Whimsical Fantasies: Short Cuts

Saturday 22 July 2006

A collaboration by the National Museum of Singapore (NaMoS), The Substation and The Singapore Film Commission, the 3rd Singapore Short Cuts is a premiere showcase of local short films. 4 films will be screened every Saturday from 22 July - 12 August 2006. The Singapore Film Commission works on a budget of $200 000 annually and provides funding of $5 000 per film to aspiring local filmmakers.

The first of four screenings, Saturday's event was marked by the presence of bigwigs from the local film industry and Colin Goh himself.

At 2pm, speeches were given by Ms Tan Sushan, director of NaMos and Managing Director of Citigroup Private Bank; Ms Julie Englefield, General Manager of the Substation and Ms Jennie Chua, Chairman of The Singapore Film Commission, President & CEO of Raffles Holding Limited, Chairman of Raffles Hotel Ltd, the Community Chest, Sentosa Cove Pte Ltd, Tourism & Hotel Accommodation Services Industry Skills and Training Council. Ms Jennie Chua also serves on the Boards of several companies like CapitaLand, statutory boards and government committees, both local and international. She was appointed Justice of the Peace in September 2005. (altogether now: FWAH!)

Ms Jennie Chua

The following films were screened:

Hello? - Gavin Lim ( 4 / 5 )
Old Woman - Lau Chee Nien (3 / 5)
Lost Sole - Sanif Olek ( 4 / 5 )
3Meals - Woo Yen Yen & Colin Goh ( 4.5 / 5 )

Colin Goh's short film was a hilarious take on a local Chinese lady seeking The One by inviting potential partners over to her humble flat for dinner. It overshadowed an otherwise brilliant effort by Sanif Olek with Lost Sole, a witty film that thrived within the single setting of a mosque and detailed the exasperated efforts of an old man who had lost his pair of shoes after prayers. Nostalgic nuances were aplenty with Hello?, with a retro setting that chronicled a lady's vicious cycle of failed relationships rooted in sex. Driven by a desperate quest for true love, each disappointment would end in the bludgeoning of her lover with a telephone receiver. Narrated by her daughter, the film's paradigm shift is abrupt, ending with the daughter's reprisal of her mother's actions on a hapless lover. A concerted effort in showcasing an old lady's despair on her son's demise in the police force, Old Woman depicted the old lady anchoring her purpose in life on an abandoned baby by her doorstep, only to have him taken away shortly after by the social worker and his biological teen mother.