Undercurrent
An undercurrent is a hidden force that forges its own distinct course, entering uncharted territories and awaiting discovery.
With five double bills, one short film programme and a feature, Undercurrent spotlights audacious works within contemporary cinema. It’s an invitation to explore the unknown, to embrace the diversity of cinematic expression, and to soak in a world of limitless possibilities.
Feature Film
Return to Reason
Four astonishing films by Surrealist artist Man Ray are restored in 4K with an original experimental soundtrack by director Jim Jarmusch’s band SQÜRL.
Man Ray / France / 70 min / NC16 (Some Nudity) / Southeast Asian Premiere
Undercurrent Short Film Programme
5 Dec, Tue 6:30PM / 96 min / PG13 / Filmgarde Kallang, Hall 2
A journey into various techniques of image production that shape our perception of the contemporary world. Against the atomised experience of cinematic time filtered through the logic of productivity and efficiency, these films demonstrate the potential for cinema to inspire collective imaginations of freedom.
24 Cinematic Points of View of a Factory Gate in China
A filmmaker investigates surveillance footage of workers leaving Chinese factories from a ‘cinematic point of view’, alongside evolving depiction of workers in Euro-American and Chinese cinema spanning a century.
HO Rui An / Singapore, Spain / 25 min / PG / Asian Premiere
Delivery Dancer’s Sphere
A delivery rider in labyrinthine Seoul contends with the sudden appearance of her alter ego amid the gamified realities of gig work.
KIM Ayoung / South Korea / 25 min / PG13 (Some Violence) / Singapore Premiere
Patterns Against Workers
Exploring patterns of weave codes, datasets, and orchestrated gestures, this essay film reveals the entanglements of economic, political and engineering forces that manifest in exploitative labour conditions today.
Olena NEWKRYTA / Austria / 34 min / PG / Asian Premiere
New Centuries are Rare
The former industrial town of Norberg, once the restive heart of the miners’ labour movement in the 1890s, becomes a post-industrial rave paradise more than a century later.
coyote / Sweden / 12 min / PG / Southeast Asian Premiere
Double Bill
3 Dec, Sun 4:00PM / 137 min / M18 / Filmgarde Kallang, Hall 3
Esrever
Set in a public park in Seoul, this hypnotising film pulls audiences into the rotating eye of the artist’s camera.
KWON Heesue / South Korea / 16 min / PG / Singapore Premiere
The Human Surge 3
Shot with a 360° panoramic camera but edited into 2D, this film follows three groups of friends as they walk and talk in Peru, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.
Eduardo WILLIAMS / Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, Netherlands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Peru / 121 min / M18 (Some Mature Content) / Asian Premiere
Double Bill
2 Dec, Sat 6:30PM / 125 min / M18 / Filmgarde Kallang, Hall 2
Man in Black
Dissident Chinese composer Wang Xilin bares his body and soul as he relates experiences of persecution during the Cultural Revolution.
WANG Bing / France, USA, UK / 60 min / M18 (Nudity) / Southeast Asian Premiere
The Second Interrogation
After an event about a seminal 1989 Chinese exhibition, an artist and a censor discuss the purpose of art in an authoritarian society.
WANG Tuo / China / 65 min / NC16 (Some Nudity and Sexual Violence) / Southeast Asian Premiere
Double Bill
5 Dec, Tue 9:00PM / 102 min / PG / Filmgarde Kallang, Hall 3
The Beach of Beings
While digitising an unknown creature’s remains, a palaeontologist grieves for a cherished loved one.
Kendra MCLAUGHLIN / France, Canada / 20 min / PG / Asian Premiere
Here
A tale of fleeting encounters aided by hot soup and lush mosses.
Bas DEVOS / Belgium / 82 min / PG / Singapore Premiere
Double Bill
9 Dec, Sat 2:00PM / 100 min / PG13 / Filmgarde Kallang, Hall 3
Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: “Phony Wars”
Composed of collages created with paper, paint and photographs, this trailer for a never-to-be-made feature is Godard’s final film.
Jean-Luc GODARD / France, Switzerland / 20 min / PG / Southeast Asian Premiere
Undefined Things
A warm, elegiac documentary depicting the rigour and creativity of a film editor’s craft, and the presence of cinema in her life.
María APARICIO / Argentina / 81 min / PG13 (Brief Coarse Language) / Asian Premiere
Double Bill
3 Dec, Sun 9:00PM / 67 min / M18 / Filmgarde Kallang, Hall 2
Warm Decembers
Beatrix tries to break from her troubled history and express her creative selfhood in this experimental adaptation of an Eve Sedgwick poem.
Lucy Beech / Germany / 27 min / M18 (Nudity) / Asian Premiere
Mangosteen
Earth returns home to join his sister Ink’s mangosteen processing factory in this playful film that experiments with the possibilities of narrative.
Tulapop SAENJAROEN / Thailand / 40 min / PG / Singapore Premiere