The Singapore censors gave an M18 rating to Malaysian Gods just a day before the screening, and tickets were sold out an hour beforehand. Since there was no lesbian sex (!) I wonder what's in it that can possible be unsuitable for those 17 and below.
What make this event special, and in fact quite unprecedented in the 22-year history of the Singapore International Film Festival, is that a special police permit was required for the talk in conjunction with the screening! It was finally given at 9am, two and a half hours before the event. So I must thank the festival director Zhang Wenjie and coordinator Jasmine Ng for their perseverance.
We were only allowed to talk for 30 minutes, before rather than after the documentary. So this is the first time I have given a Q & A before a screening. Surprising Singapore, indeed!
Stefan got the whole session on video here. His impressions of the documentary itself are here.
Quirky bureaucracy aside, it's always a pleasure to screen at this festival, and it was nice to see familiar faces like Tan Pin Pin and Ben Slater.
This is the second festival in a row (after Mexico last month) where I didn't watch a single other film, but instead caught up with friends old and new.
I won't be attending the next festival screening (Italy in June) as I will be completing a book. In the meantime, more Malaysian screenings are planned.
1 comment:
how do you manage to be in the "thick" of everything like this all the time?
Congrat. Please inform me about more Malaysian screening would you?
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