Meet Kirsten Tan The First Singaporean Director To Compete At Sundance

After a banner year for the Singaporean film scene in 2016, the new year is getting off to a promising start. Kirsten Tan’s debut feature, Pop Aye, gets set to hit the festival circuit, starting with a spot in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, which takes place next week in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Anticipation for the film festival in Singapore is high. Although Meng Ong’s film, Miss Wonton, was selected for the American spectrum section in 2001, Tan will be the first Singaporean director to actually compete at the Sundance Film Festival. Tan is no stranger to international competition, having won the Torino Film Lab award two years ago which in turn helped to fund the production of this film. Previously, she has had success with her short films, including winning Best SE Asian Short Film at the 2014 Singapore International Film Festival in the same year that she finished her MFA at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

In Pop Aye, Tan tells the story of an architect in Bangkok who is unfulfilled with city life and his career. One day this man stumbles across the long-lost elephant he had as a boy and decides to take it on a road trip across Thailand to bring it, and himself, on a trek to find his roots. Tan juxtaposes the darkness of the architect’s life journey with the comic relief of a man traveling across a country with an elephant with the ultimate goal of creating something that is light but ultimately resounds with her viewers.

The inspiration for the film came to Tan while she was living in Thailand. One day she saw a group of boys pulling an elephant towards the ocean in order to clean it. That image combined with her own thoughts of often feeling like she doesn’t properly belong anywhere, inspired the protagonist’s own feelings of disillusionment and restlessness. Tan worked together with Anthony Chen and the rest of the Giraffe Pictures team to make her vision a reality. Chen, something of a luminary among film students in Singapore, has had his own success on the international stage when his film Ilo Ilo won the Camera d’Or prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, making him the first Singaporean director to receive one of film’s highest accolades.

During Sundance, Pop Aye is contending for multiple awards including the Audience Prize, the World Cinema Directing Award and the highly coveted World Cinema Grand Jury Prize. As major players in the Singaporean film industry, both Kirsten Tan and Anthony Chen hope that the success of Pop Aye will encourage aspiring directors to follow their creative dreams.

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.