Celebrating the creative spirit of the documentary short film form
Chapel Gallery, Objectifs
13 to 15 Mar 2025
Ticket prices (per screening programme)
Concession ticket (student) – $8 (please note that ID may be verified at the door)
General ticket – $10
Overall Screening Schedule
Thu 13 Mar 2025, 7.30pm – 9.30pm | Programme 1 – Capitalist Dreams: Profit or People?
TICKETS
Fri 14 Mar 2025, 7.30pm – 9pm | Programme 2 – Remnants of Time
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Sat 15 Mar 2025, 7.30pm – 930pm | Programme 3 – Murmurs of Kinship
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Presenting the selected films from the 2025 edition of LENScape: Documentary Shorts from Southeast Asia, a new short film programme that celebrates the creative spirit of the documentary form. Co-organised by Objectifs and In-Docs, the selected short films will screen in Indonesia within November 2024 to February 2025, and Singapore in March 2025. The programme welcomes films of all topics and themes.
Supported by the Silvana S Foundation.
Thu 13 Mar 2025, 7.30pm – 9.30pm | Programme 1 – Capitalist Dreams: Profit or People?* | NC16 (Some Coarse Language)
*With post-screening Q&A
Almost every aspect of modern life is shaped by the desire for economic development and profit. From a gentle critique on the invisible labour that make everyday conveniences possible, to heartfelt stories on the hopes and dreams of families and children, these films question the effect of this impulse on ordinary people and the environment, as they seek better lives for themselves and their loved ones.
Kino Kalye by Joel Andrei Ramirez / 20 min / Philippines / 2023
In a Marxist exploration of capitalism, this documentary unveils the hidden truths of alienated labor and commodities, revealing the exploitative relationships behind everyday objects through innovative dialectical editing.
Kanaka by Regina Surbakti / 25 min / Indonesia / 2023
Between her dream job and her desire to be a mother, Mikha, a nail artist and her family try to find ways to live both.
The Boy who lives by the Sea / 21:34 min / Myanmar / 2024
Ko Aung was just a month old when Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Myanmar in 2008. The storm that ripped across the Ayeyarwady Delta taking the homes, the livelihoods, and the lives of so many, also cost him his hearing. Fourteen years later, another cyclone, Mocha, is about to hit his village of Ka Byat in Bogale Township. Ko Aung’s parents are keen to move away from the coast and live in a city where they are no longer at the mercy of the elements and their children can have a better education. As the teenager helps his father prepare their hut for the worst, he shares his love of his home and his unshakable belief that the sea can provide his family with everything they need.
Dear Mom by Hà Lệ Diễm / 16:56 min / Vietnam / 2024
Dear Mom traces the story of Song, a 11-year-old Hmong girl who for the past six years has been trying to come to terms with the absence of her mother while growing up in the mountains of northwestern Vietnam.
In the form of a letter written by Song herself, the film offers a (hopefully initial) look at the emotional travails as well as social challenges that children struck by such unfortunate circumstances have to endure and yet somehow still try to overcome.
Silvana S Film Award 2025 – Winner
Fri 14 Mar 2025, 7.30pm – 9pm | Programme 2 – Remnants of Time | PG 13 (Some Mature Content)
How does history leave its mark? These films explore the connections between the personal and larger socio-economic events, and how these occurrences can reverberate through time to impact current and future generations. While these stories originate from different geographies, cultures and spaces, they remind us of how the actions of the past shape our identities, relationships and environment.
Tutaha Subang (A Tale for my Daughter) by Wulan Andayani Putri / 15 min / Indonesia / 2024
In
Tutaha Subang, A Tale for My Daughter, viewers are invited to delve into the emotional narrative of Rikarda Maa through her letter to her daughter, Mila, amidst the threat of palm oil expansion encroaching on the Awyu tribe’s ancestral land. Rikarda’s words reveal the love and determination fueling their struggle. The documentary intertwines personal narrative with footage of the Sasi Procession—a ritual of resistance where the Awyu tribe raises a towering red cross as a symbol of their fight.
As memories and words falter, events and time freeze, the film explores the experience of a woman, mother, and fighter, capturing the trial of a community and their bond with the land and ancestors. It leads us to question what lies at the boundaries between progress and preservation, between development and collapse.
Here We Are by Chanasorn Chaikitiporn / 19:40 min / Thailand / 2023
A housekeeper receives a film made by her daughter. Combining found footage of Thailand during the Cold War with present-day images of Bangkok, the film reminds her of anecdotes she heard from the woman she works for and it triggers a re-telling of her own story of coming to the capital. Here We Are seeks to portray the present by reflecting on the past, how the legacy of colonization has survived and been normalized nowadays.
Perfected Grammar by Andrea Suwito / 10:52 min / Indonesia / 2023
A Mother teaches her Hungarian-speaking Daughter her native language, Indonesian, but the lesson unearths the Mother’s turbulent relationship with her homeland. Against the liveliness of Budapest, the Daughter uncovers poignant truths, their everyday moments narrating Indonesia’s dark history and a longing for a place once called “home”.
Spaces as Traces by Teo Shi Yun / 9:35 min / Singapore / 2024
Existing between the domains of architectural, technological and spiritual mediums, ‘spaces as traces’ features found footage, Teo’s body of archival material concerns with Singapore’s architecture and Taoist religious rituals, as well as three-dimensional rendered animation of deities in an imagined science fiction of Chinese mythology.
The film toggles through fiction and archival documentation, interweaving timelines, narratives, and spaces.
Sandcastles by Carin Leong / 17:13 min / Singapore / 2024
Singapore, Michigan was a thriving lumber town in the late 19th century until erosion from mass deforestation caused the sand dunes around it to shift and swallow the town whole. Just as quickly as Singapore, Michigan disappeared under sand, its namesake in the East emerged from it through land reclamation.
Sat 15 Mar 2025, 7.30pm – 9.30pm | Programme 3 – Murmurs of Kinship | PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)
With all the joy and complications that they bring, our connections to other people are what define us. Whether as caregivers, friends or lovers, this selection of films encapsulate the colour and dimension that relationships add to our lives, and how we become enriched by them.
The Announced Tragedy by Thanut Rujitanont / 10:20 min / Thailand / 2023
The Announced Tragedy uses animation production as a process of memory consolidation. The work can be seen as a personal memory extension that preserves the irrational and incomplete memories of the director towards the house where he grew up. The work recalls the space and time of these memories, ultimately overwriting, re-editing, and re-materializing them in the form of animation. The work consists of 4 chapters, each chapter enacts a specific memory the director had as a child in his house.
Bridging our times by Toh Jia Jun / 24:48 min / Singapore / 2023
Chi-Lun, 27 years-old, is on the autistic spectrum. He loves taking and watching trains. Studying maps and watching videos of trains and other modes of transport in operation, he is well versed in the transport routes around Taiwan. The gradual easing of the epidemic in Taiwan allowed him to once again go on a train physically. Unable to express himself as he’d like, Chi-Lun has to rely on the guidance of his family to do so. They discuss about when they are going for the trip, the time they depart from home, where they are going to go, the mode of transport to the train station, the train they are going to take and how they are going to reach their destination.
Reading You by Angeline Teh / 14 min / Malaysia / 2023
A short film about reconciliation of memories. The filmmaker finds the diaries her mother left behind 16 years after her departure. With this discovery, she confronts her sister about the moment they both last saw their mother as they reconcile their mother’s past together.
MỐI ĐÊM (Night Termite) by Nguyễn Hồ Bảo Nghi / 30 min / Vietnam / 2023
After his 15 year long unofficial relationship came to an end, an elderly man, fearing loneliness in his old age and the isolation of life in the Central Highlands, turned to Facebook Dating to find a new girlfriend.
The Sky is Blue My Lung is Smiling by Riskya Duavania / 27 min / Indonesia / 2024
At 25 years old, Alwan is a graduate student residing in Kanazawa, experiencing life abroad for the first time. As an international student, his initial year is marked by the challenges of adapting to a new environment, compounded by difficulties in speaking Japanese. This language barrier contributes to the mundane and monotonous nature of his daily routine. However, Alwan’s life takes an unexpected turn when he encounters a culture shock, plunging him into a serious issue that unfolds within the police department of Kanazawa.
Silvana S Film Award 2025 – Special Mention
