ASEAN Museum Directors’ Symposium – Film as a Language of History| 1

ASEAN Museum Directors’ Symposium ------FILM AS A LANGUAGE OF HISTORY ------A Programme of National Museum of

Friday 13 January to Saturday 14 January 2012 9.30am to 6.30pm Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore Free Admission (with Registration)

To explore timely questions on the role that film plays in the way we make sense of our collective and personal histories, the National Museum of Singapore presents a two-day symposium that brings together esteemed filmmakers, historians and academics for a series of engaging presentations and film screenings that examine the intersections between film and history.

Open to all members of the public, the symposium will be a platform to discuss the way history is represented and experienced through the filmic medium and the implications of this process on our understanding of the past.

The symposium will also feature a selection of films that deal with the issues of history and memory. This includes Tan Pin Pin’s Invisible City (2007) and Atsushi Funahashi’s Deep in the Valley (2009), which will be accompanied with post-screening discussions with the filmmakers, and Raya Martin’s Independencia (2009).

A special highlight of the symposium is a forum that reflects on the history of the National Museum of Singapore’s utilisation and engagement with film in its galleries and Cinémathèque.

The ASEAN Museum Directors’ Symposium is an annual feature programme undertaken by the National Heritage Board of Singapore’s museums since 2009.

To register, please email to [email protected] with your name and contact details. Seats are limited, and will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.

Catered lunch and tea breaks will be provided for both days of the symposium. ASEAN Museum Directors’ Symposium – Film as a Language of History| 2

SCHEDULE

Changes to programme as reflected in the schedule

- Dealing with the Ghosts of the Past in Malaysian and Indonesian Cinema by Dr. Farish Ahmad-Noor has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. - Memories and History in Filipino Cinema by Nick Deocampo has been extended to 60mins, and will commence on 13 January, 11.20am. - The film screening of Invisible City by Tan Pin Pin will commence on 13 January, 1.50pm. - The film screening of Deep in the Valley by Atsushi Funahashi will commence on 13 January, 3.40pm.

Friday 13 January

8.45am Registration

9.30am Welcome Address

Michael Koh (CEO/National Heritage Board)

9.45am Keynote Address Cinema as a Language of History: Explorations into Two Related Worlds

Associate Professor Kenneth Paul Tan (NUS)

10.35am Question & Answer Session With Associate Professor Kenneth Paul Tan

Moderator: Lee Chor Lin (Director/National Museum of Singapore)

11.05am Break

11.20am – 6.30pm Forum 1: Historical Narratives and Filmic Representation

11.20am Presentation Memories and History in Filipino Cinema

Nick Deocampo (Philippines)

12.20pm Question and Answer Session With Nick Deocampo

Moderator: Associate Professor Adam Knee (NTU)

12.50pm Lunch (Catered)

1.50pm Film-Screening Invisible City (Singapore, 2007, 60mins)

With an introduction by director Tan Pin Pin (Singapore) ASEAN Museum Directors’ Symposium – Film as a Language of History| 3

3.00pm Post-Screening Discussion With Tan Pin Pin

Moderator: Associate Professor Adam Knee (NTU) 3.30pm Break

3.40pm Film-Screening Deep in the Valley (Japan, 2009, 129mins)

With an introduction by director Atsushi Funahashi (Japan)

6.00pm Post-Screening Discussion With Atsushi Funahashi

Moderator: Associate Professor Adam Knee (NTU)

6.30pm End of Programme Session

Saturday 14 January

8.45am Registration

9.30am – 4.30pm Forum 2: Historical Landscapes, Ruptures, and Filmic Perspectives

9.30am Presentation From National Narratives to Unwanted History in Thai Cinema

Chalida Uabumrungjit (Thailand)

10.00am Question & Answer Session With Chalida Uabumrungjit

Moderator: Associate Professor Adam Knee (NTU)

10.30am Break

10.45am Presentation Filming with History in Mind: Exploring Gie and Contemporary Indonesian Cinema

Riri Riza (Indonesia)

11.15am Question & Answer Session With Riri Riza

Moderator: Associate Professor Adam Knee (NTU)

11.45am Lunch (Catered) ASEAN Museum Directors’ Symposium – Film as a Language of History| 4

12.50pm Film-Screening Independencia (Philippines, 2009, 77mins) By Raya Martin

With an Introduction by Dr. Portia L. Reyes (NUS)

2.15pm Post-Screening Discussion With Dr. Portia L. Reyes (NUS)

Moderator: Associate Professor Adam Knee (NTU)

2.45pm Break

3.00pm Roundtable Discussion Historical Perspectives in Cinema

With Atsushi Funahashi, Riri Riza and Tan Pin Pin

Moderator: Associate Professor Adam Knee (NTU)

4.00 pm Question & Answer Session With Atsushi Funahashi, Riri Riza and Tan Pin Pin

Moderator: Associate Professor Adam Knee (NTU)

4.30pm Break

4.45pm Reflections on the Use of Film as a Language of History in the National Museum of Singapore

With Lee Chor Lin (Director, National Museum of Singapore) and Zhang Wenjie (Head of National Museum Cinémathèque)

Moderator: Dr Chua Ai Lin (NUS)

5.45pm Question & Answer Session With Lee Chor Lin and Zhang Wenjie And participation by Victric Thng and Tan Pin Pin

Moderator: Dr Chua Ai Lin (NUS)

6.15pm Closing Remarks

Professor Chua Beng Huat (NUS)

6.30pm End of Programme Session

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Keynote Address Cinema as a Language of History: Explorations into Two Related Worlds Associate Professor Kenneth Paul Tan

This presentation explores the role of film as an experiential medium in engaging with the past or history. By drawing upon the implicit links between the presentation of film and the narration of history, this presentation will address how film can lay claim to an understanding of historical events, and thus open the path to the positioning of film as a language of history.

Kenneth Paul Tan teaches at the National University of Singapore's School of Public Policy, and has written widely about Singapore, mainly on governance, democracy, and civil society; the creative city and culture industry; and race, gender, and sexuality. His publications include Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, and Politics, and Cinema and Television in Singapore: Resistance in One Dimension.

Forum 1 Historical Narratives and Filmic Representation This session aims to discuss various ways in which film is utilised in constructing the filmmakers’ narratives of the past, whether collective or personal histories, and the complex relationship between how the past can be remembered and history can be written.

Presentation Memories and History in Filipino Cinema Nick Deocampo

Cinema emerged during the tumultuous period of the birth of the Filipino nation, making film a repository of memory, both historical and cinematic. Historical narratives became subjects of filmic representation as history lent to cinema its narratives of conquest and resistance, tales of triumphs and defeats, private fantasies and shared memories, in short, the Filipino people’s life experiences as the Philippines evolved to become a modern independent nation-state. Cinema as a locus of nation-building and repository of a people’s historical memory will be presented using the author’s personal films as material instantiations of film’s discursive power to enunciate history.

Nick Deocampo is a prizewinning filmmaker, author, film teacher, film historian, faculty member at the University of the Philippines, and director of the Center for New Cinema in the Philippines. He has directed films such as Oliver (1983), Children of the Regime (1985) and Revolutions Happen Like Refrains in a Song (1986), and authored books such as the pioneering Short Film: Emergence of a New Philippine Cinema. He is currently writing a monumental five-volume history of Philippine cinema.

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Film Screening Deep in the Valley Director: Atsushi Funahashi 2009 / Japan / 129min / HDCAM / PG13 In Japanese with English subtitles

(Image ©ENBU Seminar, Digital Hollywood, Big River Films)

Ghostly remnants of the past resonate through the streets of Yanaka, a quiet district in downtown Tokyo whose many temples and graveyards exist as relics of and entrances to the stories of bygone eras. Shot in this historical enclave, Deep in the Valley is a film which was formerly conceived as a project initiated by Atsushi and his students involving the documentation of their interaction with the older craftsmen of the neighbourhood.

Upon the discovery of an 8mm footage of the fateful event in which a five-story pagoda situated in the middle of a cemetery was burnt down in 1957, the project shifted towards the mystery of this religious architectural icon that still figures deeply in the conversations of the locals.

Kaori is a restorer of old home movies who upon hearing of the five-story pagoda, embarks on a journey with her friend Hisaki in search of the rumoured existence of the 8mm footage of the burning. This journey finds them reconnecting with the district’s mysterious past through their interactions with local craftsmen, Buddhist monks, a cemetery caretaker and a historian. This contemporary narrative intersects with a story based on Five-Story Pagoda, a period drama by Rohan Koda set in the Edo period, in which a young carpenter named Jubei aspires to build the five-story pagoda despite the scepticism of his boss, colleagues and wife.

Situated at the border between reality and fiction, Deep in the Valley empathetically reveals the presence of history that illuminates with a mysterious aura, urging us to look at our present surroundings the same way as we would at the enigmatic sight of a towering pagoda.

The screening of Deep in the Valley will be accompanied by an introduction and post- screening discussion with Atsushi Funahashi.

Atsushi Funahashi is a film director from Osaka, Japan who made a series of award winning films upon graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York. His debut feature Echoes (2001) won three jury and audience awards at Annonay International Film Festival in France. His second film, Big River (2006) was shown at various film festivals (including Berlin, Pusan, Karlovy Vary, Sao Paolo, and Shanghai). Atsushi has also directed several documentaries for NHK on social issues and ethnic culture of New York City. Funahashi moved back to Tokyo in 2007. Deep in the Valley is his first Japanese film.

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Film Screening Invisible City Director: Tan Pin Pin 2007 / Singapore / 60min / Digital-Video / PG In Mandarin, Japanese and English, with Chinese and English subtitles

(Image courtesy of Tan Pin Pin)

Invisible City is a documentary that explores the practice and role of documentation in the understanding of Singaporean history. Tracing the impulse that spurs us to capture and collect images and artifacts in a bid to contain our memories, the film moves beyond the official and institutionalised function of the state archives, departs from the macro narrative of the nation’s history, and dives into the world of personally motivated accounts of history.

Tan Pin Pin discovers a community of photographers, archaeologists and journalists, individuals from different disciplines and backgrounds who share the common aim of preserving and resurrecting traces of the past. From photographic accounts of student activism in the 50s and 60s, a throve of amateur film footages of everyday life, and objects from the colonial period retrieved in the jungle- these documents are all dormant representations from the labyrinth of Singaporean history. By interviewing the documentarians behind these collections, Tan Pin Pin reveals the divergent personal desires that invest these documents with meaning, whether it is to bring to light a displaced traumatic memory, or sheer curiosity.

The loosely structured narrative of Invisible City illustrates these sprawling accounts that shape up the outlines of a city that once was, and paints an impression of Singapore from the pre-independence days that is mostly ignored and ideologically made invisible within the official macro version of Singapore history. On the other hand it highlights the sisyphean task of remembrance, the effervescent nature of memory, its constant movement into invisibility that underpins the documentarian impulse.

The screening of Invisible City will be accompanied by an introduction and a post-screening discussion with Tan Pin Pin.

Tan Pin Pin is an award-winning Singaporean film director. Her films which are explorations of Singapore's histories, contexts and limits, have screened at Berlin, Pusan, Oberhausen, and Visions du Reel. She has won more than 20 awards, most recently for Invisible City. She was until recently on the Board of , Home for the Arts and the National Archives of Singapore. Her latest works, The Impossibility of Knowing (2010) and Snow City (2010) were both shown at the 2011.

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Forum 2 Historical Landscapes, Ruptures, and Filmic Perspectives This section deals with how film can function as a suitable and relevant medium in addressing and understanding history that ranges from national to local topics; and also the impact on history that is “ruptured” owing to violent social transformations and the ways in which film can present these in historical perspective.

Presentation From National Narratives to Unwanted History in Thai Cinema Chalida Uabumrungjit

Film has always been a commonly used tool within schools and educational institutions in the teaching of history. This presentation will explore and compare different shades of Thai history depicted in cinema, from the popular national narrative set during the Ayuthya period in recent big-budget Thai films to marginal representations of “dismissed history”, such as the 6th October 1976 event in independent films.

Chalida Uabumrungjit studied film at Thammasat University and film archiving from the University of East Anglia, UK. As an advocate of independent cinema, Chalida served as the Festival Director for the Thai Short Film and Video Festival since 1997, coordinated programmes of Thai films for various international festivals, and was also involved in making a number of experimental films and documentaries. Currently she works as Deputy Director of the Thai Film Archive.

Presentation Filming with History in Mind: Exploring Gie and Contemporary Indonesian Cinema Riri Riza

By reflecting upon the process and his intentions in making Gie, a film about a student activist set within the turbulent political climate of the 60s in Indonesia, Riri Riza discusses how film can help to deal with history that has “witnessed” a process of social transformation, and function as a “break” with the dominant historical narrative. This entry point leads to an exploration of contemporary Indonesian films as well as the film-maker’s future projects in this encounter between film and history.

Riri Riza is a leading film director of the post-reform Indonesian Cinema. He is known for his ability to push the limits of genre convention and achieve box-office successes and international recognition. His films include Gie (2005), which won Best Film at the Indonesian Film Festival 2005 and the Jury Prize at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival 2006, and Laskar Pelangi (2008), the highest grossing film in Indonesian box-office history.

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Film Screening Independencia Director: Raya Martin 2009 / Philippines, France, Germany, Netherlands / 77min / 35mm / M18 In Tagalog with English subtitles

(Image courtesy of Memento Films International)

Shot entirely in a studio in breathtaking black and white in which the most minuscule details and gestures shimmer with clarity, Independencia resurrects the history and tradition of resistance which saw the natives of Philippines moving into the mountains in an open rejection of the colonisation of their cities.

Independencia tells the story of a mother and child living in the jungle apart from American colonial forces. The son discovers a wounded woman whom he brings home. As his mother dies of illness, he starts living together with the woman and her son, until an impending storm and ominous presence of American soldiers impedes upon their way of existence.

Through its narrative and aesthetics, Independencia conjures an imagined primal scene of both the history of the nation and the entrance and influence of cinema in the Philippines. In their naturalistic jungle enclave apart from the influence of colonialism, the characters become susceptible to the forces and intensities of nature and their dialogue is rooted in a dreamy and sensual flow of storytelling rooted in folklore and mythology, prior to the formation of a nationalistic narrative structure.

The mise-en-scene of Independencia illuminates the artificiality of the early Hollywood silent films and talkies which were introduced to the Philippines during the American occupation. Simulating its stylistic structure in a purposefully self-referential manner, Independencia subverts the ideological aims, irrelevance and currency of Hollywood, to the effect of redefining cinema as a bridge towards the expression of Philippines’ history of struggle and resistance.

The screening of Independencia will be accompanied by an introduction and a post- screening discussion with Dr. Portia. L. Reyes.

Dr. Portia L. Reyes is a lecturer at the National University of Singapore, Department of History. She researches and teaches Philippine history and Southeast Asian History. She is the author of An Analysis of Nineteenth Century Intellectualism in the Philippines: Times and Historiography of Pedro Paterno, and a co-author of A Hew History of Southeast Asia.

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Roundtable Discussion Historical Perspectives in Cinema Atsushi Funahashi, Riri Riza and Tan Pin Pin

Bringing together filmmakers of note, this roundtable discussion explores the way history has been represented through the lenses of cinema by drawing from each filmmaker’s individual practices and experience. It illustrates ways of researching history and the issues that emerge when reality is translated through the fiction of the cinematic medium.

Reflections on the Use of Film as a Language of History in the National Museum of Singapore With Lee Chor Lin (Director, NMS) and Zhang Wenjie (Head of NMS Cinémathèque) And Participation by Victric Thng and Tan Pin Pin

The utilisation of film is still a relatively provisional venture within museum settings as compared to the array of artefacts that have been established through time as legitimate objects for an exposition on history. To conclude the symposium, this roundtable discussion reflects on the entrance and utilisation of film within the National Museum of Singapore’s galleries and Cinémathèque, and considers the experiential engagement with the past that is made possible through film.

Lee Chor Lin is the Director of the National Museum of Singapore. She is a specialist on Asian textiles and Buddhist Art with an MA in history. Until 2003 she was Senior Curator at the Asian Civilisations Museum for the Chinese and Southeast Asian collections. As the Director of the National Museum she undertook the major redevelopment of the 124-year-old institution. The successor of the former Raffles Museum, the National Museum of Singapore is the oldest, largest and the most modern museum in Singapore.

Zhang Wenjie was the programmer for The Substation’s Moving Images film programme from 2003 to 2005, and worked for the National Museum of Singapore as programmer for the National Museum Cinémathèque from 2005 to 2008. He co-directed the 22nd Singapore International Film Festival, and currently heads the National Museum Cinémathèque.

Victric Thng is a Singaporean filmmaker who is known for creating lyrical stories that revive that precious sense of intimate human interactions and relations. His locally and internationally acclaimed short films, which include the award winning Locust (2003), touch on the nature of identity, connection and desire for intimacy. He has been commissioned by the National Museum of Singapore to make a series of filmic presentations which are on permanent display in the Food Gallery.