Local film makers go "GaGa" in battle to present alternative
Singapore
Agence France Presse
June 20, 2005
SINGAPORE
IN the official version of Singapore presented by the nation's
political leaders and tourism authorities, there are no women in
wheelchairs who beg at train stations by singing haunting, hypnotic
tunes.
The Southeast Asian city-state, famous for the "economic miracle"
that transformed it from third-world status to first in a
generation, is sold to the world as a shoppers' paradise, a
high-tech hub and a land of no civil dissent.
The nation's mainstream media, under strict instructions from the
People's Action Party that has ruled since independence 40 years
ago, rarely deviate from the relentlessly upbeat theme, and life,
it seems, is a dream.
A new film, however, offers an alternative, melancholic image of
Singapore that documents the lives of a diverse group of proud
citizens who share a common burden of having become lost and
neglected amid the nation's material progress.
In Singapore GaGa, a woman missing most of her teeth sits in a
wheelchair and sings in a beautiful voice a plea to the commuters
walking past: "Uncle, Aunty, one dollar, one dollar, buy my tissues
... one dollar, one dollar".
In another scene, an elderly man who is a minor celebrity for his
busking at subway stations recalls the time police forced him to
the ground and moved to handcuff him for performing without a
license. "I am a national treasure," he says repeatedly.
Other people featured include an exquisitely talented harmonica
player who has been long-resigned to the government's insistence to
teach the banal recorder in schools, and a group of community news
readers who lament the fading use of Chinese dialects in favour of
the official English and Mandarin.
"The primary theme is a sense of yearning to belong ... to be
acknowledged," the film's director and producer, Tan Pin Pin, tells
AFP in an interview after a screening for the local and foreign
press last week.
The other theme, Tan says, is a "sense of being neglected,
abandoned".
"In the process of putting this together, this theme emerged ...
these people are coping with being neglected in different
ways."
Tan, a 36-year-old honours graduate from Britain's prestigious
Oxford University, is part of a small band of independent film
makers in Singapore who continually struggle against the
government's efforts to stop controversial issues from being aired
in public.
Amendments to the Film Act in 1998 mean people who make "political"
films can be jailed for two years, while strict censorship laws
have for decades filtered out other so-called controversial issues
such as sex, race, religion and national security.
One of Tan's early films, a three-minute effort from 1998 called
Lurve Me Now that explored the fantasies of Barbie dolls, remains
banned apparently because of its sexual references.
But, with Singapore GaGa, Tan has cleverly explored issues the
government does not necessarily want aired by using subtlety,
humour and pathos. Tan even earned a "PG" -- or parental guidance
-- endorsement for the film from the government's censors.
"It's very hard to make anything critical in Singapore. You have to
say something without actually saying it. So it's a sort of shadow
dance that I sometimes find myself playing," she says.
"I find that making documentaries in this way, where there are many
levels, is a way of being able to continue to make films in
Singapore. Because doing anything more explicit may invite more
questions."
And while the mainstream press such as the Straits Times newspaper
have given her film rave reviews for being "quirky" and "striking a
chord with every strata of society", others have appreciated the
film for deeper political angles.
"GaGa is subversive in a warped patriotic gentle loving way, or
rather, it's patriotic in a gently subversive way, i don't know,
just don't let THEM know," writes one Singaporean in an entry
posted on the film's official website.
Tan emphasises that there is no "enemy" she is trying to challenge.
"It's not us against them," Tan says in reference to the
government, adding that she has turned the restrictions into a
positive.
"It actually makes my films better. You are constantly trying to
add subtext to a film. The process of adding subtext or layers
makes it a much richer work," she says.
But Tan admits that at times she is overwhelmed by not being able
to fully express herself.
"What's most difficult for me is dealing with how not to censor
myself when it has become such an automatic reaction. I have to sit
down and tell myself: 'don't do that, don't do that
(self-censor)'," she tells reporters after the press
screening.
Other high-profile Singaporean filmmakers who have adopted more
confrontational approaches have suffered accordingly.
Video editor Martyn See is under police investigation for making an
unapproved "political" short film, Singapore Rebel about opposition
politician Chee Soon Juan.
The film portrays Chee, a marginalised figure in Singapore politics
who rarely receives positive coverage in the traditional press and
has never been voted into parliament, as a loving family man who is
eloquent, well-educated and courageous.
If convicted of violating the Films Act, See could be fined up to
S$100,000 (US$61,000) as well as jailed for two years.
Another film maker to have run afoul of the law is Royston Tan, a
20-something director who has won more than 35 international and
local awards and was last year named by Time magazine as an Asian
"Hero" for his work.
Royston Tan's 2003 feature film about Singapore's gangland culture,
15, suffered 27 cuts at the hands of the censors over concerns of
it being a national security threat.
In response, Royston Tan made a 13-minute film last year that
became a cult hit called Cut, which lampooned the government's
censorship policies and the head of the censorship board -- but
managed to avoid being cut itself.
In 2001, a 15-minute film about long-time opposition politician J.B
Jeyaretnam, Vision of Persistence, by three lecturers at the local
Ngee Ann Polytechnic was also banned because of its political
content.
Meanwhile, Tan Pin Pin is continuing to win wide acclaim for
Singapore GaGa.
The film, which played to a standing-room only audience at the
Singapore International Film Festival in April, will be screened at
a local arthouse in July and the Rotterdam International Film
Festival in Jaunuary next year.