Yawning Bread. October 2006

Short Circuit 2006 - a review

by Charles Tan


 

 

 

 

Curated by Alfian Sa'at and Boo Junfeng, Short Circuit 2006 showcases 12 short films made by either queer filmmakers or those dealing with queer subjects. Spanning a wide spectrum of genres, these local shorts display the talents of a diverse local queer filmmakers community capable of contributing to local queer discourse.

There is much comedy, drama and animation in this showcase to entertain the audience.

Sun Koh's Bedroom Dancing is a pseudo porno flick inspired from a true story about a male exhibitionist masturbating in front of his window. If you can look beyond the shocking in-your-face sex scenes, Bedroom Dancing will also raise inherent psycho-social issues about contemporary urban Singapore living embedded in its troubled characters.

The two Malay boys in Demam Jantan (Boy Fever) who are performing a traditional ritual to cast a love spell on their beloved makes for laughs while Crocodile Journals, an animation about a crocodile who passes off as a human in the corporate world contains subtext of queerness.

Among Brian Gothong Tan's short films, Asian Girls Vol 2 (Memoirs of a Geisha) and Imelda Goes to Singapore are campy spoofs that borders on outrageous hilarity. The former mimicks the similarly titled Hollywood blockbuster but cleverly pokes fun on Oriental exoticism by casting male-looking clumsy drag queens. Imelda goes to Singapore is an MTV; another subversive dig about the lives of domestic assistants in Singapore.

Falling into Fuchusia by AD Chan mirrors reel to life as the actors in a homoeroticized film of Hamlet finds themselves drawn to each other. Rick Tan who plays a bicurious actor confronts his sexuality as his co-actor goes in for the kill.

Untitled is a sequence of films about a teenage boy who cruises at Ann Siang Hill and goes on to engage in other daily menial activities, only to have him break down during his shower.

In the showcase, two of the more outstanding short films, are Pink IC by Charmaine Wong and Un Retrato De Familia (A Family Portrait) by Boo Junfeng.

Pink IC, which also makes its worldwide debut, is a documentary of 5 lesbians discussing on what it means to be gay in Singapore. Their interviews are spliced between snippets of a talk given by Minister for Community Development Youth and Sports, Vivian Balakrishnan at Murdoch University in 2004, who was trying his best to come across as tolerant while explaining the government's conservative and homophobic policy towards gays and lesbians.

The short film traces the insecurity of the young modern state due to its expulsion from a federation. Henceforth, it is constantly in a state of anxiety as it seeks sustainable survival and economic advancement through nation-wide campaigns advocating heteronormative procreation.

Junfeng's Family Portrait has a nostalgic feel as its characters are supposedly set in Spain during the 60s. Sergio, a 17 year old amateur photographer was cleaning his camera when his younger sister asks him about the meaning of sex. The teenager is reminded of a past event which enables him to answer her sister's question indirectly.

A Family Portrait is well-edited with its flashbacks and jump cuts. The contrast of the lightning, well-designed set and props help the audience distinguish the time difference. Acting-wise, the teenager and kid actors portraying Sergio expresses an intense childlike curiosity that replaces the need for dialogues . Though deprived of having a Singaporean context, the film manages to touch a raw nerve by exploring the intertwining themes of love and sex.

During the Q&A, questions from the floor allowed the filmmakers to discuss their creation process. The first question that the moderator, Alfian, poses to the panel of filmmakers is a significant first step to understanding what we understand by Queer Films. Taking one step further, though not asked by anyone during the session, the filmmakers and audience will probably need to question themselves the importance of Queer Films; and more importantly, how it can communicate with and engage the community.  


 

Foreword by Yawning Bread

People Like Us' Short Circuit 2006 was a one-night private screening of short films by Singaporean GLB filmmakers, held at the Substation on 6 Oct 2006.

Here is Charles Tan's review of the films shown.

See also:

Short Circuit - for the record, part 1 and Short Circuit - for the record, part 2

 

Footnotes

  1. See another review at the PLUME website. 
    http://plume.sg/articles/2006/10/short-circuited.html

 

Addenda

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