RE:

2 things

• Short and Sweet - caught one of the semi-finals, then the finals with Zizi who was one of the judges. 10 10-minute plays of good quality, some of them witty and funny (what I’d like to call the ‘one-[very effective] trick ponies’), and some delivering more of a poignant impact. I liked Angie Farrow’s “Lifetime” (which won the best script award) which quickly surveyed the process of marriage and delivered its truth in quirky, dramatic terms. 

• 7th Singapore Short Cuts - caught the session on the 7th of August, featuring the likes of “Baju”, Sherman Ong’s “When the End of Winter is Almost Spring” (also commissioned for the Arts Festival), “Mosquitoes” and “One Day in June” by Daniel Hui. Missed part of “Baju” but the premise of two NS guys who are gang members from rival gangs becoming bunk buddies was interesting as local films have always showcased Chinese triads or gangs, and not the Malay ones. Sherman Ong’s short was provocative in embedding the fluidity of dance movement into the interaction between a father, his son and the father’s young wife. “Mosquitoes” was alright (8mm video + music by Evan Tan + voice-over of penpal letters), but “One Day in June” was totally lost on me, especially the purported “Heideggerian ontological concern” of the film, “the horizon of being and non-being” (as stated in blurb). I was Thrown into the experience of watching the film but to me, the greater significance and the esoteric character of the images were not discernible (even if there was an artistic intention to evoke lack).