SGIFF 2019

Nature’s Playground & Moonlight Cinema

SGIFF 2019
(Artworks by Yeo Siew Hua (left), John Clang (top right) and Yeo Yann Yann (bottom right). Photo courtesy of SGIFF.

Part of the upcoming Singapore International Film Festival (which runs from Nov 21 to Dec 1), the organisers have gathered 9 local film and media personalities to put on a multi-media exhibition that showcases their self-portraits inspired by nature. And it’s an impressive group they’ve gathered – names include filmmakers Kirsten Tan (Pop Aye), Yeo Siew Hua (A Land Imagined), actress Oon Shu An, Yeo Yann Yann (Ilo Ilo), art photographer John Clang and playwright and poet Alfian Sa’at.

Nature’s Playground takes place Oct 25 – Dec 1 at Colonnade (Supertree Grove) @ Gardens by the Bay. Admission is free. 

SGIFF 2019
The Chorus. Photo courtesy of SGIFF

Alongside that multi-media exhibition, Moonlight Cinema, an outdoor mini-film festival, makes a return at the Supertree Grove Lawn at Gardens by the Bay, presenting a slate of three films – American comedy-drama Empire Records, French coming-of-age piece The Chorus and award-winning Indian musical drama Secret Superstar – that all focus on the hope and power of youths.

Moonlight Cinema takes place Oct 25 – 27 at Supertree Grove Lawn at Gardens by the Bay, admission is free. Details here

Women In Film And Photography

SGIFF 2019
Leftover Women. Photo courtesy of Objectifs

Anger – derived from a sense of helplessness, at injustice, at long-term oppression and more – is naturally what a lot of marginalised communities experience when responding to ongoing social, gender, racial and economic inequality. The recent Preetipls incident was a good example. Photography and film centre Objectifs’ fifth Women In Film and Photography show aims to explore how “rage against discrimination, repression and injustice can be channeled into a force for awareness, action and change through art.”

It’s a multi-segmented show as always, with a photography exhibit, the local debuts of five critically acclaimed films and new works by prominent Singapore women artists such as Yanyun Chen and Chantal Tan, all bundled into the diverse programming. And to that, we say amen. Check out the full line-up here.

Oct 2 – Oct 5 (Women in Film, screenings start at 7.30pm)

Oct 11 – Oct 17 (Short film screenings)

Oct 11 – Nov 17 (Women in Photography exhibition) 

Objectifs, 155 Middle Road

 

Climate: S.O.S – Season of Sustainability

SGIFF 2019
Changing Course 2019. Photo courtesy of Eco Business

Climate change projections are a constantly evolving science due to the many hard-to-track factors to take into account – deforestation, fossil fuels and now apparently, a fast-thawing permafrost. What’s that you ask? Permafrost refers to grounds that have been completely frozen for years (meaning it stays constantly frozen and doesn’t melt with changing seasons), and with the thawing of this permafrost, typically located in far north regions, the evidence of ancient life are being released into the atmosphere, including deadly bacteria and viruses that have been dormant for thousands of years. 

Science is also just beginning to learn that permafrost contains a lot more carbon that previously thought, which means that a fast-warming permafrost is a major contributor to greenhouse gases. In other words, what happens in the Arctic affects us all – Singapore very much included. Season of Sustainability – Climate S.O.S is the ArtScience Museum’s latest exhibition (free, by the way), and it offers film screenings, hands-on workshops, a new digital art commission and a multimedia showcase that focus on changes happening in the polar regions and what you can do on your part as a consumer.

SGIFF 2019
Inch Chua. Photo courtesy of Crispian Chan

We’re also looking forward to a special edition of ArtScience Museum’s signature late-night music performance series, ArtScience Late. The upcoming edition will be helmed by Inch Chua, who travelled to Antarctica last February for an expedition. Chua will be featuring music, soundscapes, and her first radio play, which aims to transport listeners to the extremely vulnerable polar regions.

Check out the full line-up here.

On now till Nov 3, 10am – 7pm, admission is free.

Level 4, ArtScience Musuem