Please note that this is an overdue event

Short Films - Imaginarium: To the Ends of the Earth @SAM

Address
Contacts

Sit back and relax in the Moving Image Gallery while enjoying a special selection of short films from around the world inspired by the vastness of distant lands!

Total run time: 44 minutes on loop. Parental guidance is advised.

An Object at Rest

Seth Boyden, 2015, USA, 5:43 min, No dialogue, G
Singapore Premiere
Silver medal winner in Animation, 42nd Student Academy Awards
Finalist, BAFTA US Student Film Awards 2016

An Object at Rest follows the life of a stone as it travels over the course of millennia, facing nature's greatest obstacle: human civilization.

Seth Boyden graduated from CalArts with his award-winning final-year thesis film and was named as one of ‘10 Animators to Watch’ by Variety. Boyden’s characters are typically hand-animated against watercolor backgrounds, and his keen interest in music has led him to collaborate with composers and musicians to create original music for his films.

Pale Blue Dot

Chin Li Zhi, 2015, Singapore, 4:00 min, English with subtitles, PG
Singapore Premiere
Silver Award in Film, Crowbar Awards 2016
Nominated for Best Animated Film & Best Character Animation, National Youth Film Awards 2016

Set to the words of Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot is an animation that situates human history against the tapestry of the cosmos. Using an eclectic combination of art styles woven seamlessly together through music and visuals, the animation seeks to remind us that regardless of our differences, we are one species living together on the planet we call Earth.

Chin Li Zhi is a multimedia creative who believes that what we see influences us more than anything else. His work spans topics and medium, often bringing eclectic styles and techniques together for greater visual impact. Pale Blue Dotwas produced at NTU ADM in collaboration with Studiengang Musikdesign, and screened at 22 film festivals worldwide since 2015.

Builders (Kattumaanar)

Eysham Ali, 2016, Singapore, 9:15 min, Tamil with English subtitles, PG
Official Selection, Singapore International Film Festival 2016

An Indian migrant worker finds a wallet filled with cash and is conflicted about whether he should return the wallet to its owner. This short film is a story of two different people, walking the same journey.

A graduate of Chapman University Singapore, Eysham Ali’s first short film Rumahku, Syurgaku (My Home, My Heaven), was awarded the Special Achievement Award at the 2008 Singapore International Film Festival. Buildersis an Honour Singapore initiative to share individual stories of dignity and respect, through the medium of film.

Way of Giants (Caminho dos Gigantes)

Alois Di Leo, 2016, Brasil, 11:52 min, No dialogue, PG
Singapore Premiere
Official Selection, Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2016
Best Director for National Competition, Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival – Curta Cinema 2016

A poetic search for purpose and reason set in a forest of gigantic trees, this animation follows Oquirá, a six year-old indigenous girl, as she challenges her destiny and learns to understand the cycle of life.

Way of Giants explores the many forces in nature and our connection with the earth and its elements, featuring Tito la Rosa, a master of ancient Andean music from Peru who composed and recorded the film score using handmade Inca and Andean instruments.

Alois Di Leo was born in Lima, Peru and raised in São Paulo, Brasil where he founded the animation studio SINLOGO. He graduated with an MA in animation direction at the NFTS in London, and is writing his first feature film.

The Little Reader (Ang Munting Mambabasa)

Inshallah Montero, 2015, Philippines, 6:55 min, Tagalog with English subtitles, G
Singapore Premiere
Finalist for Audience Choice Award, Tropfest South East Asia 2015
Finalist, Manhattan International Film Festival 2016

Manuel, a young Filipino boy who lives on the street, escapes his realities by reading – a gift that his mother left behind. Stumbling upon a magical book that transports him to different worlds, he realises how far one can go through reading and imagination.

Inshallah Montero took Creative Writing as an arts scholar at the Philippine High School for the Arts in Makiling, Laguna and received the Artistic Excellence Award. She graduated from De La Salle College of St. Benilde with honours finishing a Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Filmmaking in 2012. She has gone on to win several awards for her films and is currently active as a freelance director on documentaries. She considers herself an eternal student and driven by the uncertainty of life.

Snowflake (Snejinka)

Natalia Chernysheva, 2012, Russia, 5:46 min, No dialogue, PG
Best Film by an Emerging Director, The Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Prize, 30th Chicago International Children's Film Festival
Guild of Film Critics Award, Open Russian Festival of Animated Film 2013

A little African boy receives a paper snowflake enclosed in a letter, and is so enchanted by the idea of real snow that he fantasizes into being a whole new snow-covered world.

Natalia Chernysheva graduated from the Ural State Academy of Architecture and Art, Russia, and studied at La Poudrière, France, where she directed The Return (2013) and her multi-award-winning graduation film, Two Friends (2014). She participated in the International Writing Residency for Animated Films by Royal Abbey of Fontevraud in 2014, and Animation Artist in Residence Tokyo in 2015, during which she wrote The Gossamer (2016). Snowflake is her directorial debut which has won several awards and has been screened at numerous film festivals internationally.

Credit: Image of Singapore Art Museum