A selection of shorts on Speculative Futures

This screening will be followed by a conversation with guest programmer Sophia Siddique

Inspector X and the Eternal City (2006)
Director: Chong Yew Meng
Runtime: 29 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: English
Rating: PG

Synopsis

Jack X Inspector, and Alfred, his faithful sidekick, attempt to crack the case of a terrorist plot to blow up a casino in a future Singapore. As Jack’s voice-over explains, this city of SIN becomes the playground of the wealthy, where vice takes root. In this sci-fi-tech-noir, Jack X must contend with a familial twist as he attempts to uncover the mastermind behind this plot.

Serum City (2006)
Director: Jocelyn Chua
Runtime: 25 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: English
Rating: PG

Synopsis

Food, its preparation and consumption, is outlawed in Serum City. Citizens only receive sustenance through injections. The Ministry of Anti-Consumption Administration (MACA) surveils its population to ensure that no citizen ingests the forbidden and illicit contraband. In this biting yet playful satire, Jocelyn Chua offers the spectator a world of intrigue and deception as characters struggle to assuage their appetites.

Mickey (2010)
Director: Wesley Leon Aroozoo
Runtime: 19 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: English, Hokkien, Mandarin, Tamil with subtitles
Rating: PG

Synopsis

What do a dying astronaut, an uninjected lab rat named Mickey, and couples in various stages of love have in common? Wesley Leon Aroozoo explores this question through the neurochemistry of attachment, attraction, and desire.

Seeya in Elektrik Dreamz (2011)
Alternative Title: 再见理想
Director: Nelson Yeo
Runtime: 20 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: English, Mandarin with subtitles
Rating: PG

Synopsis
What if the world were to come to an end? In this speculative fiction, a post-apocalyptic landscape serves as a site where time and space converge, collide, and splinter. Characters populate these pasts, presents, and futures as they come to terms with love, loss, and death.

Home Planet (2022)
Director: Maximilian Liang
Runtime: 14:30 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: English, Mandarin with subtitles
Rating: G

Synopsis

Shot in black-and-white, Home Planet follows a young astronaut who attempts to repair his relationship with his estranged parents in the wake of his brother’s death. This poignant film offers a meditation on mourning, grief, and the unconditional power of parental love. The astronaut must also contend with shifting notions of home and belonging, whether here on planet Earth or in another solar system.