ArtsEquator Fellowship

i'm happy to embark on the inaugural ArtsEquator Fellowship for mid-career (!) arts critics-journalists, a decade after my first writing residency. during the next six months, i will be researching and writing about Southeast Asian independent cinema, with a focus on the migrant short films of Singapore, and count on your, and fellow Fellows', critical support!

FOTO: Juliana Tan (www.julianatan.co)

for the belief and faith, thank you to Kathy Rowland, Yuni Hadi, and the ArtsEquator team. gratefulness, too, to the Fellowship's selection panel of Amir Muhammad, Katrina Stuart Santiago, and Nabilah Said (my former editor at AE!). and for recommending me, deep appreciation to Edmund Wee and Ong Keng Sen. also, thanks Asian Film Archive's Karen Chan and Natalie Khoo for the research support.

looking forward!

stranger eyes 👁️‍🗨️📹👁️

FOTO: Christopher Wong / Akanga Film Asia

happy to share that i'm coproducing and script consulting 杨修华 (Chris) Yeo Siew Hua's upcoming feature film, Stranger Eyes《默视录》!

the surveillance thriller stars a personal hero, 李康生 Lee Kang-Sheng, who only keeps getting more magnetic; 巫建和 Wu Chien-Ho, the blistering son in A Sun《陽光普照》, for which he was nominated for a Golden Horse; newcomers 林幻夢露 Anicca Panna and 娜娜 Xenia Tan; veteran 陳雪甄 Vera Chen (Boluomi); and 張子夫 Pete Teo, the legend from Malaysia himself. read the Variety report here: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/yeo-siew-hua-stranger-eyes-lee-kang-sheng-1235699479/.

it's been a looong journey, and will finally begin again in 2024 when the film's ready. special shout-out to Raymond Phathanavirangoon's dearly missed SEAFIC x Produire au Sud (of Festival des 3 Continents, coordinated by Guillaume Mainguet), where we first developed this project in 2016–17. thank you for believing in us and for your patience.

watch out, or be watched, for more!

derek malcolm – 100 years of cinema

FOTO: Derek Malcolm's Facebook

after growing up reading his incisive, pithy reviews of "world cinema" in the Guardian then the Evening Standard, i met Derek Malcolm at the Bengaluru film festival in 2018. he was there as a FIPRESCI jury member (and former president), i was there as a (former) NETPAC member; we hung out between film screenings, walking slowly to the smoking point for cigarettes and light.

i was impressed that at the age of 86, he was still travelling to Karnataka yearly in search of "Third World cinema", as he called it, and was still in touch with the latest films (despite his understandable hatred of contemporary cinema); i was even more impressed that he spurned all the festival staff's kind but obsequious attention (he was clearly the VVIP amongst all of us) and that he showed me the British middle-finger sign within seconds of us being introduced and multiple times afterwards, in the funniest ways possible.

we kept in touch over email, but i'm sorry we never got to see each other again. he belongs to a generation of arts critics that stood in the centre of culture, made a fine career of it, but never wanted the attention – how fitting that his passing was announced on the same day as Jane Birkin's. starting out as a horse-racing jockey then correspondent, he always kept his sense of humour, self-deprecation, and wit, and prioritised underappreciated cultures. they say you should never meet your heroes, but he was the kindest, most loveable curmudgeon. i will miss him and still want to be like him.

vale and rest in power, mr. Malcolm x