The Singaporeana! Symposium is a lively one-day symposium of panels and talks that will complement the film programme in a deeper exploration of key themes that emerge from international productions in Singapore, as well as comparing them with how Singapore filmmakers explore their own country through various conceptual lenses. Academics, researchers, students and independent writers will be presenting papers on authenticity, identity, architecture, nostalgia, sexuality, Orientalism and the unusual use of locations in key films. Films to be discussed include: Saint Jack, Pretty Polly, The Virgin Soldiers, So Darling So Deadly, Crazy Rich Asians, Two Sides of the Bridge, Ricochet, They Call Her… Cleopatra Wong, Shirkers and many more!

Full lineup for the Singaporeana! film programme here.

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Schedule

9:15am
Welcome & Opening Address (15mins)

9:30am
Special Presentation (on Skype)

• Shanghaied in Singapore: A Statistical Approach to the Analysis of Orientalist Cinema
  Dr. Philippe D. Mather

10:15am
Tea Break

10:30am – 12pm
Panel 1: Authentic Imaginings
Chaired by: Ben Slater

• Set in Singapore: authenticity and representation in spy films
  Dr. Edna Lim
• Pimps and Princesses: Hollywood’s Portrayal of Singapore in Saint Jack(1979) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
  Ron Yap, NTU
• Contesting the City Archive: Representations of 70s Singapore Urbanism in Three Films
  Alfonse Chiu

Q&A

12-1pm
Lunch

1pm-2:30pm
Panel 2: Nostalgic Spaces
Chaired by: Professor Adam Knee

• From Imaginations to Documentations: Cinescapes of Singapore’s malls
  Dr. Liew Kai Khiun
• Matching the Past: Attempts at Projecting Singapore Accurately in Local Movies
  Lai Chee Kien

2:45-4:15pm
Panel 3: Foreign Encounters
Chaired by: Dr. Edna Lim

• Missing, Alive and On Netflix: Reopening The Case of The ‘Singapore’ Film, Shirkers
  Yang Yanxuan Vicki
• Far Eastern Tales: How 20th century depictions of Singapore in the West shaped the sexual gaze
  Jamieson Benjamin McKee (Jamin), Yale-NUS College
• “Going Native”: Exploring the expatriate ‘hero’ in the Singapore landscape.
  Ben Slater

4:30pm
Tea break

4:45pm
Special Presentation: Obscure Locations
Hun Ping in conversation with Ben Slater

Researcher Toh Hun Ping will take us on a journey through film locations chosen for international productions shooting in Singapore, which performs an alternative topography of the island.

5:30pm
Final comments & wrap up