Screening of films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), artist and filmmaker. Selected and introduced by Dr David Teh (Australia/Singapore), Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore (NUS)

Screening of films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), artist and filmmaker. Selected and introduced by Dr David Teh (Australia/Singapore), Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore (NUS)

As a prelude to the symposium The Geopolitical and the Biophysical: a structured conversation on Art and Southeast Asia in context, Part II, this selection of films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, attempts to set up a “conversation” between two artist-filmmakers, Apichatpong and Charles Lim Yi Yong. Both have explored ideas of the “entropic” in the Southeast Asian context. Lim’s film, all the lines flow out (2011) is showing at The Single Screen as part of the SEA STATE exhibition. Dr David Teh’s research on the region’s visual cultures puts special emphasis on the moving image and other non-traditional media.

This programme will be held over two evenings.

Wednesday, 1 June 2016, 7.30 – 10.00pm

Cemetery of Splendour (2015)

The plot revolves around a spreading epidemic of sleeping sickness where spirits appear to the stricken and hallucination becomes indistinguishable from reality. The epidemic is used as a metaphor for personal and Thai societal issues.

Soldiers with a mysterious sleeping sickness are transferred to a temporary clinic in a former school. The memory-filled space becomes a revelatory world for a housewife and volunteer Jenjira, as she watches over Itt, a handsome soldier with no family visitors. Jen befriends young medium Keng who uses her psychic powers to help loved ones communicate with the comatose men. Doctors explore ways, including coloured light therapy, to ease the mens’ troubled dreams. Jen discovers Itt’s cryptic notebook of strange writings and blueprint sketches. There may be a connection between the soldiers’ enigmatic syndrome and the mythic ancient site that lies beneath the clinic. Magic, healing, romance and dreams are all part of Jen’s tender path to a deeper awareness of herself and the world around her.

Friday, 3 June 2016, 7.30 – 10.00pm

Tropical Malady (2004) | 118 mins

Keng is a soldier assigned to a post in a small city in rural Thailand. The troops’ main duties, it seems, is to investigate the mysterious slaying of cattle at local farms. While in the field one day, Keng meets Tong. Both of them share a connection and embark on a romance, taking trips in the countryside.

One night, the country boy wanders off into the dark. The film’s narrative abruptly shifts to a different story, about a soldier sent alone into the woods to find a lost villager. In the woods, the soldier encounters the spirit of a tiger shaman, who taunts and bedevils the soldier, causing him to run through the woods and become lost and isolated himself.

This screening is a public programme of Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE.

2016-06-01

2016-06-03

As a prelude to the symposium The Geopolitical and the Biophysical: a structured conversation on Art and Southeast Asia in context, Part II, this selection of films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, attempts to set up a “conversation” between two artist-filmmakers, Apichatpong and Charles Lim Yi Yong.

General

Onsite (CCA)

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