Programme and Abstracts 4 Oct 2011 - WKWSCI Home - Nanyang ...

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Conference on Film and Cinema in Singapore (6‐7 October 2011) Jointly organised by Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University and Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore OFF WITH THE SHAKING HEADS!! REEL‐IZING THE ‘SINGAPORE INDIAN’ IN THE LOCAL TAMIL FILMS MY MAGIC AND GURUSHETRAM – 24 HOURS OF ANGER NIDYA SHANTHINI MANORKARA Theatre Studies, National University of Singapore nsmanokara@nus.edu.sg Since P.Ramlee’s era, races other than the one featured primarily in the local film, are often presented as caricatures. Specifically the Indian community is either represented through stereotypes—for comic relief like in Where Got Ghost (2009)—or is unrepresented as in 881 (2007). This paper aims to analyze the treatment of the Singapore Indian community in two local Tamil movies: Eric Khoo’s My Magic (2008) and TT Dhavamanni’s Gurushetram—24 Hours of Anger (2010). 3 These movies are pivotal to Singapore cinema’s development because they primarily feature the otherwise marginalized Indian community, mainly use Tamil language that is indicative of the community and pioneer in dealing with the underbelly Indian society. Specifically I hope to investigate how these films offer a perspective on the Indian community that departs significantly from caricaturesque depictions. Does such a departure necessarily represent/re‐present part of the Indian community Gurushetram in particular, borrows some conventions from Kollywood cinema, local television media and taps into subcultures specific to local Indians. While this film uses the community’s cultural economy to re‐construct the ‘Singapore Indian’, what/whose cultural economy has Khoo’s film fed into How is his ‘Singapore Indian’ reconstituted Continuing from these concerns, I also hope to raise the following questions due to the recent influx of NRIs. Firstly, to what extent can the insider‐outsider polarity function within the framework of a national cinema alongside the identity politics attached to the directors 4 Is Khoo’s imagination of ‘Singapore Indian’ any less valid Secondly, my position as a third‐generation Singapore‐Indian has allowed me to view these ‘Indians’ as part of a polyphonic representation of my community. However, for the Diaspora can these films work as transnational cinemas If so, what aspects of the films provide gateways that could help familiarize them with such a perception of the local Indian community Nidya Shanthini Manokara is a Ph.D Research Scholar with the Theatre Studies Programme at NUS. A trained Bharata Natyam dancer, her thesis focuses on how emotions are embodied and transmitted within (Indian) contemporary dance. Her research interests also include creative practice as research and the identity politics of a ‘Singaporean Indian’. Why now local Tamil film The recent demise of her grandfather, veteran local Tamil actor G. Krishnasamy Balan, PBM. PBS. had reignited her ‘Asian instincts’ of wanting to contribute to the local Singapore Indian community and has since become more interested in the stage and TV culture of the community. 1 2 It is good to note that within the Singapore Tamil community, this movie had been very well received and is touted as the first of its kind because of its all local Tamil director and cast. The Tamil audience members’ reception for this movie was much better than for My Magic. I acknowledge that these films manifest the socio‐political and cultural particularities of the Singapore Indian community. Yet, they also harness one of the official languages of Singapore and do present something culturally specific to Singapore. Thus these films can constitute national cinema.
Conference on Film and Cinema in Singapore (6‐7 October 2011) Jointly organised by Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University and Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore CULTURAL MAPPING OF SINGAPORE CINEMAS CHARLES LEARY Faculty of Applied & Creative Arts, University of Malaysia Sarawak charley.leary@gmail.com The main objective of this project is to document the diversity of film exhibition and spectatorship in Singapore. This distinctive quality of different spaces for film exhibition are qualified, for instance, by the variety of language of films shown and the ethnicity of the audience, as well as by the format and architecture. Today, most cinemas show Hollywood films in English or films from Hong Kong dubbed into Mandarin. There are of course also exceptions, but until the 1970s, one could regularly find a number of theatres showing films in Malay as well as in different Chinese dialects. Singapore has employed a variety of physical structures for film exhibition. The Cathay Cinema, for example, was housed in the Cathay Building, the seat of power for the Cathay Organisation and a Singapore landmark. Singapore film culture featured more informal spaces for film viewing as well. For example, mobile film units would travel to the kampongs to project films in communities with less access to the picture palaces. Another unique site, not nearly as prevalent in other major world cities, is the openair cinema, some of which were permanent structures while others temporary. Today, many of the picture palaces and stand alone cinemas are gone, and, with the arrival of the Golden Village Corporation in 1992, Singapore became the first country in Asia to adopt the multiplex configuration for cinema architecture that has come to dominate the space of film‐going across the world. I aim to produce a map identifying the locations of cinemas and other sites of film exhibition (including, where appropriate, tracing the typical routes of mobile cinemas), both extant cinemas and those no longer in operation. A Geographic Information System (GIS) has been utilized to investigate spatial patterns emerging in the location of Chinese temples in Singapore (Dean 2010), and I hope to implement a similar approach in considering variables such as language dominating the particular cinema, corporate holdings, proximity to housing estates or kampongs, ethnic makeup of neighborhoods, and networks between formal and informal spaces. UNESCO, for example, has embraced cultural mapping and the use of GIS to value tangible and intangible cultural heritage in local communities. Although this approach has more frequently been used to study pre‐modern cultures, cultural mapping provides the recognition of cultural diversity and this specific film heritage in Singapore, and can also elucidate cultural policy and urban planning as Singapore continues its “Renaissance City” project in encouraging creative zones in a “global media city.” (Kong 2009). Charles Leary (PhD, New York University) is Associate Professor in the Cinematography Programme at the Faculty of Applied & Creative Arts, University of Malaysia Sarawak. He is currently working on a manuscript on the Cold War politics of Hong Kong film culture. He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
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