Thursday, April 29, 2010

Tiong Bahru Market and the Movie - come join in!

The Straits Times
Life!
Apr 29, 2010
By Magdalen Ng

London-based film-makers Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy were shocked during their first visit to Tiong Bahru Market when their order of carrot cake arrived.

Lawlor and Molloy decided on Tiong Bahru for their film project as it was one of the oldest Housing Board (sic) estates. They are now familiar with the popular food stalls at the market. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO

'It looked nothing like the carrot cake that we were used to. But it's quite good, actually,' says Lawlor in a recent interview with Life! at the Tiong Bahru Market.

Now he and his wife are no longer strangers to the market and even know which hawker stalls are the most popular.

They have been speaking to store owners and visitors to the area as part of their research for the next short film that they are making.

Set in and around the Tiong Bahru estate, the movie is part of Civic Life: Tiong Bahru, a community arts project exploring identity, memory, architecture, a sense of place and civic space that will take place in the second half of this year.

The project is a collaboration between the British Council and the National Museum of Singapore with support from the Singapore International Foundation. There will also be an online film competition for Singaporeans.

'The British Council is a cultural relations agency whose aim is to create meaningful discussions around the ideas of creativity, culture and education. This project involves close collaboration with our Singaporean partners and a rich engagement between Singaporean and British artists,' says Mr Dan Prichard, director of programmes of the British Council in Singapore.

He adds: 'Joe and Christine's films are beautiful, but it is their commitment to the community and their engagement with the community at all levels in the project that make the Civic Life films so special.'

Lawlor and Molloy's movie, as yet untitled, is the third in a series of short films involving communities that they are making.

The first two Civic Life films were set in Dublin, Ireland, the duo's hometown. Moore Street was filmed along the iconic street where many migrant communities settle, while Leisure Centre focused on the leisure centre situated on Main Street Ballymun, which has long been associated with crime and poverty in the media. Both films were praised at various international film festivals.

For their Singapore film, they surveyed other places including Bedok before deciding on Tiong Bahru, because it is one of the oldest estates in Singapore, and is a place rich with history and culture. Also, almost every Singaporean they encountered seemed to have an opinion about Tiong Bahru Market.

'Some of the people we spoke to used to live here and have since moved away. But they still come back week after week to eat their favourite food,' says Lawlor.

Molloy adds: 'But there are others who refuse to come back after the refurbishment of the market, because they feel it's no longer the same place they remember.'

While filming is slated to take place in June, they are still working on the plot and script after three visits to Singapore. They plan to develop the script gleaned from conversations with residents and visitors in the area.

They are also inviting people to contribute their memories of the place to the project at the website, http://www.civiclife.sg./

'There are certain things that we will definitely include, but we don't know exactly what we want to do yet,' says Lawlor.

songyuan@sph.com.sg

Submit your memories of Tiong Bahru for this project at www.civiclife.sg

Tiong Bahru The MOVIE!

Have you ever wanted to be in a movie?

A real film shot on real film stock?

Here is your chance to do so... to share about the neighbourhood that we all love and care for... what are your stories?


LONDON-BASED film-makers Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy were shocked during their first visit to Tiong Bahru Market when their order of carrot cake arrived. 'It looked nothing like the carrot cake that we were used to. But it's quite good, actually,' says Lawlor in a recent interview with Life! at the Tiong Bahru Market.


picture courtesy of NEA

Now he and his wife are no longer strangers to the market and even know which hawker stalls are the most popular. They have been speaking to store owners and visitors to the area as part of their research for the next short film that they are making.

Set in and around the Tiong Bahru estate, the movie is part of Civic Life: Tiong Bahru, a community arts project exploring identity, memory, architecture, a sense of place and civic space that will take place in the second half of this year. The project is a collaboration between the British Council and the National Museum of Singapore with support from the Singapore International Foundation. There will also be an online film competition for Singaporeans.

'The British Council is a cultural relations agency whose aim is to create meaningful discussions around the ideas of creativity, culture and education. This project involves close collaboration with our Singaporean partners, rich engagement between Singaporean and British artists,' says Mr Dan Prichard, director of programmes of the British Council in Singapore.

He adds: 'Joe and Christine's films are beautiful, but it is their commitment to the community and their engagement with the community at all levels in the project that make the Civic Life films so special.'

Lawlor and Molloy's movie, as yet untitled, is the third in a series of short films involving communities that they are making.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times' LIFE!.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

More from sktechwalk....

Following up from the last post on the sketchwalk in Tiong Bahru, here are more works by one of the participants...

Lovely images of our Estate!
More of Paul Wang's sketches can be seen here.

The next walk is at another of our historic neighbourhoods - Geylang - whose historic buildings were given conservation status by URA in 1991 - check out the details if you want to join - here.

DISCLAIMER - THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO NEIGHBOURHOODS!

The origins of the name of Singapore - an alternative take

Something on the lighter side... see how Raffles and Farquhar came to decide on the name of our lovely island....



From 'Talking Cock - the movie'...

The names of our estate's streets ... what are their stories? Coming up soon....

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Share your pictures of your beloved Tiong Bahru!

Dear Friends!

Do you have good memories of your times in Tiong Bahru Estate, happenings and events with your family and your friends through the years?

We are calling for all residents, ex-residents, friends and supporters of Tiong Bahru Estate to share their pictures of the estate.

The 'Theme' is very simple:

JUST ONE LOOK AND YOU KNOW ITS TIONG BAHRU!

The 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and today?

Here are some examples of what we are looking for:


Family in Tiong Bahru. Courtesy of Mr Chan J.K.


The old entrance to the Community Centre. Courtesy of Mrs Wong of Eng Hoon Street


The old Bird Corner


Lunar New Year on Eng Hoon Street


National Day, Tiong Bahru Road

We folks at the Seng Poh RC would be really good to build up a ‘Community Family Album’ for this estate that so many of us love – to share pictures, memories and stories… for those of us who are here, or who used to live here, or who just love this place.

The Stage 1 of this project will be that the best 50 or 60 pictures will be selected for display for the Tiong Bahru Community Day on 16 May 2010. The venue will be the Tiong Bahru Community Centre.

All pictures submitted will also be put up on to the local Tiong Bahru photo website (being created - look out for it in the next weeks!) for all to view.

WE HOPE THAT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WILL SHARE YOUR PICTURES OF TIONG BAHRU!

Stage 2 will be to collect even more and see if we can build up a good community album to be turned possibly into another project...
___________________

How to do it?

Scan your image at 300 dpi and save it in a *.jpg format and post to:

tiongbahruhc@gmail.com

with the following subject title:

'Tiong Bahru Community Pictures'

Please include the following information:

Your Full Name

When was the picture taken

What was the event? (e.g. was it a birthday?)

Your contact details - address, phone.

______________________

Closing date for Stage 1 of the project is

24 April 2010 for us to get the pictures ready for the show.
______________________

If you have problems scanning the pictures, drop us a line and we will arrange to help you scan!

Happy Picture Hunting!