Film Screening: “In Time To Come”
by Tan Pin Pin
2017, 63min, No spoken dialogue
Monday 6 November 2017, 6pm
Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center #64, St 200, Phnom Penh
Organized by Sa Sa Art Projects in partnership with Bophana Centre
Set in Singapore, In Time To Come follows the ritualistic exhuming of an old state time capsule, and the compilation of another. As enigmatic remnants of life from 25 years ago emerge—a bottle of water from the Singapore River, a copy of Yellow Pages, a phone charger—today’s selection of items are carefully primed for future generations to decode. Interwoven are carefully composed shots of moments we rarely think to preserve: the in-between minutes of daily life spent waiting for things to happen, shot in locales as diverse as the lush jungle to a residential district infused with haze. This picture of Singapore is both lovely and startlingly strange, already slipping beyond the present its inhabitants struggle to hold in their hands. Like the time capsules in the film, this film itself is a vessel that transports us through past, present and future, a prism through which we glimpse alternate realities. The latest movie by gifted observer Tan Pin Pin takes its thematic DNA from her previous bold, intelligent work, but leads its audience into uncharted cinematic territory.
About Tan Pin Pin:
Tan Pin Pin chronicles the gaps in history, memory and documentation. Her films study the process of self-examination itself, rendering its complexities with emotional power and visual clarity. They have screened at the Berlinale, Busan, Cinéma du Réel, Visions du Réel, SXSW and at the Flaherty Seminar. She has won or been nominated for more than 20 awards, most recently for her 2013 feature To Singapore, with Love (banned in Singapore) from Dubai
International Film Festival. Previously, Invisible City (2007) won the Scam International Award at Cinéma du Réel. Singapore GaGa (2005) was voted Best Film, 2006, by Singapore’s The Straits Times. In 2015, her short film Pineapple Town was one of seven in the acclaimed omnibus film 7 Letters that was Singapore’s submission to the Oscars. In Time To Come is her fourth long documentary. Tan is on the “Asian Cinema 100” list of top 100 Directors compiled by Busan International Film Festival.
