A selection of shorts on History-Memory

Introduction by Raphaël Millet, author of Singapore: A Cinematic Portrait, followed by a post-film discussion

Twilight Ladies (2025)
Director: Alain Soldeville, Alexe Liebert
Runtime: 11 mins
Country: Singapore / France
Language: English with Subtitles

Synopsis

In the 1950s, when Bugis Street was known as ‘the Montmartre of Singapore’, tourists and sailors from all over the world came for the exciting nightlife with Singapore’s transgender community. However, in the 1980s, an urban regeneration project was planned, threatening to eradicate the district and its historical significance.

Forgotten Merlion (2009)
Director: Ghazi Alqudcy and Ezzam Rahman
Runtime: 3 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: Malay, English with subtitles

Synopsis

An instructional video to Singapore’s National Anthem, if you can remember it.

Conversations on Sago Lane (2010)
Director: Wong Chen-Hsi
Runtime: 26 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese with Subtitles

Synopsis

On Sago Lane, a public housing estate was built in the 1960s upon a street of funeral parlours or “death houses”. Today, it is home to one of the highest concentrations of elderly ageing in Singapore.

Singapore… Dream (1999)
Director: Tania Sng
Runtime: 17 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: English

Synopsis

Through a montage of transcripts, infographics, and portraits of the developing city soundtracked by interview recordings and enthusiastic national songs, Singapore… Dream scrutinises the imagined communities, majoritarian narratives, oppressiveness, and what it means to be distinctly Singaporean.

Utama—Every Name in History is I (2003)
Director: Ho Tzu Nyen
Runtime: 23 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: Malay, English with Subtitles
Synopsis

The story of Utama’s discovery of the island and his encounter with a lion, and the legend of how he gained power and popularity by symbolically discarding his crown.