure were no different from us nowadays. Accordingly, “Indignation” revolves around (err, you guessed it?) a blow job, and thus is meant for the advanced connoisseur, certainly.

Philip Roth has put forward an impressive string of solid works in recent years, ever since his American Trilogy commenced with “American Pastoral” in 1997, and seems to me he is becoming ever more the augur of conventionalism and the self-righteous – and a fool is he who thinks this was an American sickness only. If you should feel like this topic has been all but exhausted already and nothing more can come of it, think again. I found myself surprised after reading, at how swiftly Philip Roth manages to evoke an era of more than half a century back with just the first twenty opening pages or so. For sure, he does use a lot of stereotypes in describing mid-century New England Jewish life and campus lore, but avoids being simplistic. The judgemental tone of the narrator speaking to us from beyond the grave (once again), obviously is never his own and intelligently makes for the master’s well known and very recognizable brand of irony.

Most astonishing to me, though, is the very fact that he credibly keeps up and gradually refines his anger, novel to novel. There is something endearingly nostalgic about it, and quite American too, which appeals to our best political and social instincts, I should hope. With so much change hovering in the air of late, one can only wish for the kind of far-sightedness, which is mindful of our human fallibility, to rule public discourse and guide decision-making in the future. I don’t want to spoil your reading pleasure, but this I must say: when you’ve finished “Indignation”, you are bound to experience in your mind how the rest of recent history from there, 1968 through the cultural transformations of the 80s and Clinton years, all the way up to president-elect 44, unfolds a not so bleak picture of civilizing progress. American thought and pragmatism have come a long way, and some things actually have improved. Liberalization is necessary as is thawing after a harsh winter and it looks like we have quite a bit of climate change ahead of us. For those of you interested in placing yourself in context and a literature unafraid of commitment – here is a recommended read for you!

(pic©Houghton Mifflin)

Ending “the torch” - what light remains

For more than one and a half years “The Torch” has been engaged in an effort to promote a heightened awareness and a more profound understanding (and with it, hopefully, a better appreciation) of film aesthetics as per 21^st century requirements. In the course of so doing, it touched upon many deeply sensitive issues. By keeping a clear focus on current developments in exemplary Singapore its objective has always been twofold: to answer the specific and to extract and explain the general type.

Methodically, it has never attempted to profess any dogmatism, or to be exclusive. Rather, its pursuit has been from the outset to try and instigate an open and qualified debate about what it is that defines film as an art form and what it requires us, who are involved in some way or another in its making, to always bear in mind, to never lose sight of and to be uncompromising about. Although this column has run its course now, the case which it has been but a humble part of remains open and continues to be in need of further reviewing. As it is with every kind of legacy, however small, that it is those who come after who will determine its worth, so “The Torch” may very well be carried on in private or in public by someone else – as with hope, the passion lighting it will not cease to shine!

My heartfelt gratitude to a most perfect host-site, that brilliant and forever friendly link, Sinema.sg! The salute can be found: here.

(pic©mo)

on quotes

You speak in the words of another. You make your choices, select their sentences and choose to borrow foreign intelligence. The selection is neither rational nor arbitrary; it is emphatic, it is challenging, it can be a disguise. And it wants to reveal something: a mood, a tone, an insight or a probing question.

This is why you quote. The careful citation maybe a mask. And it is convenient, if unsettling. A motto or a thought – what is truth, other than a pleasant opinion? We hold dear that which we cannot easily understand but know to be true anyway. Somehow. Literally or virtually, there doesn’t seem to be much difference. What does it matter? The choice has always been mine!

Why blog if you don’t seek expression? Why blog if not for the experience of hiding behind a virtual mask? And 100 is a perfect number. Therefore, no more quotes. They have said it all. On my behalf.

quote of the week

“Socrates: 'Then, in short, all the stirrings and endurings of the soul, when wisdom leads, come to happiness in the end, but when senselessness leads, to the opposite?' - Menon: 'So it seems.'”
(Plato, Symposium/The Banquet (after 385 B.C.))

Another dent

Everybody wants to get something done, realize a vision, gain recognition, build a record and, eventually, leave a legacy behind. Only few succeed. That’s why we honour them; and that’s what we have awards for, the Main Prizes and colossal accolades for lifetime achievement and the like. Surely, where literature is concerned, no other recognition holds the immortalizing power that the Nobel Prize can bestow and it might be a blessing as much as a curse for some among the elect as henceforward we begin to somehow think them in marble. But, luckily, not all the laureates are dead; certainly alive when designated. Being humans (almost) like the rest of us, they are also fallible, even in their field.

Now, for a very long time I’ve been an avid reader of Günter Grass’s works. His style of writing, his historically based narratives, have inspired and influenced me greatly and in terms of developing my own literary understanding I owe him a lot. In short, he is one of my heroes, so to speak. Really goes without saying, then, that I just instantly bought his latest book when it was published last month. It is the second part of his autobiography in fiction and a follow-up to “Peeling the Onion” of 2006, called “Die Box”/”The Box”. As is the nature of such accounting, it is very personal for the most part. Only, it so much focuses on family matters – and decidedly less outer world factuality or atmosphere filtering in than was the case with the previous one – that one cannot avoid the question of asking just how relevant it is. For me, this doesn’t seem to be the biggest problem here, though. He has given copious and probing renditions of post-war German society in his great novels before, more eloquently so than any other German writer has done in his generation, and done it brilliantly; his sentences are profoundly worked-through in most memorable language, and every yarn or fable spun to lasting effect (for those who care to listen, or read). What saddens me so about “Die Box” is the fact that it is a mere shadow of his former narrative vigour and scope. It sounds, and is, repetitive, but without generating any additional insight in the process, I’m afraid.

For Grass enthusiasts it should still be worth reading and in no way can this late piece take away anything from his achievements. I simply like to hear his voice on paper again. Even so, this one is not a great work by a great literary master, whereas “Peeling the Onion” in my estimation ranks as a fine example in the rich history of European memo fiction and biographical writing, an important testimony of an important time. So, I’ll read on…

(pic©Florian K.)

“the torch” #43 – What about quality? - putting the Singapore instant into doubt

When I first noticed that little sticker on the DVD of 881 calling it a “true Singapore instant classic” I thought it was a joke, really. But no, they actually mean it!
What, then, lies behind that craze about efficiency, rapidity and the instantaneous in every moment, experience and every conceivable kind of product especially, that we witness in the ambitious island nation of Singapore today? How does the seemingly all-pervasive obsession with everything quick and easy affect the country’s blossoming movie industry, and young independent filmmakers in particular? Can quality truly be achieved – let alone maintained – in an environment that doesn’t seem to cherish the essence for which there can never be a short-cut, never a substitute, and that is time? Give it a moment to reflect on the topic, then join this controversial discussion right: here.

(pic©mo)

A disappointment

It has been a while, in fact, too long, since last I posted something on the topic of literature up here. There are many reasons for this holdup, all of them very complicated, unpardonable and nothing but excuses. So, no more on that; it’s a past. Earlier this month, I attended a reading of young Thai-American writer Rattawut Lacharoensap at our Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin. I had first encountered him and his work two years ago at exactly the same venue and had been quite intrigued by his refreshing debut collection of short stories, “Sightseeing” (review here). Naturally, I was excited to see what he’s up to next. And he was really courageous, I must say, for reading from a manuscript in the making, his long-awaited fist novel “End of Siam”, slated for publication around May of next year. That I found impressing.

But then, the reading as such, my first impression of the text, those opening passages that are meant to get us into the body of the entire thing – frankly, I couldn’t help but be disappointed by what I heard. Of course, the man himself was charming as ever, spirited, and he seemed at ease with his temporary hometown of Berlin. But as far as having a literary appointment with a new talent goes, my expectations weren’t met. Apparently, the book is about the male protagonist’s childhood years and adolescence followed over the course of some 20 years and it starts out in a Thai village setting and a fitting domestic account. There are some memorable scenes that tell of the boy’s intimate relationship with his (single) mother. I thought most of the descriptions well-done, but unrefined, without much resonance and stale. The pace was TV-ish and the narrator’s point of view omniscient, which doesn’t have to be consistently so (for that I would have to have read the whole novel, obviously), and the approach is not technically invalid per se. But there were some characterizations and internal commentary that are just too explicit, leaving no space for the reader to make up their own minds; to me, this is a typical shortcoming in many young story-tellers of whatever medium, and when there is too little artistic distance to the subject matter.

In any case, this can be nothing more but a first-first and no final judgment. I might still want to read the work in full when it comes out. All I can say at this point is that I’m – disappointed, a bit. And that may as well be my own mistake in part, for – as I said – those expectations? They were mine to begin with!

(pic©aaww.org)

quote of the week

“Rat stories, true and made up. World-relation attitude irruption: grain ships gnawed bare. Hollowed-out granaries. The Nothing acknowledged. Egypt's lean years. And when Paris was besieged. And when the rat sat in the tabernacle. And when thought forsook meta-physics. And when help was most needed. And when the rats left the ship. And when the rats came back. When they attacked even infants and old people riveted to their chairs. When they negated the new-born babe away from the young mother's breast. When they attacked the cats and nothing was left of the rat-terriers but bare teeth, which sparkle to this day, lined up in the museum.”
(Günter Grass, Dog Years (1963))

quote of the week

“I'm pursued myself like a hundred devils, and shall be overtaken before I can well change horses: – for heaven's sake, make haste – 'Tis for high treason, quoth a very little man, whispering as low as he could to a very tall man that stood next to him – Or else for murder; quoth the tall man – Well thrown size-ace! quoth I. No; quoth a third, the gentleman has been committing – –.”
(Lawrence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1767))

“the torch” #42 – In the crux: short films - what is the art in being short?

For some young filmmakers and aspiring directors a short film is but a showcasing vehicle to prove themselves to the outside world and possible investors. The format serves as a platform to perform a visual stunt or two, and all effort is directed at maximizing the self-promotion effect attesting to advanced professionalism, or so. For some, though, making short films is an art form and a vocation. The genre in itself can be fulfilling and there are numerous examples (some of them coming out of Singapore in recent years) that unless being taken seriously for what it is, a short film will be nothing but an exercise in vanity: hollow, and amounting to little more than an overlong trailer to a would-be movie at best. But there are rules to obey, the intrinsic markers of quality in this particular kind of motion pictures, and all the good genes they might carry have one prime information inscribed in them: be short! What this means in practical terms and how originality in a short is defined by the ability to meet the criterion – you can read it up: here.

(pic©mo)

quote of the week

“To be a man's own fool is bad enough; but the vain man is every body's. This silly disposition comes of a mixture of ignorance, confidence and pride; and as there is more or less of the last, so it is more or less offensive, or entertaining. And yet, perhaps the worst part of this vanity is its unteachableness. Tell it any thing, and it has known it long ago; and outruns information and instruction, or else proudly puffs at it. Whereas the greatest understandings doubt most, are readiest to learn, and least pleased with themselves; this, with nobody else.”
(William Penn, Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims Relating to the Conduct of Human Life (1837))

quote of the week

“Language as the material and medium of expression can never fully emancipate itself from meaning. A genuinely nonobjective poetry would simply be gibberish.”
(Hans-Georg Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays (1977))

“the torch” #41 – Visualize – Customize – Iconize?

The question is on and can no longer be avoided: Can that conflict between substance and surface in our digital age finally be resolved, if not all form is empty to begin with? To copy to produce and in turn have it copied again by somebody else (or even oneself for that matter) – the endless cycle of self-consumption and self-repetition is a topic that has been addressed many times before. It comes with various deep and difficult implications and provides ample incentives for debates profound or shallow, just as it makes for sleepless nights among that precariously idiosyncratic breed of artists, and some filmmakers among them. But does it really have to be that way? What exactly is telling in a picture? Where does that quality stem from, and how can it be meaningfully defined? Isn’t there a lot of usable substance in the stereotype, the cliché, as well? And, lastly, what is the common ground of our (post)modern world – its view and representation – anyway? “The Torch” features these burning questions: here.

(pic©mo)

quote of the week

“Where there is kindness, there is also cruelty.”
(12 Lotus, Royston Tan (2008))

quote of the week

“Here I am in your face | Tellin' truths and not your old lies | Seems to me that you care | And I know that you're runnin' otta time | See ya can't get away | I'll be here forever and again | Whisperin' in your ear | Do believe 'cause you know you cannot win | Spent most your life pretending not to be | The one your are but who you choose to see | Learned to survive in your fictitious world | Does what they think of you determine your worth | If special's what you feel when you're with them | Taken away, you feel less then again”
(Janet Jackson et alt., The Velvet Rope (1997))

“the torch” #40 – Your film's emotional balance sheet

If indeed Oscar Wilde was right in saying that it is only shallow people who can’t let go of a feeling, then, probably, our films’ tendency to elaborate on emotions should equally be discarded as sentimental bravery? While I’m not so sure about the former of these two statements, I can, however, agree with the notion that more often than not, less would have been substantially better in much of what we see come to our silver screens as supposed filmic renditions of our life reality. Undoubtedly, there are limits to what refinement and level of subtlety works in a movie and where it begins to be just cryptic, dim, or outright pretentious. So, film at times needs to paint in bolder strokes in order to bring its story across as colourful and vivid as we like it; even in its darker tones. But when it comes to consolidating your draft with strong effects, “The Torch” (here) argues that it is a task of striking the right balance, first and foremost.

(pic©mo)