Screen Singapore was a film festival in Singapore held from 1 August 2005 to 31 August 2005, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the independence of Singapore, to celebrate the heritage of Singaporean cinema from pre-independence days to the present. Presenting a total of 31 feature films, plus 15short films over an entire month, it was and has remained the largest showcase of Singaporean cinema.
A Free Outdoor Screening of selected short films was organised by Screen Singapore on Sunday 14 August 2005, at the River Promenade, next to the UOB building, at the end of Boat Quay. One of the members of the audience blogged: How could I forget to bring along a camera yesterday night to capture the atmosphere of the free outdoor screening of short films at the River Promenade, next to UOB Plaza? A picture tells a thousand words, and in the lacking of one, allow me to attempt to describe it..
Guests
A number of film celebrities made special appearances during the festival:
One of the members of the audience blogged about Doris Young, aka Marrie Lee, aka Cleopatra Wong: It was a full house eagerly awaiting the appearance of Cleopatra Wong in person. I went in early in order to get a prime seat, but alas, there were already some persons seated in the middle of the theatre. But I managed a row behind, and to my wicked glee, those in front were told to make room for the special guests. They were unhappy of course, but given no choice anyway. So there I was, with Cleo Wong potentially sitting in front of me during the screening.. He also blogged about Maria Menado special guest appearance: When Maria Menado arrived at the Alliance Francaise, she was greeted with numerous camera flashes. Dressed in a beautiful red Baju Kurung, everyone was eager to get a photograph of the star of the original Pontianak. As with all special appearances in Screen Singapore, the invited guests are to say a few words to the audience. Maria exclaimed that she was extremely happy to see many people attending the screening for Sumpah Pontianak, especially when the film was close to 50 years old, and some members of the audience were not even around when it was screened for the first time.. International film programmers and film critics also came to attend the festival, such as Olivier Père, Jeremy Segay, Stephen Cremin, Kate Reidy from the Swiss festival Black Movie, etc.
Impact
The festival was extremely well attended by the audience and well covered by the media. This blog by a member of the audience and avid cinephile bears testimony to it: Unfortunately, this entry isn't the review for Ring of Fury, which I very much wanted to watch. When I reached The Arts House this evening to purchase tickets, I was told it was already Sold Out *faint*, since last Thursday! *double faint* I should have seen it coming, given the widespread media coverage of Screen Singapore.. The festival has been noted as an important showcase of Singaporean cinema, and was abundantly discussed in the press as well as online . It unearthed Ring of Fury, a long forgotten feature film made in 1973 which had been banned from screening in Singapore in the 1970s, and had never been shown since then. Screen Singapore offered it its Singapore première in 2005, exactly 32 years after it had been filmed. On the occasion of his first trip to Singapore to attend the festival Screen Singapore, Olivier Père was introduced to Eric Khoo and given a chance to preview his film My Magic which he subsequently selected to première at the Directors' Fortnight that same year, in 2005. A retrospective of Singaporean films was also subsequently presented in Geneva in 2006 during the festival Black Movie, after one of the festival's representatives, Kate Reidy, had come to attend Screen Singapore 2005.
