Our intention is to shed light on an area of filmmaking that is both mysterious and marginalized, especially in regards to cinema in Asia. While the films may be famous or successful, the writers remain in the background, and yet their work is vital to the process of creating cinema. Through a series of often in-depth interviews with 13 writers and writer-directors from Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Iran, we encounter myriad writing experiences, methods for developing stories, and discover the ways in which screenwriters survive and endure within their film industries. Rarely seen pages from the screenplays of, among others, Laskar Pelangi, Tropical Malady, The Handmaiden, Shahrzad and Unlucky Plaza further enrich this unique exploration into writing for the screen.
Ben Slater is a writer, editor and lecturer who’s lived in Singapore for 15 years. He’s the author of Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore (Marshall Cavendish: 2006) and editor of 25: Histories and Memories of the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF: 2016). He was script consultant on Ho Tzu Nyen’s HERE (2009), script editor of Joe Lawlor & Christine Molloy’s Helen (2008) and Mister John (2013), and co-screenwriter for James Leong’s Camera (2014). Currently, he’s a Senior Lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Contributors
Oggs Cruz, Shohreh Golparian, Sonia Kil, Donsaron Kovitvanitcha, Darcy Paquet, Lisabona Rahman, Jasmine Seo
Featuring interviews with
Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, Salman Aristo, Prima Rusdi, Alfie Palermo, Chung Seo-kyung, Ken Kwek, Naghmeh Samini, Shin Yeon-shick, Lilit Reyes, John Bedia, Honeylyn Joy Alipio, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and a photo essay by Sherman Ong
SPECIAL FEATURE
Screenplay excerpts
#1
Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy, Kisah Paling Gengster / Gangster Wars, Shahrzad, The Handmaiden, Laskar Pelangi / Rainbow Troops
#2
Unlucky Plaza, Water Lemon, Imbisibol / Invisible, Taklub / Trap, Tropical Malady
Preview of Issue 2
MORE INFO
25,961 words
36 images
1 illustration
120 pages
ISBN: 978-88-941962-1-4
ISSN: 2531-4912
Spine and bookmark artwork
Yunsung Lee