I just completed the trailer for my Beijing Olympics film, Boomtown Beijing,just in time for the upcoming Singapore International Film Festival and the charity screening in Beijing on April 20th. A big thank you to my friend, Zhou Hou Heng (周侯衡） , for helping me edit and package the trailer. Watch the trailer here: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAvrVr_P1Bk&hl=en]
January 30, 2008
As the Beijing Olympics fast approaches, Western media organizations are quick to pull out the well-worn cliches about repressive regimes and the Olympic Games. It is refreshing therefore to read this interview in the Seattle Times blog with Dr Susan Brownell, an American anthropologist who does research on sports in China and their connection with politics, [...]
January 15, 2008
No matter how good my Mandarin is, I know that the Beijing-er can always tell that I am an outsider (外地人）from my accent. I spent the best part of 2007, living out of a suitcase in Beijing, working on a documentary about the Beijing Olympics. For someone from a small country like Singapore, Beijing is a sprawling [...]
December 13, 2007
I recently presented my documentary about the Beijing Olympics at the Guangzhou International Documentary Festival. Boomtown Beijing is my first independent film and making the festival poster for it was a big thrill. Mainly because of how last minute it all was. I got them printed the day I arrived in Guangzhou at a [...]
November 16, 2007
Whenever I tell people I am making a documentary about the Olympics, one of the first questions they ask me is: “Are you featuring athletes?” When I say that I am making a film about ordinary people and their Olympics dreams, the response I often get is one of surprise, even of incredulity. But I can point [...]
March 31, 2008