| Written by Siti Rozianti,
on Tuesday, 6 April 2010
|
Published in : Culture, Flicks |
  Masala Mix is a very apt name for the collection of short films screened as part of the Sinema Showoff! series last Tuesday. With genres ranging from documentaries to dramas and even a music video, the audience was treated to a good mix of Singapore Indian filmmakers and Indian themes.
Foreign workers also received their share of attention during the screenings.
Here’s a quick review of the shorts that screened that night:
Rudra - Hymns from the blazing chariot
Jacen Tan’s music video for heavy metal band Rudra was an explosive start to the night and truly sets the scene for an Indian cultural immersion. The inspiration for the video came from the song lyrics, which were based on an ancient Sanskrit text, The Bhagavad Gita. In line with the war elements of the text, Jacen considered the making of the music video “a great chance to explore what we can do in terms of special effects.”
THE VIDEO TOOK OVER A YEAR TO CREATE AND WAS FULLY SHOT IN FRONT OF A GREEN SCREEN
And being non-Indian does not stop Jacen from appreciating the music or the heritage behind what he did.
“After all, their songs are in English and we are all speaking in English and music is a very universal thing,” he said.
You can watch Rudra – Hymns from the blazing chariot at Jacen’s website.
Special pass
Directed by Vicknesh Varan, this documentary won Best Documentary at this year’s Singapore Short Film Awards (SSFA).
We follow the lives of Indian national Anthonysamy Charles and his colleagues who are issued a special pass while investigations get carried out at their former workplace. With this pass, they can stay on in Singapore to await the results of the investigations but the pass also limits what they can do.
ON THE SPECIAL PASS, THEY ARE PRETTY MUCH STRANDED IN SINGAPORE AND WITH LIMITED OPTIONS
Work and housing options are limited for people on special passes and yet these investigations could last for months, some even stretching into years. Thus, they still have to find a way to support themselves.
From the belly of Kerala
Using comedy, director Sabreena Nazim portrayed the Asian conservative view towards exotic dancing like belly dancing. Drawing on her own experiences, Sabreena reenacted the reactions of her family and friends when they found out she wanted to do belly dancing, exaggerated them and combined them into a five minute comedy.
BESIDES JUST WATCHING THE SHORTS, AUDIENCE ALSO GOT A CHANCE TO INTERACT WITH THE DIRECTORS DURING THE Q&A
Forget me not
Meant as a horror film, audience members laughed instead at the cheesiness. The drama is directed by four friends who started making films in Singapore Polytechnic.
But the directors welcomed the laughter. “At that time we were amateurishly putting it tgt. I’m really glad for the laughter, it’s better than nothing.”
Happy Place
Happy Place took an interesting angle at portraying the issues surrounding death and acceptance of the loss. The struggles of two siblings—one sick and dying while the other tries to cope with his sister’s imminent death—were beautifully expressed in a fairy tale setting, portrayed as the fight between good and evil.
As director Jeevan Nathan explained it, “I just thought that it was one approach to make the theme or topic a little bit more accessible… and so I showed it in the fairy tale manner.”
EVERYTHING IS FINE WHEN YOU ARE IN A HAPPY PLACE
I’ll be honest here; this was my favourite short of the night, so excuse me if I sound biased. The young actors portrayed their characters well and tugged at my heartstrings. The cinematography was really well done and further underscored the fairy tale feel of the film without taking away the seriousness of the issue portrayed.
Check out the trailer to Happy Place here.
No Ten Dollars Ride
This documentary by director Vigneswaran Rajkumar was inspired by an incident where three British men took advantage of an elderly trishaw rider here in Singapore and ran away without paying for the ride.
Vigneswaran felt that it was a human rights violation and he set out to show the trishaw rider’s perspective on his back breaking job.
LOOKING AT THINGS FROM THE TRISHAW RIDER'SPOINT OF VIEW
Durai & Saro
In this tale of companionship in a strange land, director Prema Menon brings together Indian construction worker Durai and Filipino domestic maid Saro. They meet one morning when Saro cleans her employer’s car at the carpark where Durai works part-time as a car washer.
Their lives are lonely but during those mornings when they meet, they share details about their lives and keep each other company. Saro has an injured leg. Constantly tired, she is not able to do her job properly.
DIRECTOR PREMA ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT HER FILM
It was inevitable then that one day, Durai sees somebody else washing Saro’s employer’s car.
The drama helps us understand the plight of foreign workers here, how they are treated and that they too need friends. It was especially poignant for me when Durai was the only one to understand the importance of the picture that Saro’s employers threw away.
Durai & Saro will be screened at the upcoming Singapore International Film Festival. Details TBC. S
PHOTOS: ZULFADLI YAZAB, SINGAPORE POLY, NO TEN DOLLARS RIDE PROMOTION STIL, HYMNS PROMOTION STILL
siti[a]youth.sg
Siti wants people
to know that yes, she is waaaay
older than 16.
THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF Apr 5-11 :: The Welcome Issue
|
(0 vote)
I'm excited about the next line-up. It was Rock, Serious, Funny & fightening (w/ the so called ghost story) and thought provoking. 
It was really a Masala Mix of very good talent. Kudos to the directors. Great to come to know there is a good selection of Singapore Films. I'm hooked. 
