Cinema Singapore and other titles...

(Fragment from article in the Singapore newspaper TODAY)

The daily newspaper TODAY has a big feature about why foreigners are so curious about Singapore movies, which has a few soundbites from me - you can read it here, or have the pdf here. But the main peg of the article is the publication of my compadre Raphael Millet's splendid account of Singapore's cinematic history, aptly titled Singapore Cinema. Raphael has done a great job of tracking down rare stills, which have been beautifully reproduced by his publisher, and in a highly readable text he gives probably the most detailed and exhaustive chronology of Singapore films and filmmakers in existence. Local readers should start seeing it around soon, and you lot overseas can buy it online here.

Meanwhile, I did my little reading last night at the library, which was fun. Thanks again to Shu Hoong for inviting me. The independent event, which obviously has a regular following, seems to have been co-opted by various library bureaucrats to help launch a multi-lingual reading campaign - so that was a little weird. Especially since they had a camera crew videoing every move we made. But it was a good crowd and people were very friendly...

I'm still surprised how few people have heard of Saint Jack, even after all the publicity its had since March through my book, the unbanning and Paul Theroux's visit. It makes me realise that in terms of publicity - there's a lot of work to do.