K. Rajagopal on making films for and on the ethnic minority in Singapore

This interview was motivated by an interest in exploring how Singapore film directors perceive the three major Chinese cinema awards, mainly the Golden Horse Awards (GHA), Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) and Golden Rooster Awards (GRA), and what they might signify for Singapore cinema, especially for a nation that is predominantly ethnic Chinese. Compared to the number of Singapore Chinese-language films produced in the last two decades, there have been considerably less Indian-language productions. K. Rajagopal’s A Yellow Bird (2016) alongside two other Tamil films, namely Eric Khoo’s My Magic (2008) and T. T. Dhavamanni’s Gurushetram: 24 Hours of Anger (2010) offer critical takes on the vicissitudes of Singapore Indians struggling with issues such as socioeconomic inequality and racial prejudice in a booming Chinese-majority city-state

Boo Junfeng on funding, festivals and Chinese privilege

The interview was motivated by an interest in exploring how Singapore film directors perceive the three major Chinese cinema awards, mainly the Golden Horse Awards (GHA), Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) and Golden Rooster Awards(GRA), and what they might signify for Singapore cinema, especially for a nation that is predominantly ethnic Chinese. Amongst the directors interviewed, Boo Junfeng went beyond to share his views on film education, funding and the implications of racial politics and ethic privilege underlying the nomination for international film awards

Taipei Golden Horse film awards and Singapore cinema: Prestige, privilege and disarticulation

Drawing from the idea of national revival, which is closely associated with the term ‘new wave’, this article examines the implications of how winning international film awards, with a focus on how the Taipei Golden Horse Awards (GHA) is variously understood by Singapore filmmakers. If film festivals and awards are crucial to constituting the ‘Singapore new wave’, how does GHA perceivably shape filmmaking and the way filmmakers understand issues of identity, language, prestige and cultural sensibilities? Based on interviews with ten Singapore directors and a producer-film festival director, media reports, film reviews and social media posts, I demonstrate that the supposed prestige of GHA is fraught with conflicting understandings of ‘Chineseness’, impartiality, inclusivity and credibility. For a sovereign country with a high ethnic Chinese population like Singapore which claims a national identity that is multilingual and multi-ethnic, at stake are the problematics of Chinese geopolitics and the linguistic-cultural practices of exclusion when it comes to GHA nominations and wins