Five short films on the theme of Bodies by women filmmakers
Thu 14 Sep 2023, 7.30pm – 9pm
Venue: Chapel Gallery, Objectifs
Screening (62 min) followed by Q&A
Rating: PG13 (Some Nudity)
Standard: $10 / Objectifs Members and students: $8 (please note that ID may be verified at the door)
The screening is part of Objectifs’ annual Women in Film and Photography showcase. This year’s programme presents a selection of five short films by filmmakers from Southeast Asia and East Asia, responding to an Open Call by Objectifs.
Based on writer Euginia Tan’s poem about the remora fish occupying aquariums, movement artists Tan Weiying and Wendy Toh explore the parallels and depths of parasitic greed, hollow consumerism and nomadic aspiration.
Three dancers who have confronted injuries filled the visual with strain on the body. Collaborated with dancer and choreographer Jennifer Mok, the film ponders how to co-exist with the trauma and keep going after one’s world falls apart.
lupa traces narratives through forested routes and water bodies of the city. It initially began with an urge to take a DNA test to identify the missing ancestry in ila’s maternal lineage. The undertaking led to the provocation that embodiment is not tied solely to ancestral lineages and the work invites one to look closely at the ties between living beings beyond human connections. Delving into the multiplicities and fragmentation of body and land, lupa ruminates other forms of kinship and connection that transcend ancestry.
Beautiful Fields Beyond Me by Faye Lim / 15min 40 sec
Before The Big Moment, there was an abundance of space and time for play, pleasure, growth and learning. This dance film stretches a fantasy, imagining a sanctuary that we might all have had at a moment in time. It is dedicated to Daniel (2013 – 2015).
Two bodies emerge, one of flesh and one of metal. Both are cautious of, yet compelled towards each other. This evolves into a game of hide and seek.
“Can you see me now?”
“Can you see you now?”
Can friendship truly form, or will we always be stuck in a limbo of a human vs machine narrative? ?!%$&*#@$^*()}!@#|%>? is a cry to connect, to be seen by each other, to come together.
About the filmmakers:
Wendy Toh is a multi-disciplinary Singaporean artist whose work ranges from the performance arts to making experimental films. She is a member of Jinen Butoh School (Italy) and an alumni of Singapore’s Intercultural Theatre Institute.
Shaun Neo is a narrative Director of Photography who has worked with film for more than 10 years. His passion lies in exploring the imperfections of humanity and our relentless pursuit to find our place in the world, defining his artistic journey. With an unwavering belief in the power of film as a mirror for both himself and the audience, Shaun goes beyond mere entertainment and documentation, delving deep into the intricacies of the human experience. Through his lens, he strives to evoke emotions and provoke introspection, ultimately seeking to instil a sense of hope for the future in his audience.
Dorothy Cheung (b. 1987) is a filmmaker and artist from Hong Kong. Her practice explores the notion of identities and home through a double perspective – personal and political, memory and forgetfulness. Her moving-image works are selected for film festivals including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Leeds International Film Festival, Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, Taiwan International Documentary Festival and Queer Lisboa. She has also received commission from M+ (Hong Kong), City Contemporary Dance Company (Hong Kong), Visual AIDS (US).
With a practice that encompasses performance, photography, and other mediums, ila (b. 1985, Singapore) weaves her own body and emotions to create alternative entry points for experiencing the peripheries of lived experience and unspoken narratives. She often reconfigures and merges speculative fiction with factual histories to conceive sites for empathy and connectivity in her work. She has participated in group shows in Singapore such as Natasha: Singapore Biennale (2022), Proposals for Novel Ways of Being, National Gallery Singapore (2020) and in festivals such as ASEAN-EU Cultural Festival (2022).
Faye Lim is a Singaporean dance artist and co-director of Rolypoly Family. She served as choreographer and collaborator for film and projection works that showed at Asian Civilisations Museum, National Gallery Singapore, National Museum Singapore, NUS Center for Quantum Technologies, Plac Defilad (Warsaw), and Singapore Pavilion, Venice Biennale. Her first short dance film Inner Most Ghost Hosts Almost Post Dance was commissioned by Charemaine Seet and Critical Path (Sydney) for the Digital Interchange Festival 2020 and supported by Dance Nucleus for Circuit #1 (2020).
Clare Chong (b. 1996, Singapore) works with undertones of the mundane. She is concerned with issues prevalent in ordinary life; the wink of an eye, the slight curl of the lips, a twitch in the ears. Her subjects are quiet outcasts of society we don’t pay attention to, and her works challenges means of gazing and observing – To what extent do we impose our preconceived notions, judgements, and opinions onto an image?
Chong completed her International Baccalaureate Diploma at SOTA School Of The Arts, and her Bachelor’s Degree in Film at Lasalle College Of The Arts. She works as a film director with works ranging across short films, music videos, documentaries, commercials, experimental films, video art and installation pieces. Chong’s works have been showcased at various film festivals, art galleries, events, and talks, but all these are secondary to her wish of making her works accessible to anyone, anywhere. She believes that every film must be created in celebration of a space, of a period in time, and of someone. Every piece is always a letter written to a distant lover.
Sonia Kwek (b.1990, Singapore) roots her practice in performance and the body as material. Her works examine corporeal sensualities, the kinesics of feminine identity and latent tensions between visuality and the unseen, dealing with questions about embodiment, gender, perception and representation. Through movement, theatre, live art, installation, participatory experiments, video, image, text, etc, she draws from different artistic modalities to create intimate encounters and visceral experiences. Sonia often collaborates with other artists in interdisciplinary projects, and her works span across varying sites, spaces, places.
Sonia trained at the Intercultural Theatre Institute, graduating with a Diploma in Intercultural Theatre (Acting) and was a recipient of the ITI-William Teo Scholarship for her studies. Sonia also holds a Bachelor of Creative Industries with Distinction, a study in interdisciplinary practice, from Queensland University of Technology. Currently, she is an associate artist with dance performance company P7:1SMA, and a member and coordinator of experimental arts group Emergency Stairs’ Emergency Academy.
For the rest of our Women in Film and Photography 2023 programme, visit here.