Singapore Film Locations Archive showcases screen memories of Singapore and chronicles the historical transformation of Singapore’s urban and rural landscapes through ‘on-location’ scenes in films produced and released in the 20th century.
One will be able to see how Singapore’s living environment has been featured in films from the past century — the melodramas, romance stories, detective thrillers, comedies, musicals, horror and action flicks that played out in real location settings in Singapore. Residents in Singapore will find delight in recognizing film locations that have remained unaltered over time or acknowledge the changes in the places as a result of urban renewal and redevelopment. The archive will describe (through short reviews) the extent to which these film narratives and visual stories represent the lived reality of the actual locations. It aims to be definitive online resource and database for information on the history of film location shooting in Singapore.
This project is supported under the Singapore Memory Project’s irememberSG Fund, as part of the Singapore50 (SG50) celebrations.
Toh Hun Ping is a filmmaker and film researcher. His films visually expound on broad themes of resistance, travel, time, loss and mental instability. They have screened at international film festivals (Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, Paris Festival of Different and Experimental Cinemas) and were presented in art venues both as video installations and live-performance projections (Sculpture Square and Substation, Singapore; KLEX, Kuala Lumpur). In preparation for his next video work, he is researching into the history of film production in early-mid 20th century Singapore. He also runs the Singapore Film Locations Archive, a private video collection of films made in Singapore, and maintains a blog and a website about the intrigues of old Singapore film locations (sgfilmhunter.wordpress.com; sgfilmlocations.com). He has worked on a freelance basis as a researcher for film programmes at the National Museum of Singapore Cinémathèque (Foundation of Run Run Shaw’s Cinema Empire, Gems of Amoy Cinema) and the Asian Film Archive (State of Motion, Celluloid Void 2).