PROGRAMME 1
| Date & Time | Location |
|---|---|
| Daily, 4-14 Sep 2025, 11am | Level 5, UOB Theatrette, Supreme Court Wing (General Admission pass required)
|
| Tue, 9 Sep 2025, 12.30pm |
Level B1, The Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, City Hall Wing (Free Admission)
|
About the Films
ZINKEPOEL
By Zulkhairi Zulkiflee
A letter recommends relocation to "Zinkepoel,” a place that is unknown, and unknowable except as a trace of the conceptual terrain. Seeking to make sense of the uncanny, this short film meditates on the landscape of the ghost town of Singapore, Michigan, a settlement in the Midwestern region of America that was poised to be a port town. In this exploration of its traces in the form of maps and prints, Singapore, Michigan begins to assume familial resemblance to the mythic Zinkepoel, in its simultaneous "absence" and "excess."
SPACES AS TRACES
By Shi Yun Teo
With an assemblage of diverse materials, ranging from found footage to 3D-rendered animation of deities, Shi Yun Teo maps the material universe onto the spiritual, and mediates a dialogue between a mythic past and modern AI. She gives form to these seemingly antithetical convergences, with the proposition that a ubiquitous feature of public housing in Singapore—the void deck—could be seen as a realm that allows movement between human and non-human worlds, given its use as a communal site for funerals. Resisting easy categorisation, this short film seeks to explore the relationship between being and becoming in an increasingly complex world.
FOSSILIS
By Riar Rizaldi
Fossilis grapples with the 21st century reality that most of the planet’s discarded electronics—products of planned obsolescence—are dumped and buried in Asia. Live-action sets fashioned from refuse, scenes shot in flea markets transacting in cannibalised machine parts, 3D assets and environments salvaged from abandoned projects, and AI images generated from thousands of unused photographs, form its fabric. The film thus offers more than concepts, narratives, or representations: its very mode of production harnesses both electronic and physical waste, and transforms these “fossils” from past generations into artistic media.
Explore Other Festival Sections
Opening Film
Magellan is an intimate portrait of the 16th century Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, starring Gael García Bernal in the titular role.
Art History, Co-authored
Art History, Co-authored presents films that explore seminal moments in art and film history.
Artist Films
Presenting films made by artists, this year includes an emphasis on early documentaries by Southeast Asian practitioners and a full-length movie independently made during the Marcos regime in the Philippines. National Gallery Singapore commissioned the digital restoration of two artists’ films on 16mm, Virgilio “Pandy” Aviado’s 1978 Footages and Briccio Santos’ Damortis, which are world premiering at Painting with Light.
Exhibition Readings
Exhibition Readings presents film programmes conceived in response to the art in the Gallery’s ongoing exhibitions.
Special Focus
The Special Focus section presents films that speak to the issues of the day. This year’s programme features the work of women filmmakers and artists who advocate for ways of being that are informed by an ethics of care. Bold, innovative, and profoundly relevant, these films ask the enduring question at the heart of artistic endeavour—what does it mean to be human?
Movement Pieces
Movement Pieces celebrates the visual poetry found in moving image art. It features short films that convey meaning through non-verbal modes of communication, like gesture and musicality, in lieu of dialogue.
This year’s programme is supported by the Québec Government and curated by guest programmer Philippe U. del Drago, who has served as Executive and Artistic Director of the International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal since 2018.
Closing
We Are Toast is an expanded cinema performance by Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen that utilises multiple 16mm film projectors to create a live film.