1. Check out the next generation of artists and designers
Like every other sector, education at every level has been severely impacted by the pandemic. It’s been a rough time especially for the graduating batch of art school students – who, in ordinary times, would have seen their months of hard work exhibited around this time of the year. One institution, Lasalle College of the Arts, has decided to create a full website for all of its graduating students across its eight different schools. We’ve only gone through a small portion of the over 800 students’ works available on show but what we’ve seen so far, it’s been seriously impressive.
The Lasalle digital graduate showcase is ongoing. Check it out here.
2. A prestigious film festival is available for free screening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNzUfiiuNzE
In the film sector, this time of the year is usually occupied by one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world: Cannes. Yet like everything else, it’s been cancelled for now but film fans can turn instead to We Are One: A Global Film Festival, a new 10-day digital film initiative started by Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube. More than 100 films will be screened for free on YouTube and it’s a really interesting initiative as some of the best film festivals from around the world are jointly participating, including Cannes, Venice, Sundance, Toronto, New York, BFI London and Locarno.
One under-the-radar gem we’d recommend watching is short film Atlantiques by French director Mati Diop. If you don’t know who she is, Diop made history in 2019 by becoming the first black female director to be in contention for the Cannes Film Festival’s highest prize with her debut feature film Atlantics (don’t confuse the two).
Ongoing from now till June 7 at various times. Check out the full line-up here.
3. Try this famous dish
Anyone who’s watched Bong Joon-Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite will attest that it’s not a movie easily forgotten and one of the many things that went viral from the film was the ram-don – a portmanteau created for the movie based on the Korean comfort food dish jjapaguri. Now if you’re the type who doesn’t fancy or know how to cook, you can just order the dish that has over 200K hits on Google – better work fast, as it’s only available at The Projector this week.
Ongoing; head here to order.
4. Check out two new local plays
The Studios is the Esplanade’s annual feature dedicated to local theatre and while we’ve been watching a lot of local companies upload archival works, here, they’ll be debuting two new productions that were originally slated to debut back in April – but were of course shut down thanks to the circuit-breaker measures. Look forward to acclaimed multimedia artist Brian Gothong Tan’s Lost Cinema 20/20 – an exploration of the role of dreams as the cinema of our subconscious mind, as well as Checkpoint Theatre’s The Heart Comes to Mind which follows a father and daughter trying to come to terms with the loss of their wife and mother respectively.
5. Educate yourself on Black Lives Matter
It’s likely that many of us do not fully understand the history of black oppression in the United States – though we didn’t need in-depth knowledge to empathise and recoil in horror at the brutality of George Floyd’s murder. However, if you wish to go beyond posting a black photo on your grid – which is actually not very helpful to the cause, however well-intentioned – here is a helpful list of books to read, people to follow and even movies for all ages to watch to get a more textured understanding of the long-running situation.
Illustrative cover image courtesy of Lasalle College of The Arts graduate Felicia Agatha. Check out more of her works here.