42 <strong>JUN</strong> <strong>2016</strong> Words Beatrice Bowers Photographer Nicky Loh Assisted By Jason Ho Art Direction Jenn Chew
t the age of 15, Boo Jun Feng fell in love with filmmaking because it allowed him to play God. It comes across as a megalomaniacal statement, but the 32 year-old is anything but. In fact, he’s one of the mildest interviewees I’ve ever had, but his amiable personality is far from a shortcoming. It is a strength that makes you cling on to his every carefullychosen word, more so because his voice is so soft and tame. There are no rising octaves, or feverish exclamations about film throughout my conversation with him, despite the obvious passion that emanates from his eyes as he waxes lyrical about the topics he explored in his cinematic realities. Instead, I got a man who willingly leaned forward to the recording device to ensure it caught his every word. “Don’t worry,” he chuckled, graciously dismissing my move to place the device nearer to him. “I know I speak very softly.” The First Cut Boo’s decorous personality is something ingrained within the man, even though he attained successes in the film world since his late teenage years that might serve as an ego boost to some. He took his first steps when he was a Film, Sound, Video (FSV) student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Film and Media Studies. “I fell in love with the idea of make believe, where you could create or recreate worlds and realities that an audience would buy into, and the whole idea of a suspension of disbelief was very exciting for me,” he explains. With that idealistic stronghold, Boo began vesting his interests in production design, which he saw as the root of what make believe was about. It was not until 2004, when he was on an exchange programme in Barcelona, that he made his first short film. Titled Un Retrato de Familia (A Family Portrait), the Spanish film charts a young man, Sergio, who revisits a memory of a family secret when his younger sister asks him about sex. The film went on to show at four film festivals, including the Singapore International Film Festival, where Boo bagged Best Short Film, and the Special Achievement Award. “That was when it opened doors for me,” he said. Yes, He Cannes They were immensely fortuitous doors too. In 2010, Boo was only 26 when he made his debut feature film, Sandcastle, which went on to show at the world’s most prestigious European cinematic platform, the Cannes Film Festival. “It was a huge learning curve for me, and I never expected to make a film that early, but when the opportunity arose, I grabbed it”. International sales agent and long-time follower of his works, Fortissimo Films, which is headquartered in Amsterdam, approached Boo to work with him on Sandcastle, alongside Eric Khoo of Zhao Wei Films, who was the movie’s executive producer. Sandcastle tackles the story of an 18 year-old boy, Eric, who is sent to live with his grandparents after his father passes. His life begins revolving around his grandparents’ routine, particularly that of his grandmother, who suffers from dementia. 43 <strong>JUN</strong> <strong>2016</strong>