I have not updated this blog for close to 9 months now. I was caught up in the whirlwind of promoting and screening my documentary about the Beijing Olympics.
Now it is time to get back to some blogging. BTW you can watch the film online. You are more than welcome to steal this movie.
Being at the Berlin Film Festival helps me appreciate the difference that a film-literate audience can make to the film making experience
Here is a city where people have attended the festival year after year and over time they have developed the ability to articulate their analyses and insights about film.
Even films from little known places have sold out screenings. The premiere of Invisible City, a Singapore documentary about history and memories, for instance, was packed to the overflowing, with some people sitting along the aisle. From what I hear, other Asian films at the festival are doing equally well.
I have had the pleasure of chatting with quite a few people who have travelled to the festival every year. I have also met individuals who have volunteered tirelessly at the festival for decades.
One of these chance encounters led to an interview about my Beijing Olympics documentary, Boomtown Beijing, on German radio. “35 mm” is regular film magazine show on Radio Dreyeckland in Freiburg, in the southwestern part of Germany.
Alexander Sancho-Rauschel, the radio journalist who interviewed me, also volunteers at the student cinema at the University of Freiburg. The Aka Film Club, or Academic Film Club, has been around for 50 years. It was started in an effort to enable students in post war Germany to watch more international films. Although the name of the club sounds very stern and seems almost archaic in this day and age, it has been retained out of reverence for tradition.
I wonder what the listeners of Radio Dreyeckland will think of the interview of my little documentary about the Beijing Olympics?
One thing, for sure, the passion for film seems to transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries here. So I cherish the hope being a little known film director making a small film in the Far East might actually be an advantage, fuelling curiosity about the project.
I will be attending the Berlin Film Festival 2008 (7th — 17th February 2008) There are two big reasons why I am going.
Invisible City, a film I worked on, is screening in the Forum section of the Berlinale.
I will also take the opportunity to market and promote my own film about the Beijing Olympics, Boomtown Beijing at the Festival and the European Film Market.
With thousands of journalists and film makers attending, I am sure Berlin will be a zoo. But hopefully, it’d also be a lot of fun.
Wish me luck!
Today, I received an email request from my friend, Singaporean film maker Tan Pin Pin:
"Hi Siok, if its convenient, can you let Web 2.0 know to watch or look out for Invisible City in Berlin?" Those were her exact words.:) So hear ye, Web 2.0 folks out there, look out for this Singapore documentary film at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world Invisible City is a documentary about documenteurs. The film conveys the fragility of histories stitched together by a patchwork of memories and artefacts. You can watch the trailer of the film here: The following are the dates and times for the screening of Invisible City at the Berlinale. 08.02.08 17:45 CinemaxX5 (press screening) 09.02.08 20:00 Arsenal 10.02.08 15:00 Cubix 7 11.02.08 15:00 CineStar 8 I will be traveling to the festival with director, Pin Pin, as a member of the Invisible City production team.
I have never given an interview about a film on a business show before. Well, there is always a first time.
The China Business Show is a weekly show on WSR Radio that sheds cross-cultural insight on doing business in China. I am impressed by the range of issues that the show covers, from technology and business strategy to the media and corporate social responsibility.
My big thanks to Christine Lu, executive producer and host, for having me talk about my Beijing Olympics documentary on her show.
For those have you who missed the live show, you can go to the China Business Network site to listen to the interview.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Keel over the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Move aside, the Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur.
Here come the Twin Leaning Towers of Beijing. The new CCTV (China Central TV) building is one of the growing number of icons designed by international architects in the city of Beijing.
I passed by this building almost every day while I was filming my documentary about the Beijing Olympics. I always felt bemused by the seemingly impossible structure of the towers.
The building is clearly part of the city’s efforts to lay claim to its status as an international metropolis by building futuristic and foreign-looking landmarks.
Call it odd or a show-off piece, it is definitely identifiable. In fact I used it as backdrop to one of the scenes in my film.
This week, the news is that the twin towers finally join, with a walkway connecting the two parts.
As usual, a plethora of ironic observations have surfaced in the international media:
China’s impossible leaning towers join : December 2007 : Richard Spencer : Foreign : Telegraph Blogs
Orwellian architecture in China | The Ministry of Truth | Economist.com
Powered by ScribeFire.
I recently presented my documentary about the Beijing Olympics at the Guangzhou International Documentary Festival.
Boomtown Beijing is my first independent film and making the festival poster for it was a big thrill. Mainly because of how last minute it all was. I got them printed the day I arrived in Guangzhou at a little print shop near the
A big thank you to Carrie Dee Cao Zhen Zhen, a graduate student at SYSU who helped me pull it together. She also coordinated and publicized my guest lectures at the university.
Talk about useful local knowledge!
Whenever I tell people I am making a documentary about the Olympics, one of the first questions they ask me is: “Are you featuring athletes?”
When I say that I am making a film about ordinary people and their Olympics dreams, the response I often get is one of surprise, even of incredulity.
But I can point to ample evidence of the extraordinary efforts some Chinese people have invested into dramatizing their passion for the Olympics.
Check out this story about a man who has modified his bike into the shape of the Olympics logo:
Sunday Photo: Olympics Logo Bike :: China Digital Times (CDT) 中国数字时代
Talk about grand gestures…
Powered by ScribeFire.
Follow me on Twitter