Film and Photography
The Awakening of the Modern Television Era
People weren’t particularly interested in upgrading their black-and-white TV to a colour TV. Then came the World Cup.
Photo Studios and Photography During the Japanese Occupation
During the Japanese Occupation, local photographers worked under challenging conditions.
Restoring Classic Films from Asia
Besides restoring made-in-Singapore films, the Asian Film Archive is also involved in the preservation of other seminal Asian works.
Money No Enough, Passion Needed Too: Restoring Classic Singaporean Films
Money No Enough, Forever Fever and The Teenage Textbook Movie kickstarted a new era in Singaporean cinema, making them prime candidates for restoration.
Repairing and Restoring Singapore’s Reel Heritage
The Asian Film Archive has been restoring old classics since 2014.
Loke Wan Tho: The Man Who Built Cathay
While best known as a giant in the movie business in Malaya, Loke Wan Tho was also passionate about bird photography and the arts.
Loke Wan Tho: A Photo Essay
Loke Wan Tho was a renaissance man, says his niece, Choo Meileen, chairwoman of Cathay Organisation.
Negotiating Boundaries: Japanese and Chinese Photo Studios in Prewar Singapore
Photo studios such Yong Fong, Lee Brothers and Daguerre had to negotiate the politics of race, class and clan.
Picturing Singapore: A Visual History
Photographs are an important means to understand Singapore’s history and heritage. Janice Loo shares highlights from the National Library’s PictureSG Collection.
Marjorie Doggett: Photographer of Singapore
Edward Stokes reflects on Characters of Light by Marjorie Doggett, first published in 1957, and on his own recent book, Marjorie Doggett’s Singapore, which portrays her life and work here.
Daguerreotypes to Dry plates: Photography in 19th-century Singapore
The oldest known photographs of Singapore were taken by Europeans in the early 1840s. Janice Loo charts the rise of commercial photography in the former British colony.
The Making of Xin Ke (新客)
This 1927 silent Chinese movie is the first feature film to be made in Singapore and Malaya. Jocelyn Lau traces its genesis with researcher Toh Hun Ping and translation editor Lucien Low.
From the Archives: The Work of Photographer KF Wong
K.F. Wong shot to international fame with his images of Borneo, though not without controversy. Zhuang Wubin examines Wong’s work and sees beyond their historical value.
Five Ashore in Singapore: A European Spy Film
Raphaël Millet sits through a B-grade movie dismissed by critics as belonging to the genre of Eurospy flicks that parody James Bond – and discovers a slice of Singaporean celluloid history.
Ramen Teh: Food, War and Memory
Eric Khoo tells us how the Japanese Occupation, ramen noodles and bak kut teh became the inspiration for his latest film. Lu Wenshi finds out more.
Portraits from the Lee Brothers Studio
Gretchen Liu casts the spotlight on the Lee Brothers Studio Collection. Comprising some 2,500 images, this is the largest single collection of photographic portraits in the National Archives of Singapore.
Reel Life Singapore: The Films of Clyde E. Elliott
Clyde Elliott was the first Hollywood director to shoot a feature film in Singapore. Chua Ai Lin examines the authenticity of the three movies he produced here in the 1930s.
Chaplin in Singapore
One of history’s greatest comic actors, Charlie Chaplin, stops over in Singapore in 1932 and makes a return visit in 1936. Raphaël Millet traces these journeys.