Singapore Season @ Barbican 2005

WORK PORTFOLIO
Client: Singapore Arts Council
Brief: Chairperson for Q&A with Jack Neo
Event: Opening Night of Singapore Film Season 2005
Dates: 31st March-5th April
Venue: Barbican cinema



Trust Singapore to know how to make Chinoiserie look so sexy!




The Singapore Season presented by the National Arts Council was a concerted showcase of Singapore 's cultural capital that brings together and showcases high quality Singapore arts and cultural presentations in key cultural venues in London. It featured: TheatreWorks @ the ICA, the Singapore Dance @ the Peacock, the T'ang quartet @ Wigmore Hall, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra @ the Barbican, food festivals in various restaurants, Singapore Evening @ the Truman Brewery, and a business conference with keynote address by Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong @ the Millennium Mayfair.

Got a call from a Singapore liasion to conduct a Q&A session with Jack Neo. His film "I Not Stupid" opened the Singapore Season 2005 film festival at the Barbican. We had a dinner beforehand to get to know Jack and met his lovely wife and the other Singapore Arts Council people. At the reception I also met .... who kindly gave me a few Singaporean imports on DVD to watch: 'Eating Air', 'Forever Fever', and 'One Leg Kicking'.

The evening Q&A after its film screening went well, and the audience were an appreciative lot, asking polite questions. They seemed genuinely interested in Jack's personable character. The film was not my regular cuppa tea but I understand the in-jokes. A little rusty on the little Chinese/Hokkien that I know, but of course the subtitles helped. I brought Jess, a friend who worked at the BFI. You could say it was a recon of sorts, meeting the 'cousins' from home, seeing what they're up to in the film biz etc.

My impression of Jack Neo is he's a successful TV personality who has moved into film, with stories that sit on a wide grey line between appealing to the masses and satisfying the censors, with melodramatised issues which work with the audience who are used to the style of TV soaps. I couldn't help feeling a little aloof as I just cannot see myself as a film-maker doing what he does.

You know it has not been a smooth ride for Jack at all, he has this self-belief bravado which enables him not to wait around for things to happen. Incidentally he wrote, pen the songs, and directed the films. Possibly produced his work as well. Yet in bittersweet acknowledgement of his success, he's a self-made man who's worked hard at his trade, and for that I toast to him and the future of Singapore cinema.

'I Not Stupid' film by Jack Neo