A Storm, Mallet and Duck at Home Movie Day Singapore 2023

A Storm, Mallet and Donald Duck at Home Movie Day Singapore 2023

Gloomy clouds gathered during art director Livia Taslim’s sharing about the previous workshop and her application of Super 8 at work. Grey light settled in during Felix’s instructions on operating the Leicina Special and Nizo S56 at 18 f/ps. The supply of kacang and drinks slowly diminished as friends and guests from analogue Facebook groups arrived.

I found myself in conversation with co-organiser Weng, who said his library of home movies began with a wealthy uncle’s documentation of family weddings. Years later, he learnt to use a Standard 8 camera from staff at Widescreen Centre, London. If home movies were once only accessible to the upper class, entry into the creative possibilities of the medium has expanded because of communal networks in analogue technology in the vein of their Super 8 workshop.

We spoke about the new section: a call for anyone who has Super 8 films to bring them in for inspection and screening. Has anyone reached out? Not yet, but Weng was hopeful. They’ve been promoting the event to analogue communities on social media. We shared our anticipation of the possibility that someone walks in with an old reel and we all get to watch something that hasn’t seen the light in years.

Min, a LaSalle student, made a film chasing the storm and planned to overlay the image with spoken poetry. Students Jew, Tae Won and screenwriter Yvonne collaborate on a story about a young student rushing to turn in an assignment on time. It starred Jew in a dual role, playing multiple group project members and Tae Won as the teacher. The climax of the story sees Jew tripping and losing her grasp on the assignment, which was supposed to fall to the ground floor and impede her timely submission. Instead, the prop landed on a ledge and triggered momentary hysteria before a broomstick was located to retrieve the errant assignment. 

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Later that evening, the sound of shutters fell as Felix announced, “This is the master of lab.” 

In the dim light at the end of the corridor was Patrick Tung, founder of Analog Film Lab and engineer of the overnight Super 8 development process. Seated amidst a row of sinks, buckets of canisters and tanks of chemicals, he was bashful at the praise and beckoned us in.

The process of extracting the exposed film has to take place in complete darkness so Patrick gave a short demonstration to begin with. There’s a mallet to crack the film cartridge, a blank spool, a LOMO cine development tank and a tank spiral from the USSR. The first step was to crack the cartridge with the mallet and wind the film in a spool before unrolling it on the grooves in the spiral. Repeat twice. Following that, stack the film plates on top of each other and develop at the same time. It’s tricky beyond the fact that the entire process has to take place in pitch darkness: both plates must be aligned or the chemicals won’t wash the prints evenly.

We settled in chairs scattered around the room. In a striking meeting of analogue and AI, Patrick says, “Siri, turn off the lights.” 

There are some tiny red bulbs around the furniture to make the darkness feel less total but it doesn’t make the series of loud bangs less ominous. As the mallet fell relentlessly, Min’s quip rose above the din, “It’s the kind of horror I would watch. Someone swinging a mallet around at people in a dark room and you don’t know who it hit or when it will hit you.”

The banging is brought to a halt by the sound of plastic hitting the ground. Felix announced he had the film. He felt for perforations to make sure the film was inserted right side up. The sound of something turning.

“Stop.” “Go further.” And the first reel was in the panel. “Second cartridge please.” The hammering began again. 

“Is this the top roll?” Patrick asked. “Yes — oh f*ck, no it’s not. Aiyoy,” Felix replied. More shifting. “The ends of the bottom layer came out a bit but I put it back.” Patrick noted, “The problem is we only do this once a year. If we did it more often, it’d be perfect. Practice makes perfect.” 

The lights switched on. We head to the sinks for the E-6 process, which goes by in a flash of chemical pours, timers, water rinsing and conversations in between. Yvonne told me between rinses about how she made the jump from architecture to writing movies and TV dramas; there’s something about how architecture demands a solid framework that also applies to storytelling. She’s here to fulfil her interest in shooting film and signed up after seeing it on Instagram.

Weng arrived after wrapping the first day at Objectifs in time to help Felix and Patrick retrieve the film from the tank. While they hung the negatives in steep loops on a string of twine, I asked if anyone brought an old reel in for inspection while the shoot was taking place — no, unfortunately. Then a loupe is passed around and we spend time admiring the minuscule frames backlit by our phones.

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I arrived at Objectifs to Min and the organisers coordinating the start time between the projection of her Super 8 reel and the recording of the poetry reading on an external loudspeaker. For the next 3 minutes and 20 seconds, Min’s voice crackled through small portable speakers as the images on the screen turned progressively greyer in tandem with the approaching storm. Next, laughter fills the silent film that follows as Jew runs and flails dramatically to express the anxiety of tight deadlines. 

The laughter made way for rapturous delight when Weng’s announcement that they would be screening a reel brought in earlier results in the face of Donald Duck emerging in a bloom of rays. The social media blast worked: the person who brought the reel found out about the event on an analogue film group. Magenta from colour fading has bled into the image but who cares as Chip n Dale start antagonising the grumpy Donald in Three for Breakfast (1948). Joy at the familiarity of beloved characters has turned the afternoon into an after-school programme; the whir of the projector and the buzz of the crowd aligned.

I stayed in my seat to watch the programme on loop. Amongst others, Locarno-winner Nelson Yeo makes his HMD debut with a Super 8 short lensed by frequent collaborator Lincoln Yeo. His film, about a vaguely suicidal couple with visions of death by falling durians, transforms into an old-timey karaoke dance session complete with light-up sing-along subs. 

Grace Song followed her 2022 HMD commission Ring Ring, Mama with a split-screen piece following a woman’s day-to-day life vis-a-vis the winding rows and decorations that make the columbarium niche where her husband’s remains are stored. She also starred in fellow HMD returnee Jonathan Choo’s King of Ubi (2023) as a servant. Following that, nuptial celebrations shot on Super 8 by local wedding videography unit Sloth Creatives and a narrative Straight 8 by students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Film Sound Video programme. 

As evening approached, Weng switched back to the analogue projector to thread a reel that featured his parents’ holiday and scenes from what Tanglin and Katong shopping centres used to look like. It tuned the room something wistful and sombre. Felix followed that with a  European holiday with his partner and her mother. Titled Madame Chang Goes to Europe, the film follows its titular character’s first trip to the continent with choice intertitles that include “Colosseum almost as big as The National Stadium,” and, “They told me Swiss fondue was like eating hotpot. But it was really just bread and smelly cheese.” His favourite he said, is how the da la ba (大喇叭, trumpet) that was part of the Bavarian music show at the Hofbräuhaus München became a pseudonym for both the beer hall and giant sausages on their trip.

When the event came to an end, everyone that lingered around seemed to naturally move to clear the room. I thought about the conversation I had with Matthew and Wan Fong the year before and their hope that Home Movie Day will be able to exist without any central figure involved and extend beyond their immediate network. As the equipment is packed, trash cleared and the event ends with friends and strangers getting acquainted around Weng’s Kombi, I think it’s found its path to that.

Films at Home Movie Day 2023

Commissions:

Flowers for My Mother and Father — Grace Song

The King of Ubi — Jonathan Choo

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Straight 8) — Juan Qi An 

On the Squared Stone (Straight 8) — Jordon Gan and Wong ShuXin

Farewell, Mi Amor — Nelson Yeo

Hawker — Agnes Li

Soft — Giselle lin

I think I have Brain Fog — Martin Loh

Perfect — Zhang KC

Personal archives:

Kristin Dan Kuching Kuchingnya — Michael Kam

Breathless — Russel Zehnder

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About the Author: Sasha Han seeks to reify the fugitive effects of looking through language. She received her BA in 2021 and has worked with HBO Asia, the Singapore International Film Festival and the National Archives of Singapore.