The Naked DJ is a 2014 Singaporean documentary film directed by Kan Lume about musician and political activist Chris Ho, also known as X' Ho. Ho travels to China and reflects on Singaporean culture and politics. The film won the NETPAC Award at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival in Indonesia. [1]
Musician and political activist Chris Ho travels to mainland China to explore his roots and get a new tattoo. Filmmaker Kan Lume accompanies him and records Ho's thoughts on Singaporean culture and politics.
Director Kan Lume said the scenes were not orchestrated, but they were planned to some degree. Kan introduced Ho to specific people, though the encounters were not scripted. The crew consisted primarily of Kan and his wife, who edited the film. Kan was influenced by Eric Rohmer's dialogue-heavy style. [2]
Kan said that for nearly two years he had trouble screening the film. He attributed this to the film's low budget but also described how his previous, gay-themed film, Solos , had been banned in Singapore despite its positive international reception, leaving him to believe his films are too controversial to screen in his homeland. [3] The Naked DJ played at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival on December 4, 2014. [4] It played at the Singapore International Film Festival on December 2, 2015. [5]
Maggie Lee of Variety wrote, "This portrait of (and extended political rant by) a Singaporean underground musician could be director Kan Lume's best work yet." [6]
The film won the NETPAC Award at the 2014 Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival. [1]
Royston Tan is a Singaporean filmmaker and actor.
Udaya Prasanna Vithanage is widely regarded as one of the most talented and influential filmmakers in South Asia. He is known for thought-provoking films that often deals with social, political and cultural issues. His films have received numerous awards accolades, both locally and internationally and have been praised for their innovative storytelling.
The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is a worldwide organization of 29 member countries. It was created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized by Cinemaya, the Asian Film Quarterly, in New Delhi in 1990 at the instance and with the support of UNESCO, Paris.
Tan Pin Pin is a Singapore-based film director. She is best known for the documentary film Singapore GaGa (2005). It was the first Singaporean documentary to have a theatrical run. In 2014, her documentary To Singapore, With Love (2013) was denied for all ratings by the Media Development Authority, effectively banning it in Singapore.
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Ilo Ilo is a 2013 Singaporean drama film. The debut feature of director Anthony Chen, the film features an international cast, including Singaporean actor Chen Tianwen, Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann, Filipino actress Angeli Bayani, and debut of child actor Koh Jia Ler.
Jalanan is a 2013 feature-length Indonesian documentary film directed and produced by Daniel Ziv and featuring Jakarta street musicians Bambang "Ho" Mulyono, Titi Juwariyah and Boni Putera. The movie follows the three musicians as they perform songs on Jakarta's commuter buses, clash with the law and confront the tumultuous politics of modern-day Indonesia. It follows them back to their home villages in East Java and traces their quest for legitimacy, identity and love in their adopted city of Jakarta. Jalanan won the Best Documentary prize at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival in October, 2013.
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Solos is a 2007 Singaporean drama film directed by Kan Lume and Loo Zihan, written by Loo, and starring Lim Yu-Beng, Loo, and Goh Guat Kian. It is based on a short film by Kan and Loo. The film features no dialogue and recounts the relationships between a boy (Loo), his mother (Goh), and his older lover (Lim). It premiered at the Busan International Film Festival after being pulled from the Singapore International Film Festival when the Singaporean government demanded cuts.
Pop Aye is a 2017 Singaporean-Thai drama film directed by Kirsten Tan. A debut feature by Tan, the road film tells the story of a man as he tries to take his long-lost elephant back to their rural hometown. The first Singaporean film selected to screen at the Sundance, it competed and won a Special Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. It was selected as the Singaporean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.
A Land Imagined is a 2018 neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Yeo Siew Hua. A Singapore-France-Netherlands co-production, the film tells the story of a police investigator who uncovers the truth behind the disappearance of a construction worker.
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Ho Tzu Nyen is a Singaporean contemporary artist and filmmaker whose works involve film, video, performance, and immersive multimedia installations. His work brings together fact and myth to mobilise different understandings of Southeast Asia's history, politics, and religion, often premised upon a complex set of references from art history, to theatre, cinema, and philosophy. Ho has shown internationally at major exhibitions such as the Aichi Triennale, Japan (2019), the Sharjah Biennial 14, United Arab Emirates (2019), and the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2018). In 2011, Ho represented Singapore at the 54th Venice Biennale at the Singapore Pavilion, presenting the work The Cloud of Unknowing.
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