Films memorialise and encapsulate, providing important reference points to constructed cultural identities, histories and sentiments of communities over time. A void is formed when these filmic documents fall foul to deterioration and acts of destruction, effecting an erasure of collective visual memories and eroding our sense of place and time.

Anchored by the twin themes of Confluence and Conflict, Celluloid Void 2: The Lost Films of Southeast Asia returns to project a selection of significant 20th century lost films from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand through the region’s web of upheavals starting from the 1920s.

By charting specific socio-political milestones and reawakening the public’s consciousness through surviving remnants of the films or reconstructed documents, this exhibition acts as a compass to the region’s past by having studied histories and lost films mutually re-inform, reinforce and reimagine each other.

This exhibition is presented by the Asian Film Archive, supported by the National Library Board, Singapore.

Download Exhibition Publication here

Featured Films:

新客 Xin Ke (New Friend, 1927) – Malaya / Singapore
Newsreel 1932 (1932) – Thailand
Leila Majnun (1934) – Malaya / Singapore
Tie Pat Kai Kawin (The Wedding of Tie Pat Kai, 1935) – Indonesia
Terang Boelan (Full Moon, 1937) – Indonesia
Seruan Merdeka (Call of Freedom, 1947) – Malaya / Singapore
Juan Tamad Goes To Congress (1959) – The Philippines
黑金 Hei Jin (Black Gold, 1963) – Malaya / Singapore
ត្រពាំងពាយ Tro Peang Peay (The Sacred Pond, 1970) – Cambodia
សេះ សមុទ្រ Ses Samoth (The Sea Horse, 1975) – Cambodia