|
 A
former ACJC student is going places with her first feature film,
“Gone Shopping”, which is receiving rave reviews from film critics
since its release earlier this year. Already hailed as ‘Singapore’s most
prolific female short filmmaker’, Wee Li Lin’s foray into the
feature films arena is timely with Singapore’s fledgling film industry
coming of age. “Gone Shopping” has already an international
audience and the fact that it was selected for screening at
international film festivals such as the 10th Udine Far East Film
Festival (April 2008), the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival
(July 2008), the 31st New York Asian American International Film
Festival (July 2008), the 12th Puchon International Film Festival (July)
2008) and the 28th Hawaii International Film Festival (October 2008),
speaks well of its wide acceptance and for Li Lin.
Li Lin completed her “A” Level in
ACJC and went on to Brown University in America where she graduated in
1996 with a BA in Art Semiotics. She also completed an intensive course
on “Sight & Sound” in New York University before returning to Singapore
to work as a freelance television producer/director. She has done
several short films, five of which won awards – three at the Singapore
International Film Festival and two at American Film Festivals.
What drives Li Lin and what does she
think of the future of Singapore's filmmaking industry? We spoke to her
and this is what she shared with us.
Please tell us a little about
yourself and how you ended up in ACJC.
I had always wanted to go to ACJC. My
mum was an old girl and moreover most of my good friends from SCGS were
intending to go the ACJC and when you’re 16, you really don’t want to be
too far away from your friends.
Can you share with us your
experiences, aspirations and achievements when you were at ACJC?
I was not an outstanding student
academically or socially, I was just somewhere in the middle, which is
fine, but I was president of the art club for two years, haha! I had a
very happy time and made some lifelong friendships and strengthened some
friendships that were already formed from my days in SCGS. So that was
the greatest achievement, the friendships.
Were there any persons or
memorable incidents in school that helped shape your life?
I really loved my English and GP
classes with Ms Geetha Mani. Although I went to Brown in America and am
now pursuing my masters in dramatic writing in Singapore at Tisch Asia,
Geetha remains as one of the best teachers I have ever encountered in my
academic life. She enthused her students and lit up the text she taught
us.
 How
did your interest in film making arise?
I never expected to do film when I
was in University as I was always interested in visual arts, in
particular painting and photography. Then in my third year, I decided to
try a film course and it really clicked in me as something I could do
for the rest of my life and I think I could do well. So my final year
thesis project was a short film.
Were there any reasons for
focusing on short films when you first started your film-making career?
Please also tell us about your successes in this field.
I started out making short films
because I felt comfortable in the format and I enjoyed writing short
scripts; the thought of doing a feature was so far removed then because
of my lack of experience and of course of the financial weight a feature
film entails. Yes my short film career has been good. I have got three
awards at the silver screen awards in Singapore and two awards overseas.
And the short films have played in a number of festivals. So it’s been
very encouraging and affirming and certainly gave me confidence to think
about making a feature film. Though I really took my time, I was making
short films for almost a decade before I ventured into making my first
feature film “Gone Shopping”
What do you reckon are the
attributes of a good film-maker? Do you have all of them or are there
still some you are trying to attain?
I think a good filmmaker has to be
like a renaissance person, interested in many things about life and have
a strong sense of the world they want to create on film. But most of all
a good filmmaker must have a desire to tell a story and tell it in
his/her sensibility. It’s a lifelong journey and I have a long way to
go, but I have great interest in storytelling and am confident in my own
vision so I think that is a good start.
By and large, film-making is
considered a male-dominated industry. Is this true?
I’ve not experienced any sexism or
discrimination that would bother me enough to make it a challenge or
obstacle in my life, so I would say that probably in Singapore’s film
industry its fortunate that such behavior does not really exist. Outside
of Singapore I wouldn’t know…yet.
What inspired you to select
shopping as a theme in your movie?
 When
I decided to do a feature film after my last short film “Autograph
Book”, I searched for a theme that I was familiar with and one that
hasn’t been explored yet in Singapore films, and eventually came up with
the idea of writing a script centered in shopping centers. For “Gone
Shopping” I wanted to explore a handful of interesting characters
and this time make the location in which the story takes place a
character in itself as well. In this case the location character would
be shopping centres. I felt it would be interesting to address the space
of the shopping centre as a character as it is the main landscape of
Singapore, our national treasure; ‘grand canyon’ if you may. As our
prime minister himself said in a National Day speech a few years back,
“Life in Singapore is not complete without shopping”.
How do you see Singapore
positioning itself as a filmmaking hub against the more established
countries such as Hong Kong, Thailand and India.
I think the film industry in
Singapore is still in an infant stage, but we are trying and making good
headway. First and foremost, we have to nurture our own filmmakers and
help them to make it beyond Singapore to draw attention to Singapore as
a filmmaking hub versus making it a hub to attract foreigners to come to
Singapore to make their films. Currently, we don’t have the feature film
equipment or experience as Thailand or India or Australia to be able to
fight for that kind of technical position as a filmmaking hub, but we do
have some very talented filmmakers (not just directors but cameramen and
musicians and actors) and we should be thinking of these as our greatest
commodities to make an impression on the international scene.
 What
is the biggest challenge to film makers in Singapore.
I think the biggest challenge is the
fact that Singaporean audiences give Singapore filmmakers a really hard
time and there is some reverse prejudice against our own Singaporean
filmmakers. This is a real and scary problem. So as filmmakers we have
to start thinking outside of Singapore as a result. Jack Neo is the only
one who has broken that barrier and can safely survive on the Singapore
market.
Is there a livelihood for film
makers in Singapore?
One can certainly make a living as a
freelance director for television and film but as a feature filmmaker
unless you are Jack Neo it’s tricky. But there are many aspects of
filmmaking aside from directing/writing that are in demand such as
editing, art directing, assistant directing and styling etc…so these are
good positions to do while waiting or creating breaks for oneself as a
writer/director. And a good director should have good knowledge on all
aspects of filmmaking.
What advice would you give our
young ACSians who aspire to follow your footsteps?
Do not be afraid of criticism and do
not be afraid to be yourself.
The "Gone Shopping" DVD is now
on sale at all DVD stores.
Click here
for more information on the movie. |
