Celebrating the women in film and photography
The Women in Film & Photography Showcase at Objectifs is a tribute to the artists, photographers and filmmakers who have created works that tell stories with impact, break boundaries and inspire us. In this edition, we turn our focus to Asia, and will be featuring the works of 25 Asian women photographers and filmmakers.
Women have been involved in films since the early 20th century, from behind the scenes as a director, scriptwriters, and editors to being on screen as actresses. Highlighting the voices of women in film, this programme aims to showcase and celebrate the diversity and strength of each female individual’s works throughout their careers over the years.
In this inaugural edition of Women in Film, selected films from Singaporeans Kirsten Tan and Sun Koh, Thai Pimpaka Towira and Japanese Naoko Ogigami will be featured. Ranging from short experimental films to feature documentaries, the screenings illustrate their unique voices and independent filmmaking spirit. Two films, Roxy and Sussane (dir. Kirsten Tan) and Drem of Gerontius (dir. Sun Koh) will have its World Premiere at Women in Film.
Ticketing Details
Tickets are available at $5 per screening session on a first-come-first-served basis. To pre-purchase tickets, please go to: http://womeninfilm.peatix.com
Programme Schedule
Date/Time
22 OCTOBER, THURSDAY / 8PM: OPENING FILM, WITH POST-SCREENING Q&A
The Mother / 15 min / 2012 / Pimpaka Towira
The Truth Be Told / 105 min / 2007 / Pimpaka Towira
23 OCTOBER, FRIDAY / 730PM: SHORT FILMS BY PIMPAKA TOWIRA, WITH POST-SCREENING Q&A
Under Taboo / 9 min / 1992 / PG
Mae Nak / 33 min / 1997
Tune In / 20 min / 2005 / PG
Terribly Happy / 30 min / 2010 / PG
My Father / 22 min / 2010 / PG /
24 OCTOBER, SATURDAY / 730PM: SHORT FILMS BY KIRSTEN TAN, WITH POST-SCREENING Q&A / Tickets are SOLD OUT on Peatix
10 Minutes Later / 11 min / 2006 / PG
Fonzi / 24 min / 2007 / PG
Come / 21 min / 2007 / M18
Cold Noodles / 7 min / 2010 / PG
Roxy & Sussane / 14 min / PG
Dahdi / 18 min / 2014 / PG
30 OCTOBER, FRIDAY / 730PM: WITH POST-SCREENING Q&A
LUCKY7 / 84 min / 2008 / R21 / Sun Koh
31 OCTOBER, SATURDAY / 730PM
Kamome Diner / 102 min / 2006 / PG / Naoko Ogigami
5 NOVEMBER, THURSDAY / 730PM: SHORT FILMS BY SUN KOH, WITH POST-SCREENING Q&A
The Secret Heaven / 16 min / 2002 / PG
The Secret Passion of Mdm Tan Ah Lian / 16 min / 2014 / PG
Dirty Bitch / 14 min / 2009 / R21
The Studio aka The Songs That Sung Her / 13 min / 2015 / PG
Singapore Panda / 20 min / 2013 / PG
Drem of Gerontius / 6 min / M18
6 NOVEMBER, FRIDAY / 730PM
Rent A Cat / 110 min / 2010 / PG / Naoko Ogigami
7 NOVEMBER, SATURDAY / 730PM
Toilet by Naoko Ogigami / 109 min / 2005 / PG13 (Some Mature Content) Naoko Ogigami
12 NOVEMBER, THURSDAY / 730PM
One Night Husband / 114 min / 2003 / PG / Pimpaka Towira
13 NOVEMBER, FRIDAY / 730PM
Megane / 106 min / 2004 / PG / Naoko Ogigami
For more info on our ASIAN WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS’ SHOWCASE
For more info on our WOMEN IN FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY PUBLIC PROGRAMME
Programme Details
22 OCTOBER, THURSDAY / 8PM: OPENING FILM, WITH Q&A / 120 MIN
Opening Film Focus: Pimpaka Towira / Post screening Q&A
On the final day of her 13 year-old daughter’s funeral, the young girl’s mysterious death still haunts the mother. She needs to find the answer for herself.
A chronicle of the crucial moment in the life of Supinya Klangnarong, a Thai media activist and Secretary-General of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR), in her fight against the 2003 defamation charges from Shin Corporation, the telecommunication giant owned at the time by the family of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The Mother © Pimpaka Towira
23 OCTOBER, FRIDAY / 730PM / 114 MIN
Short Films of Pimpaka Towira / Post screening Q&A
From a very young age, we are indoctrinated with taboos, told not to mention certain things even though they are neither illegal nor antisocial, forbidden to ask anything about these “shameful and nasty” matters. Why does something normal become abnormal?
Mae Nak is an experimental take on the folk legend of the ghost Mae Nak Phrakanong. The story is told from the viewpoint of the ghost, instead of the perspective from the terrorised villagers who are scared of the vengeful spirit of the woman who died in childbirth.
Tune In details the journey of a young woman at Phuket island, where her dreams and the truth of life return to her once again.
A young soldier stationed in the troubled southern Thai region is on his annual leave to his hometown in Udorn Thani. Upon his return, he finds out that his girlfriend has settled with a new western lover in their village. He blames it on his chosen military career, and starts to get angry at her and everyone around him. But his sister reminds him that forgiveness is not a difficult thing to do, but it has to start from within.
In a rural Thai village, a small family’s Father is forced to quit his job as a train station janitor because of his protest letter to the authority. As the family is struggling to make ends meet, he refuses to keep his mouth shut in order to just get on with their daily lives. Instead, he decides to head off to Bangkok in search of justice and joins the mass rally. After the 19 May 2010 incident in the capital, father returns to his quiet hometown not only as a loser, but also with a deep wound in his heart from his failures.
24 OCTOBER, SATURDAY / 730PM / 94 MIN
Short Films of Kirsten Tan / Post screening Q&A
Determinism is the philosophical doctrine which claims that every physical event, including human cognition and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. Based on this theory, 10 Minutes Later is a short film that tells the tale of 10 characters – of their habits; quirks and relations. And most importantly, their interweaving lives. This film is a medley of characters. It is a slice, a dice, a mishmash of life.
A world-within-world story, “Fonzi” is the tale of a movie character who, like Pinocchio, wants to be a real person. Except Fonzi takes it one step further, and believes herself real when she isn’t. And unlike Pinocchio, (who had Disney and magic), Fonzi can never be real.
A sex comedy about 4 members in a Korean family. Mother is a strict religious catholic; Father is henpacked; Sejung is a liberal Arts student, and Jaeho just discovered masturbation. A not so introspective piece on Sex, God and pornography.
Events conspire against O, flagrantly tempting Fate by eating ramen on a fire escape in just his underwear on a bitterly cold day in New York. A stray gust slams shut his window, leaving him stranded. He scrambles down to the sidewalk, only to find every door and window locked – then a body falls out of the sky.
Roxy and Sussane documents the life and relationship of an elderly couple as they go about their daily chores.
An elderly widow finds an unexpected visitor, a young asylum-seeking girl, in her home during dinner. Inspired by a 2012 event, whereby 40 Burmese Rohingya asylum seekers arrived in the port of Singapore.
Dahdi © Kirsten Tan
30 OCTOBER, FRIDAY / 730PM / 84 MIN
LUCKY7 by Sun Koh / Post screening Q&A
7 years before Singapore’s most established filmmakers ode to SG50 in 7 Letters, there was LUCKY7. A totally independent film movement inspired by the collaborative efforts of the Malaysian film community up north, LUCKY7 featured 7 Singaporean filmmakers playing a surrealist game of exquisite-corpse on film. Each filmmaker wrote a 10-12 minute screenplay and only showed the last minute of it to the next filmmaker, who attempts to continue the film to the end. The result is a mix-genre rollercoaster ride through some of the most interesting Singaporean film-minds of 2008. The filmmakers were Sun Koh, K Rajagopal, Boo Junfeng, Brian Gothong Tan, Chew Tze Chuan, Ho Tzu Nyen, and Tania Sng.
31 OCTOBER, SATURDAY / 730PM / 102 MIN
Kamome Diner by Naoko Ogigami
Approximately 10 hours flight from Tokyo, Finland is the closest European country from Japan. Small, but with a presence, Kamome Diner (Ruokala Lokki)—run by a Japanese woman Sachie—stands in the city’s street corner. The film unfolds at this diner, while highlighting people who are more than eager to give a hand to each other’s vital soul.
5 NOVEMBER, THURSDAY / 730PM / 85 MIN
Short Films of Sun Koh / Post screening Q&A
Qian, 5, is under parental pressure to be just like her elder sister, a gifted pianist. The underachiever spends most of her time trying to skip piano lessons. When cornered by her piano teacher and mother, Qian discovers a most ingenious way to break free—by going to Heaven.
Mdm Tan is past her retirement age but stubbornly clings on to her job despite pleas from her husband to retire and stay home. Littles does he know, she has been leading a secret life.
What kind of film would “Nénette et Boni” be if it was made by a funny woman from Singapore? A love letter to the Singapore censors, “Dirty Bitch” was inspired by a violently censored VHS copy of Claire Denis’ “Nénette et Boni” found at the Singapore library.
A Singaporean women was haunted by songs from her past while showering in the Swedish winter. Time passed and she forgot about the incident, until a surreptitious work assignment sent her home to film in the audio studio that recorded those very same songs she was singing in that shower. An old master tape plays, and she is once again lured to sing along.
When a failing radio station is bought over by a Chinese multimedia conglomerate, two long term employees Koh and Hua is forced to do whatever it takes to stay relevant in the fast changing world of radio broadcasting. Meanwhile, the story of Koh’s Chinese diaspora is told through the fictitious radio drama of a migrating panda. It mirrors his own life and shows the changes in 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese family in Singapore.
Directed by Sun Koh when she was based in Sweden for a few years, Drem of Gerontius is a music video featuring Swedish tenor Rickard Soderberg.
6 NOVEMBER, FRIDAY / 730PM / 110 MIN
Rent A Cat by Naoko Ogigami
In a corner of the city, a young woman named Sayoko lives alone in a one-story, traditional Japanese house. However, she’s not really alone. In every part of the house is a cat, another cat, yet another cat. For some reason cats find her irresistible, so she decides to share her house with them. She passes her time tending to her house, taking care of the family altar of her beloved grandmother, and operating a rent-a-cat business through which she lends her cats to lonely people — all while enduring the taunts of her bizarre neighbour.
Rent A Cat © Naoko Ogigami
7 NOVEMBER, SATURDAY / 730PM / 109 MIN
Toilet by Naoko Ogigami
Ray Courtney is a single, 30-something semiconductor engineer in a town somewhere in east coast of North America. His Japanese-American mother passes away, and like the protagonist of Albert Camus’ The Stranger he shows little emotion at the funeral. But soon his quiet, solitary life is turned upside-down when he ends up moving in with his older brother Maury, once a brilliant pianist and now a victim of panic disorder who never leaves the house; his younger sister Lisa, a university student who tends to look down her nose at everyone; and his grandmother Baachan, who was called over from Japan by her daughter and speaks no English.
12 NOVEMBER, THURSDAY / 730PM / 114 MIN
One Night Husband by Pimpaka Towira
Set in Bangkok, this chilling drama follows Sipang, whose search for her missing husband leads her into a completely different world. After receiving a mysterious phone call on the night of their wedding, her husband Napat leaves their home and disappears. Worried, Sipang contacted her in-laws about it. As the search for Napat continues, the startling revelation of what happened that night is slowly exposed.
13 NOVEMBER, FRIDAY / 730PM / 106 MIN
Megane by Naoko Ogigami
Megane tells the story of Taeko, an uptight city woman, vacationing on a quaint Japanese island. Upon arriving at the Hamada Inn, she meets the eccentric inhabitants of the island: Sakura, a mysterious older woman who runs a shaved ice stand on the island during the spring season, but accepts no money; Haruna, a biology teacher who sighs about the lack of cute boys in her class; and Yuji the innkeeper who draws confusing maps and boasts the lack of cell phone reception at his hotel.
Megane © Naoko Ogigami
About the Filmmakers
Pimpaka Towira
Recognised as the first female Thai director to be noticed by international viewers and critics, Pimpaka is a pioneer on the Thai independent film scene since the early ’90s. Since 1988 she has made a number of experimental short films, mostly depicting women’s issues, including, Mae Nak, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Image Forum Festival in 1998. Her debut feature, One Night Husband, premiered at the 2003 International Forum of New Cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival. She has worked as a producer, a film writer, a video artist and a film lecturer. She has worked on video art collaborations such as Ramakien: A Rock Opera at the Lincoln Center Performing Arts in New York (2006) and Black Air (Rotterdam International Film Festival 2008). She was previously programme director for the Bangkok Film Festival and has served as jury for international film festivals like Oberhausen and Yamagata. Pimpaka won the Silapathorn Award (an honour for Thai contemporary artists), in 2009, presented by the Ministry of Culture in Thailand. In 2014, she co-founded the Mosquito Films, a sales and festival distribution company based in Thailand.
Sun Koh
Sun Koh’s award winning films have been screened at more than 30 film festivals around the world. Her debut short film The Secret Heaven was a festival favourite, winning the Chicaogo International Film festival’s Silver Hugo, amongst others. Sun is an alumni of the Berlinale Talent Campus 2003, the Asian Film Academy (Busan) 2007, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Academy 2010 and the Tokyo Talent Campus (Tokyo Filmex) 2011. She is the recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award for film in 2010. In 2013, her film Singapore Panda is one part of an omnibus on the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia titled Letters From The South with filmmakers like Tsai Mingliang, Aditya Assarat and Midi Z. The film had its World Premiere at the Busan International Film Festival. Her film The Secret Passion of Mdm Tan Ah Lian was commissioned by National Arts Council Silver Arts programme in 2014. She is currently working on her next project.
Kirsten Tan
A filmmaker with a penchant for bold visual storytelling, Kirsten Tan’s works straddle a range of genres, but are consistent in their humanity and off-beat humor. She was raised in Singapore but has lived in South Korea and Thailand before NYC, where she completed a Master’s in Film Production at NYU.Her works have been showcased in over 50 international film festivals, including Toronto, Rotterdam, Busan, Krakow and MoMA. She has collected ten international awards, most recently a National Board of Review grant. At SGIFF, she won Best Southeast Asian Film for Dahdi, Best Director for Fonzi, and Special Jury Prize for 10 Minutes Later.
She is working on her upcoming feature, Popeye. It was invited to the Cannes Film Festival as one of 15 projects presented under the L’Atelier. She was featured on CNN International’s flagship feature, ‘Ones to Watch’, which ‘shines a spotlight on up-and-coming creative talents set to be the next big names in culture and the arts’.
Naoko Ogigami
After graduating from Chiba University, Naoko Ogigami moved to the United States to study film at the University of Southern California. She has worked as an assistant for companies producing commercials and began making her own short films. Her films have been screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival. She received commercial and critical success for her films Kamome Diner and Glasses. Her film Toilet received the 61st The Rookie Award of Art Encouragement from the Education Minister of Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.
