Wong Pei Yee|long_jump@hotmail.com
the ridge transmedia
A NUSSU Publication
You can now view films by Asian filmmakers Amir Muhammad and Thunska Pansittivorakul and Singaporean filmmaker Roystan Tan, in the library@esplanade.
Asian Film Archive Collection: Hock Hiap Leong by Royston Tan
The collection of more than 100 Asian film titles and 50 Singapore film titles is the largest made available for public reference by the Asian Film Archive.
The present collection was developed and amassed through collaborations with Singapore Film Commission (SFC), National Library and the National Archives of Singapore and via AFA’s Reel Emergency Project and programmes like the Southeast Asian Digital Cinema Series.
The earliest film available dates back to 1939 – a Filipino musical romance by well-known Filipino production company LVN Pictures entitled Giliw Ko (My Love) – just some 20 years after the advent of cinema.
The collection is expected to increase to house more than 300 Singapore titles and 100 Asian Film titles by end 2008.
However, maintaining and expanding the collection would come with a hefty price. Special storage, equipment and expertise are needed to acquire, catalogue, preserve, maintain and promote the collection.
In the last 2.5 years, AFA has spent close to half a million dollars and is expecting cost to increase from around $300k-$500k a year as their collection expands.
Asian Film Archive Collection: The Last Communist by Amir Muhammad
Despite the price tag, the reference section which was opened last Saturday, in conjunction with the UN AV World Heritage Day, is in line with AFA’s mission “to save, explore, and share the art of Asian cinema.”
“With greater accessibility to Asian films that may have once only been available on the festival circuit, more people will be able to enjoy and appreciate such films,” said AFA Executive Director, Mr Tan Bee Thiam.
The Asian Film Archive has organized a Symposium on Southeast Asian Digital Cinema for pre-tertiary and tertiary students that will be held from 10-11 Dec 2007. Students can submit papers based on the Southeast Asian films they have viewed from the reference section, and stand to win prizes worth over $6000 in total sponsored by Canon. Participants can utilize the collection to help write their papers.
More information is available at http://www.asianfilmarchive.org/seadc
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