Perspectives Film Festival

Friends, it's going to be a busy March-Apr, with no less than 3 festivals lined up during the period, all featuring local feature films and shorts. Besides the Singapore Shorts Film Festival at the Substation, and the Singapore International Film Festival, there's also the Perspectives Film Festival, which is an an inaugural film festival jointly presented by NTU Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information and the National Museum of Singapore.

This 5-day long event will feature some of the first, classic films produced in Singapore, highlighting the glorious past of our local film history, bringing back fond memories and inspiring the next wave of Singapore’s media stars. The highlight of the festival will be the screening of Lion City, which is arguably the first Chinese-language film to be made in Singapore. The last time this movie was screened was back in 2005 during the Screen Singapore festival, and unfortunately I had missed the screening then. Opportunity presents itself again this time round!

Other films in the lineup include Seniman Bujang Lapok, a film made by P. Ramlee, Hussein Haniff's Hang Jebat, Salleh Ghani’s Tun Fatimah and B. N. Rao’s Sumpah Pontianak which I have watched and reviewed here back in 2005, and here's a picture of Pontianak star Maria Menado.

Another first for the classics mentioned, all films will come with Chinese subtitles, as the organizers - all full time students btw, in a course where students conceptualize, manage, fundraise, promote and run an actual ticketed film festival - try to reach out to the older Chinese population in Singapore who cannot read English subtitles. On the last night, the screening of Seniman Bujang Lapok will be Free and held outdoors too, to promote greater communal bonding and involvement, especially across generations.

What's the cost you say?
It's only S$7 per paid screening, and concession rates are available. All indoor screenings will be held at the National Museum of Singapore Gallery Theatre (one of my choice screening locations in Singapore).

For more details of the programme, and ticketing information, head on down to the Official Festival Website!