Book Launch - Latent Images: Film in Singapore (2nd edition) by Jan Uhde and Yvonne Ng Uhde

Latent Images: Film in Singapore Second edition has just been published. This extensively updated edition with new colour and black-and-white illustrations presents a comprehensive examination of the country's film landscape from the early days of local film production until 2007/08.
(Ridge Books, National University of Singapore Press, 2009. 368 pages, 37 colour plates, 108 b/w photographs. ISBN: 978-9971-69-456-2. Soft cover.)

For anyone interested in learning about Singapore films, there's a key "Go To" book that you have to get your hands on to bring you up to speed with the local film scene, providing details of our glorious filmmaking past, tracing the current evolution, and containing just about everything from screening venues, film festivals, and rich appendices upon which the more serious of us would rely on for the building of research. Over the last few years there have been other books written about Singapore films and the film scene here, but there is none other like Latent Images.

I read the first edition of the book a couple of years back just as this blog was in its infancy, and without a doubt that library loaned copy of the book provided some firm grounding upon which my interest was piqued even further. It was tough luck too to try and hunt down a retail copy, and over the last few years there have been various other books written about local films, but none as comprehensive as what Professor Jan Uhde and Yvonne Ng Uhde had put together.

Books Actually played host this evening to the two authors in the book launch of the 2nd edition of Latent Images, which now covers the scene up until 2007/8. Extensively researched into neatly organized chapters tracing the beginnings to spotlights on short films and specific interests items such as censorship and a comprehensive write up on the Singapore International Film Festival, Latent Images cements itself yet again as the foremost book to get for any local film buffs, as well as those who are keen to get up to speed with Singapore films and the local film scene.

Enjoy the proceedings from the book launch, (LtoR) Yvonne Ng Uhde, Professor Jan Uhde, and Moderator/Filmmaker Tan Pin Pin:


Part 1 of 4


Part 2 of 4


Part 3 of 4


Part 4 of 4

Latent Images is now available in bookstores, and of course, at Books Actually.