Category: Cinema

‘Cloud Counter’ (2025)

Back in July last year, I enrolled in a short digital filmmaking course offered by the Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film, a place where I had organised the Walter Benjamin reading group for a few years. I figured it was high time for me to learn the nuts and bolts of cinema. Led by… Continue reading ‘Cloud Counter’ (2025)

Eric Rohmer’s red-pilled nouvelle vague

The films that make up Rohmer’s ‘six moral tales’ follow a loose narrative; a man sees a woman that takes his fancy, pursues her from afar, though during his pursuit he encounters another woman and gets sidetracked. He gets to know the second woman and discovers that she challenges him intellectually, makes him question himself… Continue reading Eric Rohmer’s red-pilled nouvelle vague

The Malay feminist cinephile in 2026 (Part 1)

In the spirit of last year’s love affair with Tarkovsky, I decided to watch as many films from one filmmaker’s filmography as possible, along with all other extraneous documented audio-visual material about that filmmaker, their process, philosophy, and collaborators (mainly their ‘family’ of actors, DOP, composer). This year, it is the New German wunderkind Rainer… Continue reading The Malay feminist cinephile in 2026 (Part 1)

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Book launch address: Remapping the Cold War in Asian Cinemas

Here’s an example of being paid (and fed) to read. I was invited to be a discussant at a book launch Singapore Management University in February 2025. As discussant, it was my role to read a book and talk about it, especially the sections in the book by contributors who would appear in person at… Continue reading Book launch address: Remapping the Cold War in Asian Cinemas

Be like Insiang

Lino Brocka’s film from 1976, Insiang, opens in a slaughterhouse. Hung by their hind legs, loud squealing pigs meet their end by a decisive stab down the neck. We never meet anymore pigs, alive or dead, later in the film, which means this is but a grisly foreshadowing for things to come. As viewers, we… Continue reading Be like Insiang

New publication [January 2025]

Back in May 2022, I was invited to a lovely workshop organised by Cüneyt Çakırlar at Nottingham Trent University. It was my first time in the ancient, much spruced-up city of Nottingham, the northern English spring gently warmed my cheeks. The workshop would eventually produce a new edited volume, Transnational Horror: Folklore, Genre, and Cultural… Continue reading New publication [January 2025]

‘Between laughter and silence’

Part of the joy of being in the business of teaching and learning is that the learning never quite ends, and if you’re lucky, you get masterclasses from with some of the greatest minds in the business. I was incredibly privileged to attend a personal tutorial session with Professor Catherine Grant recently to work on… Continue reading ‘Between laughter and silence’

Voiceover exercise for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

For the second exercise of the AHRC-funded project, I have created an experimental voiceover video that combines an unrelated audio recording with scenes from a horror film, in this case Amanda Nell Eu’s It’s Easier to Raise Cattle (Lagi Senang Jaga Sekandang Lembu, 2017). Amanda’s film is excellent for this exercise; it’s largely devoid of… Continue reading Voiceover exercise for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History