PROGRAMME BOOKLET ABOUT STATE OF MOTION

Transcription

1 State of Motion 2016 is an event by the Asian Film Archive COVER LOCATION KEY Films take place over time and State of Motion retraces these places with Singaporean artist and filmmaker, Toh Hun Ping through his extensive research on 20th century Singapore films and their filming locations. With a focus on a selection of classic Cathay-Keris films, audiences go on a trip to these film locations where an artwork responding to both the film and its site awaits them. Participants are encouraged to not just remember but to re-imagine the film and an ever-changing Singapore landscape. Presented by Part of Supported by PROGRAMME BOOKLET ABOUT STATE OF MOTION A FORMER OUTRAM PRISON Foot of Pearl's Hill City Park, Outram Park Film location of Korban Fitnah b QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK Esplanade Park Film location of Chinta Kaseh Sayang c MERDEKA BRIDGE Kampong Bugis, Kallang Riverside Park Film location of Che Mamat Parang Tumpol d FORMER KAMPONG SIGLAP Jalan Sempadan, off Upper East Coast Road Film location of Sumpah Pontianak e SITE OF PILOT EAST COAST LAND RECLAMATION PROJECT Forest on undeveloped land (Upper East Coast Road) Film location of Mat Tiga Suku

2 Map of Tour Route Abcde Cover page AFA Foreword THONG KAY WEE p. 2 3 Curatorial Note KENT CHAN p. 4 5 Film Researcher s Note TOH HUN PING p. 6 7 A KIN CHUI p a monumental to the non-canonical p KORBAN FITNAH p OUTRAM PRISON (or Pearl's Hill Prison) p b MARK THIA p Myself & Melody p CHINTA KASEH SAYANG p QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK p c HAFIZ OSMAN p Jamban 1956 p CHE MAMAT PARANG TUMPOL p MERDERKA BRIDGE p d STEPHANIE JANE BURT p ///// Don't Slip ///// p SUMPAH PONTIANAK p KAMPONG SIGLAP p e MIKE HJ CHANG p Bus Stop p MAT TIGA SUKU p PILOT EAST COAST RECLAMATION PROJECT p Acknowledgements p. 58 A bus chases frantically after the bus-stop-postwielding Mat Sentol on freshly reclaimed land. From Mat Tiga Suku (1965) STATE OF MOTION

3 ASIAN FILM ARCHIVE FOREWORD THONG KAY WEE, Outreach Officer Map of Tour Route Abcde AFA Foreword by THONG KAY WEE Curatorial Note by KENT CHAN Film Researcher s Note by TOH HUN PING In late 2014, ninety-one surviving titles from the Cathay- Keris Studio, preserved by the Asian Film Archive (AFA), were officially inducted into the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations (UNESCO) Memory of the World programme. These films not only provided mass appeal entertainment back in their heyday, but the medium s capacity to document and impress have, with the intervention of time, warranted them statuses as valuable pieces of Singapore s social memory. But time is also a cruel entity; it gnaws on the physical and the mental, setting in an almost immovable motion towards the wane. As new attractions accumulate and an old generation of audience dwindles, the fervor and affections for the Golden Age of Singapore Cinema are slowly quenched by its layers of dust. How many Singaporeans are even aware of this cinematic history today? Playing the role of custodian, maybe we need to look at ourselves first. How can we overcome increasing problems accessibility and effectively fulfill our mission statement to not only save, but to explore and share the art of Asian s cinematic gems? introspection). This is facilitated by artist and curator Kent Chan, another man no stranger to fanatic film watching and film preservation with his conception of the Moving Images Archive for The Substation. With him pulling the strings, five visual artists have been tasked to expound on the dialogue from these slate of films, enabled by the attention on history, locality and story telling. As the plot of the project thickens, the idealist in me hopes that we can assemble more participants to engage (thoughtfully) in a battle that we can never win. Thankfully, we are not alone. We discovered there is someone like Toh Hun Ping, our film researcher and the one-man show behind endeavours like the Singapore s Archive, investigating and fighting time with us. It was through his tenacity and passion that the public now has access to a rich source of film history material research not merely on the 20th century Singaporean films, but focusing on its (often displaced) locations that play out as a reflection of Singapore s own social and political times. Using these resources as a base for further examination, we decided to turn back to the creative. Like how these Cathay-Keris films once captured the imagination of a generation, we now rely on the powers of re-imagination to coax out ways for retrospection (and 2 3

4 IN TENSE KENT CHAN, Curator (Visual Art & Tour) Map of Tour Route Abcde AFA Foreword by THONG KAY WEE Curatorial Note by KENT CHAN Film Researcher s Note by TOH HUN PING I ll ask this in the present tense. Why do we make an exhibition about old Singapore films and their locations? then Malaysia was best mirrored in the film industry. It was within the intangible webs of culture that the reverberations were most keenly felt. Now I d like to cast a light on my colleague, Toh Hun Ping. It takes a lot of patience to have watched through 200 feature films. It s a value that s in shockingly short supply everywhere, but especially so on this island. But more than that, it s his curiosity that is astounding, which unlike most places in the world is almost in deficit here. I m not talking about the curiosity for that book you saw reviewed in the newspaper or the restaurant that got featured by a food blogger. We re not talking about one film; we re talking about a whole set of films all the 20th century films shot in Singapore. It s a whole subject matter, a totality. Sure, we ve all had to study and do research on thisand-that subject, but most of us did it because we had to, be it for school or some other reason. We start out with curiosity, but end in obligation. It takes a hell of a lot of curiosity to watch 200 feature films, especially when you know a good lot of it may not be up to grade. I d like to say that the sheer amount of work that Hun Ping alone has put in demands our attention (which it does), but that would be a horrible discredit to his curiosity and its subject of interest the films and their locations. Films are wondrous documents of their time. And this selection of Cathay-Keris films in particular form a record of Singapore at the cusp of independence. If anything, the rise and fall of the Golden Age of Singapore Cinema was invariably tied to the socio-political milieus of 50s and 60s Malaya. The palpable excitement in Singapore leading up to self-government, its political marriage with Malaysia and the eventual divorce (a theme that will be revisited during the tour) that followed. Perhaps more than economics, Singapore s relationship with Malaya and In these films, commuting between Singapore and Malaysia was a commonplace activity. It was commuting, not traveling. Police were indeed wearing shorts and the mythical kampongs and pontianaks did exist (and do exist whenever you watch them again). In fact it s the city that s rather absent. You see a sense of community that wasn t actually astroturf-ed and people speaking one common indigenous language. Fantastic isn t it? In fact, you might have noticed that these are all fulllength Malay language feature films. Something that no one in Singapore had produced until Sanif Olek s Sayang Disayang in It s the past, though it may as well be a different world. Alas, it is not. Thankfully the backdrop of buildings, bridges and beaches just happen to look familiar enough for you to realise that those were the very same spaces that this exhibition is taking place. Within this show you would learn that Kin Chui simply will not let ghosts of our past slip from our collective memory, Mark Thia wants his voice to haunt you even after the show ends, Hafiz Osman wants you to look to the past in your privacy, Stephanie Burt lets you step into a thing of the past and finally Mike Chang would make you find sense in nonsense. The reason why we are doing this exhibition isn t to just pique your interest in these films - that s already in the past, but to foster it. Curiosity should not exist in the past tense. 4 5

5 FRINGE TOH HUN PING, Programmer & Film Researcher Map of Tour Route Abcde AFA Foreword by THONG KAY WEE Curatorial Note by KENT CHAN Film Researcher s Note by TOH HUN PING I relish working on the fringe. As a video artist/experimental filmmaker, I made personal and often semi-abstract works that found a small, niche audience. Modest attention worked to my advantage. I was like an introverted child playing in an obscure corner, creating obsessively without a care to the huddling crowd that passed him by. It was for a fresh semi-autobiographical video project (primarily about my folks in their youth) that led me to watch old films made in Singapore that body of close to three hundred commercial feature films produced before my time (I was born 1978), and routinely forgotten since. I was drawn away from creating videos, instead turning to collect VCDs, DVDs, movie ephemera, reading history books, and making solitary photo-taking trips to film locations. I discovered local Malay cinema, P. Ramlee, Hussain Haniff, the Shaw Brothers, their nemesis Cathay Organisation (with their Malay-filmmaking arm Cathay-Keris studio); the amusing crap or the decent classics made by Hong Kong and Euro-American filmmakers in Singapore; an unassuming local film studio in Bukit Timah ambitiously named Nusantara (which means the Malay Archipelago); and the many, many fringe elements that fell through the gaps in books on Singapore film history. Two websites resulted in the process. One is an independent, freewheeling inquiry into places that ever appeared in old films made in Singapore (sgfilmhunter. wordpress.com). The other is similar in scope but is partially state-funded (sgfilmlocations.com); it serves well as an online Video collection of the Singapore s Archive Website of Singapore Film Locations Archive database about old Singapore films and their filming locations. I find myself working on the fringes again: the overlaps of two fields of interest, namely the history of Singapore cinema, and the historical geography of Singapore. In my research, I place the spotlight on Singapore locations appearing in these old films, bringing to the fore what is usually regarded as backdrop to the narratives, freeing them from the grip of the fictive and re-presenting them as sites and receptacles of real and lived history. It works in reverse as well: imbuing real places in Singapore with layers of imagination and situating them in the (aged) cinematic dream world of horror, comedy and melodrama. For this twin programme (tour and exhibition), we scrutinise the film locations of a selection of Cathay-Keris films (whose producers and directors happen to be advocates of shooting on location.) Why focus on Cathay-Keris? Aside from the reason that the Asian Film Archive holds in its collection many Cathay-Keris film prints and has vested interest over them, I also felt that not enough has been researched and written about them (especially when compared to Shaw Malay films, with many of the writings centered on P. Ramlee and his films.) Cathay-Keris studio s importance in the local film production scene during the 1950s to 70s cannot be underestimated. It was one of the two major contributors to what is now often lauded as the golden age of cinema in Singapore and Malaya(sia). So here it is another of my humble attempts at researching and writing about Singapore s film history. Not too good at it. I should return to making videos on the fringe. 6 7

6 KIN CHUI with ila & Godwin Koay a monumental to the non-canonical KORBAN FITNAH OUTRAM PRISON (or Pearl's Hill Prison) Tours depart from National Library Building, Level 8 Promenade 100 Victoria Street, Singapore ASIAN FILM ARCHIVE STATE OF MOTION

7 KIN CHUI WITH ILA & GODWIN KOAY ARTIST BIOGRAPHY KIN CHUI with ila & Godwin Koay a monumental to the non-canonical KORBAN FITNAH OUTRAM PRISON (or Pearl's Hill Prison) In a previous life, Kin Chui was a constant figure within independent film productions in Singapore, often working as an art director or cinematographer, even being one of the eight cinematographers awarded Best Cinematography at the Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) s Singapore Film Awards for the Lucky 7 Project in Since studying at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Kin Chui has been involved in a number of anti-discriminatory initiatives. He has been active as a member of the AG Plattform-Geschichtspolitik and the student initiative, The Darker Side of the Academy. Kin is also interested in emancipatory struggles, and was part of a collaboration with the Tunisian collective Ahl Al Kahf in creating a communicative platform for individuals involved in the Sidi Bouzid Revolution in Tunisia. He was as well a co-organizer for the project Re-Emphasis, as part of the cultural festival Wienwoche, that consisted of a public installation and forum that addressed the topic of migrant and refugee rights. Kin was one of the inaugural recipients of the kültür gemma! working grant in Vienna that is awarded to young migrant cultural producers, as well as a recipient of the Substation s Visual Arts Open Call program. He is interested in de-colonial theoretical methodologies as emancipatory vehicles, and is interested in expanding such models within the context of video and installations. Kin Chui at the foot of Pearl's Hill City Park, Outram Park (former location of Outram Prison) 10 11

8 A MONUMENT TO THE NON-CANONICAL ARTWORK KIN CHUI with ila & Godwin Koay a monumental to the non-canonical KORBAN FITNAH OUTRAM PRISON (or Pearl's Hill Prison) a monument to the non-canonical is a project that expands beyond the singularity of authorship, using the original site of the Outram Prison as a starting point through a collaborative process of artist and audience, to contribute to its realization. The work transposes the audience into the classical three act narrative structure of film, progressing slowly from passivity, into an active contribution to the narrative and development of the work. The first stage of the project is an audio piece portraying fictionalized fragments relating to research on the histories of Outram Prison on route to the site of the physical work. Creating an image of the prison that stood from 1847 to This portion draws its influence from the beginning of the film Korban Fitnah, a re-imagining of the opening sequence where the protagonist Hussein is brought from Outram Prison to the courthouse for his hearing. Setting an atmosphere for the second portion of the work. The Outram Park field in 2015 The second stage of the project, is an onsite installation of a maze. Upon arrival, earplugs will be provided to the audiences to use as they meander around the curves and corners of the installation. Consisting of textile and wooden panels, the construction of the maze would intentionally allow the various layers of the maze to be partially visible from the exterior. Allowing any viewer from the outer most layer to witness the crossing of bodies in the stream to the interior. The third stage of the project are blank staging panels placed in the middle of the maze with stationery that allow the audience to contribute to the imagination of the work. Monuments like film perpetuate the act of myth making. a monument to the non-canonical is an attempt to imagine, the possibility of a myth, with a multitude of narratives. Sketch of a monument to the non-canonical by Kin Chui with ila & Godwin Koay 12 13

9 KORBAN FITNAH ( VICTIM OF SLANDER, 1959) FILM SYPNOSIS KIN CHUI with ila & Godwin Koay a monumental to the non-canonical KORBAN FITNAH OUTRAM PRISON (or Pearl's Hill Prison) Original film title in Malay Korban Fitnah English Title Victim of Slander Directed by P. L. Kapur (pseudonym of Usmar Ismail) Written by Ralph Modder Language Malay Synopsis Hussein is led by a group of policemen as he exits a prison compound. They are escorting him to the district court to face trial for attempted suicide. After being pursued by the judge, Hussein relates how he came about committing what is deemed to be a criminal offence in Singapore. The film then goes into a flashback that reveals that Hussein s brother Hassan was misled into believing that his pregnant wife Rahimah and Hussein (whom he had supported from young) were having an adulterous affair and expelled them from the family home. Film Image: 1959 Cathay-Keris Starring Maria Menado Siput Sarawak Sukarno M. Noor A. N. Alcaff Produced by Cathay-Keris Maria Menado Productions Korban Fitnah (Victim of Slander, 1959) Title of Korban Fitnah (Victim of Slander, 1959) 14 15

10 OUTRAM PRISON FILM LOCATION KIN CHUI with ila & Godwin Koay a monumental to the non-canonical KORBAN FITNAH OUTRAM PRISON (or Pearl's Hill Prison) Film stills from Korban Fitnah (Victim of Slander, 1959) Film Images: 1959 Cathay-Keris The film Korban Fitnah opens with a compelling scene that follows jail inmate Hussein being escorted from Outram Prison, through the streets of downtown Singapore in a police jeep, to the Criminal District and Magistrate Courts (at Hong Lim Green) where he will face trial all of these accompanied by a stirring song about incarceration Burung Dalam Sangkar (Bird in a Cage). The Outram Prison began as a small civil jail constructed in 1847 by Captain C E Faber (Mt. Faber was named after him). It was later expanded in 1882 to accommodate criminal prisons as well, and that was the prison complex that Korban Fitnah s introductory scene featured. The prison was historically significant for holding political prisoners and prisoners of conscience during several periods in Singapore s 20th century history. During the Japanese Occupation, many civilian Chinese with communist-related links were detained or executed in Outram Prison after kangaroo court trials. Before and after World War Two World War Two, the British colonial authorities imprisoned many Malayan nationalists in Outram Prison for alleged political subversion. It was also used to hold many left-wing political activists after a largescale detention operation codenamed Coldstore in February The prison was finally demolished in 1966 to make way for a new Housing and Development Board project Outram Park Complex, which in turn was torn down in The site of the former prison and housing complex is now partly used for the construction of a new subway station. What remains of the land plot are unutilised and empty for now

11 MARK THIA Myself & Melody CHINTA KASEH SAYANG QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK 18 ASIAN FILM ARCHIVE STATE OF MOTION

12 MARK THIA ARTIST BIOGRAPHY MARK THIA Myself & Melody CHINTA KASEH SAYANG QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK Mark Thia is an interdisciplinary artist whose work includes performance, sound, photography, video, drawing and sculpture. He received his BA (Hons) from the University of Brighton. He was born in 1981 in Singapore Mark Thia at Queen Elizabeth Walk, Esplanade Park 20 21

13 MYSELF & MELODY ARTWORK MARK THIA Myself & Melody CHINTA KASEH SAYANG QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK In the film Chinta Kaseh Sayang, the female protagonist Normah is shown at Queen Elizabeth Walk after her first lover, Jamal, returns to Malaysia with his wife and children. She meets her second lover, Rahman, after he notices her leaning on the parapet along the walkway, looking sad. Later, Normah and Rahman meet at Esplanade Park for a date. The artwork involves a stroll at Esplanade Park and Queen Elizabeth Walk with a digital audio player containing recordings of several texts. The recorded texts combine lines from the film, dialogue that has been invented for Normah, and information about topics that are related to the content or production of the film. The settings for parts of the film, captured in their past states, and the film's narrative - the fictional - become points of entry to the non-fictional, and to the historical, to be experienced in the present. The Lim Bo Seng Memorial at Queen Elizabeth Walk, Esplanade Park

14 CHINTA KASEH SAYANG (MY DARLING LOVE, 1965) FILM SYPNOSIS MARK THIA Myself & Melody CHINTA KASEH SAYANG QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK Original film title in Malay Chinta Kaseh Sayang English Title My Darling Love Directed by Hussain Haniff Written by Hussain Haniff Language Malay Synopsis Normah is married to a workaholic painter who is more intent on making money out of his art than showing concern and affection for her. She couldn t care less about his artistic pursuits and spends time dolling herself up. Her beauty catches the eye of Jamal, a car salesman, who pursues her to the neglect of his work, wife and children. Initially reluctant, Normah eventually gives in to Jamal s attention and a heady adulterous affair follows. However, Jamal s wife gets wind of their illicit relationship and he promptly forsakes Normah for the security of his family. Lonesome once more, Normah doesn t take long to lose herself to the thrill of another extramarital fling, this time to a fashionable and showy young man. Film Image: 1965 Cathay-Keris Starring: Latifah Omar Ghazali Sumantri Fatimah Ahmad Ahmad Osman Produced by Cathay-Keris Chinta Kaseh Sayang (My Darling Love, 1965) Title of Chinta Kaseh Sayang (My Darling Love, 1965) 24 25

15 QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK FILM LOCATION MARK THIA Myself & Melody CHINTA KASEH SAYANG QUEEN ELIZABETH WALK Film stills from Chinta Kaseh Sayang (My Darling Love, 1965) Film Images: 1965 Cathay-Keris Since taking up the director s chair at Cathay-Keris (he was a film editor in the same studio previously), Hussain Haniff had always advocated shooting on location in his films. For his tenth feature film in four years, he set his scenes of courtship, adultery and grief in no less than twenty places around Singapore. The film effectively captures a modernising Singapore on the brink of independence, featuring contemporary living spaces (kampong houses at Jalan Eunos, bungalows at Mountbatten), modern workplaces (a car showroom at Orchard Road) and many favourite hangouts of the time (Queen Elizabeth Walk, Paris Ris Hotel, Bedok Beach, Mount Faber and Orchard Theatre with the first ever escalator in town). What forms a backdrop for Normah s infidelities is a landscape of low-rise buildings, laid-back open spaces and casual roads rather fitting for the director s almost unsentimental and understated treatment to a story about taboo relationships. somewhat nonchalant manner: Normah is quietly grieving over the split with her extramarital partner and leans over the parapet to watch the gentle waves breaking against the seawall. A flamboyant young man, attracted by her beauty and apparent vulnerability, shows up and offers her kacang putih (peanuts in a paper cone). Without much resistance, Normah agrees to his casual invitation for a drink, casts her negative emotions aside and opens herself to the excitement of yet another love affair. It is at the Queen Elizabeth Walk a serene seafront park beside the Padang where the aftermath of a breakup in the film plays out in a 26 27

16 HAFIZ OSMAN 28 ASIAN FILM ARCHIVE Jamban 1956 STATE OF MOTION 2016 CHE MAMAT PARANG TUMPOL MERDEKA BRIDGE 29

17 HAFIZ OSMAN ARTIST BIOGRAPHY HAFIZ OSMAN Jamban 1956 CHE MAMAT PARANG TUMPOL MERDEKA BRIDGE Hafiz completed his Masters in Fine Arts with Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore, in He has attended international workshops in Belgrade, Istanbul and Venice organised by Real Presence and was the selected artist to attend the pilot residency program by National Art Council with Dena Foundation, Paris, in He also participated in international exhibitions in Amsterdam, Venice, and Paris and recently in Kuala Lumpur. His practice predominantly involves art installations and drawing based works. He is also keen in collaborating with communities and partaking in participatory works. With Art Incubator, a local residency program, he was placed under the mentorship with Ho Tzu Nyen. Supported by Osage Gallery, he did his first collaborative community work in In 2015, he was invited to participate in Oh! Open House curated by Alan Oei. Past local exhibitions include Progession: Lit Up, In the Flesh, New Contemporaries; Maps and Meetings. He was also commissioned by LTA to be part of Art-in-Transit. He is currently working with National Gallery Singapore as an Management Assistant Manager. Hafiz Osman at Kampong Bugis, Kallang Riverside Park 30 31

18 JAMBAN 1956 ARTWORK HAFIZ OSMAN Jamban 1956 CHE MAMAT PARANG TUMPOL MERDEKA BRIDGE Jamban 1956 is an installation that comprises a makeshift toilet hut near Merdeka Bridge, which was a prominent filming location in the film, Che Mamat Parang Tumpol. The work offers a reminder of life in the many kampongs that dotted the Kallang River in the 1960s. Situated close to the banks of the river, the makeshift toilet is painted with pencil lead powder to mimic the visual appearance as in a black and white film. Built with wood and standing elevated on stilts with Merdeka Bridge in the backdrop, a stairway will lead the audience into the toilet where they are invited to write and/or draw comments on the interior. A comedy, Che Mamat Parang Tumpol depicts the life of a storyteller who chose to tell stories to kids and was seen as a vacuous man. He was then given the opportunity to write a story for the local newspaper about the notorious Black Hand Gang. Jamban 1956 explores the transformation and adaptation of the protagonist and the context of the many different film sites. From kampong to city life, a storyteller to a journalist writer. The work explores the idea of displacement while at the same time draws a link that negotiates the tangible nature of time and space. Sketch of Jamban 1956 by Hafiz Osman The Merdeka Bridge over Kallang River

19 CHE MAMAT PARANG TUMPOL (BLACK HAND GANG, 1960) FILM SYPNOSIS HAFIZ OSMAN Jamban 1956 CHE MAMAT PARANG TUMPOL MERDEKA BRIDGE Original film title in Malay Che Mamat Parang Tumpol English Title Black Hand Gang Directed by L. Krishnan Written by Pelham Groom Language Malay and Hokkien Starring Wahid Satay M. Amin Latifah Omar Dollah Sarawak Synopsis Che Mamat, who lives in the kampong with his nagging mother, is deemed a good-for-nothing. However, his girlfriend Fatimah has faith that he will make good as a storyteller. She urges him to enter a story-writing competition organised by the newspaper Berita Singapura. By a twist of fate, the story Mamat submitted wins the top prize, which lands him a job as a journalist. His first assignment is to track down the Black Hand Gang, a criminal group that exhorts shopowners to buy their beer and literally leaves black handprints behind as warning for non-compliance. The police get into the act too and begin to see handprints everywhere. A wild goose chase ensues. Film Image: 1960 Cathay-Keris Produced by Cathay-Keris Che Mamat Parang Tumpol (Black Hand Gang, 1960) Che Mamat Parang Tumpol (1960)

20 MERDEKA BRIDGE FILM LOCATION HAFIZ OSMAN Jamban 1956 CHE MAMAT PARANG TUMPOL MERDEKA BRIDGE In 1956, colonial Singapore was on the cusp of being granted full internal self-governance. On the back of his success in quelling civil unrest in October 1956, Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock would achieve a breakthrough in constitutional talks with colonial authorities in London for Singapore to become a self-governing state. The talks were dubbed the Merdeka Talks ( Merdeka is Malay for independence ). Postcard of Merdeka Bridge, circa 1960s. Merdeka was on the lips of many hopeful politicians in the 1950s and was tagged to many things that had (passing) associations with aspirations for Singapore/Malaya s independence from colonial rule. A new bridge over Kallang River that would provide road users quicker access from Katong and Siglap to the city centre was nearing completion and was given the name Merdeka Bridge by Francis Thomas, then Minister for Communications and Works. Chief Minister Lim declared the bridge open in August 1956, to much anticipation and fanfare. This icon of Singapore s aspiration for independence turned out to be a favored film location of many filmmakers at the turn of the decade ( 60s), though most would merely have characters driving/riding/ running on the bridge briefly, before moving on to other places and matters more central to the narrative. (Not even Italian artist Rudolfo Nolli s well-crafted lion sculptures that guarded the ends of the bridge could inspire a pause in their hurried passages.) Che Mamat Parang Tumpol is one such film, which has a scene of greenhorn journalist Mamat riding on his Lambretta scooter as he sings his way through town, from Empress Place, down Bras Basah Road, before crossing the Merdeka Bridge enroute to Joo Chiat to track down a notorious Chinese gang. One of the two lion sculptures that guarded the ends of Merdeka Bridge. Film Images: 1960 Cathay-Keris 36 37

21 STEPHANIE JANE BURT 38 ASIAN FILM ARCHIVE ///// Don't Slip ///// STATE OF MOTION 2016 SUMPAH PONTIANAK KAMPONG SIGLAP 39

22 STEPHANIE JANE BURT ARTIST BIOGRAPHY STEPHANIE JANE BURT ///// Don't Slip ///// SUMPAH PONTIANAK KAMPONG SIGLAP Stephanie Burt is an artist whose practice spans from sculptural installations to fictional prose. Trained at Glasgow School of Art, she received her BA (Hons) Painting in 2012 and her MFA in Her work invites the viewer to explore dialogues between her installations and their settings through a fictional narrative that at times referencing film and literature. Materials used in her works are usually abandoned and yet hold traces of their interior and exterior environment. Writings of the Nouveau Roman are strong influences on her practice. She is currently invested in feminist readings of mother-daughter relations, dynamics of female friendships and the analysis and representation of Girl culture. Recent exhibitions include; Wolf, Sister, Hidden Treasure, Mason Gross School of Arts, Piscataway, New Jersey 2015, This House Has Been Far Out at Sea, Glasgow Open House Festival 2015, Potong Ice- Cream $2, Latent Spaces at Art Stage Singapore 2015, Janus, 87 Saltmarket, Glasgow 2015 Stephanie Burt at Upper East Coast Road, near Jalan Sempadan, former location of Kampong Siglap 40 41

23 / DON'T SLIP / ARTWORK STEPHANIE JANE BURT ///// Don't Slip ///// SUMPAH PONTIANAK KAMPONG SIGLAP The field next to Upper East Coast Road, near Jalan Sempadan. Sumpah Pontianak is a horror film that centers on a benevolent monster, the titular Pontianak, who rescues her daughter from the threats of other beasts. While ostensibly a monster movie that s built for scares, it also touches on a number of themes that I have been exploring in my work, including femininity, identity, alienation and mother-daughter relationships. Upper East Coast Road, before Jalan Sempadan. Many of its scenes were shot at the small kampong (Malay for 'village') vicinities of the Siglap neighbourhood, and I intend to recreate the exterior of a small kampong hut using related materials such as tin roofing, mosquito nets, metal frames, cloth and cable wiring. The juxtaposition of hard and soft materials depict, among other things, the interior comfort of a domestic structure that can turn quite threatening, and the tensions played out when the safety of one s environment is easily unravelled by the flimsy exterior that shields it from imposing threats and the entanglements of human relationships

24 SUMPAH PONTIANAK (THE CURSE OF PONTIANAK, 1958) FILM SYPNOSIS STEPHANIE JANE BURT ///// Don't Slip ///// SUMPAH PONTIANAK KAMPONG SIGLAP Original film title in Malay Sumpah Pontianak English Title The Curse of Pontianak Directed by B. N. Rao Written by Abdul Razak Language Malay Starring Maria Menado Mustapha Maarof Salmah Ahmad Synopsis Pontianak is one among the numerous vampire-ghosts that thrive in Malay folklores and is commonly described as the ghost of a woman who died in childbirth, often taking on the guise of a scented, seductive girl. Sumpah Pontianak is the third installation in the famous trilogy of Pontianak-themed horror movies produced by Cathay-Keris that capitalised on the local population s fear for this most treacherous of vampires. The trilogy s first two films Pontianak and Dendam Pontianak are known to more horrifying than the third, which is relatively mild in the scare department since the Pontianak has turned benevolent and her antagonists lack invincible prowess. They are believed to be lost after Ho Ah Loke, the films producer, reportedly threw the original film prints down a mining pool in a fit of depression. Film Images: 1958 Cathay-Keris Produced by Cathay-Keris Sumpah Pontianak (The Curse of Pontianak, 1958). Title of Sumpah Pontianak (The Curse of Pontianak, 1958)

25 KAMPONG SIGLAP FILM LOCATION STEPHANIE JANE BURT ///// Don't Slip ///// SUMPAH PONTIANAK KAMPONG SIGLAP Film stills from Sumpah Pontianak (The Curse of Pontianak, 1958). Film Images: 1958 Cathay-Keris Actor Wahid Satay, who provided comic relief in the Pontianak trilogy as a singing satay-seller, once revealed in an interview that the movies exterior scenes were filmed in the kampong vicinities of Siglap, Padang Terbakar and Tanah Merah, all situated along Singapore s east coast. Kampong Siglap, one of the film locations mentioned by Wahid Satay, was so-named because of the thunderclouds (or solar eclipse according to other accounts) that appeared when Raja Sufian, a Malay prince from western Sumatra, landed in the area with his brothers and their followers, according to legend. This led people to call the place Siglap (derived from the Malay word gelap, meaning darkness that conceals ). Raja Sufian came to be known as Tok Lasam and became the village chief of Kampong Siglap; he and his wife s graves can still be found in Siglap today, under a tree next to Jalan Sempadan. their houses, beginning from the 1970s. Kampong Siglap, along with other last surviving fishing kampongs along Singapore s east coast, were destined to make way for urban redevelopment. By the end of 1986, all of 346 families then residing in Kampong Siglap were resettled and in their place were built new upmarket private apartments and condominiums. The kampong had provided excellent rural settings for the films supernatural antagonists to perform their homicidal feats and induce panic in the fictional neighbourhoods. In the real world, little did the residents expect that they would be facing something more haunting than pontianaks: the bulldozers summoned by the authorities to demolish 46 47

26 MIKE HJ CHANG 48 ASIAN FILM ARCHIVE Bus Stop STATE OF MOTION 2016 MAT TIGA SUKU PILOT EAST COAST RECLAMATION PROJECT 49

27 MIKE HJ CHANG ARTIST BIOGRAPHY MIKE HJ CHANG Bus Stop MAT TIGA SUKU PILOT EAST COAST RECLAMATION PROJECT Mike HJ Chang is a Taiwanese American artist and educator in fine arts. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts, both in the USA. Chang currently resides and works in Singapore. Autobiographical information always serves as the basis for narrative exploration in Chang s work. Recent projects such as Arrival Reception, and Welcome Door Mat, shows the way he idiosyncratically combines architecture, furniture, and text to focus on the notion of transient identity in a space where the public and the private intersect, such as a place between his bedroom door. Collectively, though, his work examines the interplay and relationship between The Clean, which is a quiet, orderly state, and The Generic, which is an empty state that is devoid of ego and memory. Mike HJ Chang at Upper East Coast Road, site of Pilot East Coast Land Reclamation Project Over the years, Chang s work has produced varying effects and receptions. While it has been received with humour, other times it is poignant, or even self-righteous in its own prerogative. Since 2011, his portfolio has gone on public display in prominent art spaces such as the Chan Hampe Galleries, Gillman Barracks, Goodman Art Centre, Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore, Port Tumasik, Post-Museum, Sculpture Square, The Substation, Art Stage Singapore, and Yeo Workshop in Singapore

28 BUS STOP ARTWORK MIKE HJ CHANG Bus Stop MAT TIGA SUKU PILOT EAST COAST RECLAMATION PROJECT Bus Stop is a site-specific installation by artist Mike HJ Chang. In the film Mat Tiga Suku (1964) there was a scene where the main character was stranded in a desert-like environment. While he plays music and sings for solace, he starts to hallucinate. The desert film site was part of a sketch of land on the east coast that was undergoing reclamation. 50 years later the barren land no longer resembles the desert in the film, but instead it is now a fully-grown forest just off Upper East Coast Road. To contrast the transformation of that piece of land over time, as well as a reference to the film, Bus Stop is a sculpture that looks like a typical bus stop but made out of sand. While sand can be read as an index of the ever-changing Singapore coastline, metaphorically, it also speaks of malleability and metamorphosis. Sketch of Mike HJ Chang's work, Bus Stop. Bus Stop is a life-size sandy bus stop that appears displaced in the middle of a forest. Just as in the film, the forest itself appears out of nowhere within the desert. This begs the question: which is the mirage, the bus stop or the forest? 52 53

29 MAT TIGA SUKU (MAT CRAZY, 1965) FILM SYPNOSIS MIKE HJ CHANG Bus Stop MAT TIGA SUKU PILOT EAST COAST RECLAMATION PROJECT Original film title in Malay Mat ¾ (or Mat Tiga Suku ) English Title Mat Crazy Directed by Mat Sentol Written by Mat Sentol Language Malay Starring Mat Sentol Salina Synopsis Tiga suku, which literally translates to three quarters, is a Malay expression used to describe oddball behaviour, of being mentally not quite there. Mat Sentol, a Cathay-Keris actor-comedian known for his madcap acts, adopted the expression for his directorial debut Mat Tiga Suku, an eccentric film that seeks to subvert our usual sense of logic and propriety. The film centers on Mat, a poor and helpless man who lives in a house that talks to him and daydreams about wealth and pretty princesses. It is an episodic adventure that follows the slapstick antics of Mat who, among many pranks, moves a bus stop at his will and halts an aeroplane that does not give way. Film Images: 1965 Cathay-Keris Produced by Cathay-Keris Mat Tiga Suku (Mat Crazy, 1965). Title of Mat Tiga Suku (Mat Crazy, 1965) 54 55

30 PILOT EAST COAST LAND RECLAMATION PROJECT FILM LOCATION MIKE HJ CHANG Bus Stop MAT TIGA SUKU PILOT EAST COAST RECLAMATION PROJECT Film stills from Mat Tiga Suku (Mat Crazy, 1965). Film Images: 1965 Cathay-Keris Substantial portions of the film Mat Tiga Suku and other works in director-actor Mat Sentol s oeuvre were shot on location in the vicinity of the studio that produced the movies Cathay-Keris at 532D East Coast Road. With Mat Sentol s genius, those real locations were injected with comedic feats and transformed into ridiculous, dream-like or anachronistic landscapes. The best example from Mat Tiga Suku was his use of a plot of freshly reclaimed land from the sea a pilot land reclamation project on the east coast of Singapore for a scene where he leads a bus and its chasing passengers amok by moving the bus-stop post at his will. It forms a strange yet funny image of a banal act of commuting by public transport gone awry in a desert by the sea. The Pilot East Coast Reclamation Project was undertaken by the government in 1963 to increase the land area of the Singapore island by about 19 hectares. It was the test bed for an ambitious reclamation scheme that would move Singapore s entire eastern coastline several hundred metres towards the sea, thereby founding massive Bird's eye view of Pilot East Coast Land Reclamation Project Site Urban Redevelopment Authority virgin land for the rapidly developing island-state. The mischievous Mat Sentol saw it fit to make physical jokes out on the still-to-be-developed plains, inadvertently subverting the nation-building ideals that often accompany these grand schemes for urban (re)development in landhungry Singapore. Strangely enough, the site of the pilot reclamation was left mostly untouched till today (except for the building of a school and an army camp). A forest now covers the once-barren land and plans are underway to construct an underground subway station on the plot

31 Exiting the Outram Prison, to be transferred to the court to face trial. From Korban Fitnah (1959) State of Motion 2016 Programmer & Film Researcher: Toh Hun Ping Curator (Visual Art & Tour): Kent Chan Creative Producer: Thong Kay Wee Assistant Producer: Janice Chen Design and Branding Team: Darius Ou, Melvin Tan & Nicole Tan Artists: Kin Chui Mark Thia Hafiz Osman Stephanie Jane Burt Mike HJ Chang Tour Script: Kent Chan and Vicki Yang Guides: Vicki Yang Vishal Daryanomel Shahila Baharom Raksha Mahtani Samantha Yap Maria Teresa Rodriguez Alvarado Special Thanks: Karen Chan Chew Tee Pao Joshua Ng Christina Mak Warren Sin Wesley Leon Aroozoo Singapore s Archive Cathay-Keris Films Pte Ltd National Library Board LASALLE College of the Arts National Museum of Singapore Cinematheque National Archives of Singapore National Parks Board Media Development Authority Singapore About Asian Film Archive: The Asian Film Archive was founded in January 2005 as a non-governmental organisation to preserve the rich film heritage of Singapore and Asian Cinema, to encourage scholarly research on film, and to promote a wider critical appreciation of this art form. The Archive is the winner of the New Non-Profit Initiative Award at the annual National Volunteers and Philanthropy Awards 2007 (Singapore), which recognises organisations for their originality, sustainability, impact and best practices. The Archive is an affliate of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and a member of the Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archives Association (SEAPAVAA). As an important nexus, it brings together the various segments of the Asian film community in order to open and enrich new intellectual, educational and creative spaces.