5 Editions + 2 AP
Acquired by Vega Foundation, Sunpride Foundation
Installation photos: Andrea Avezzù
Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
“What’s softest...” is a glimpse of queer parenthood in Singapore, where such families are illegitimate under the eyes of the law. The hybrid documentary film combines interview material with a constructed communal space for play and imagination. The film’s title is taken from Ursula K. Le Guin’s rendition of the Dao De Jing and refers to the dichotomy of water and stone. By gathering sensibilities of the natural world, Eastern cosmology, and interdependence, “What’s softest...” presents queerhood as an open field of possibility, one brimming with life that is to come.
“What’s softest...” was commissioned by Vega Foundation for Biennale Arte 2024 - Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
Director: Charmaine Poh
Cast: Baby C, Cally, Ching, Sze, Bubble, Pearlyn, Brenda Velda, Ezen, Chris, Isaac, Kansh, Zuby
DP: Lixia Soh (Eze)
Editor: Monica Vanesa Tedja
Production designer: Lou Shenna
Composer: Suhui Hee
Colourist: Eugene Seah
Sount mastering: Queer Ear Mastering
Production manager: Zenia Yim
Sound recordist: Nikki Koh
AD: Shirmaine Ong
CA: Angel Shu
Gaffer: Chan Fong-Yuen (Circle)
Grip: Joellyn Toh
Junior grip: Thandy Tan
HMU: Suzanah Salleh
PA: Aloysius Ho
Music: Pulp Fiction written by Anise, performed by Anise, Zhong Ren Koh, Victor Low, licensed by Suhui Hee
| Special thanks: Adriano Pedrosa, Amblers, Biennale Arte, Camera Rental Centre Singapore, Catherine Lim, Charles Lim, Donna Chiu, Elisa Nuyten, Joella Kiu, Joleen Loh, Jom, Julia Paoli, Katharine Nevins, Koh Shiyan, Li Li Chung, Maximilian Kupi, Mh Jos, Peter Morgan, Queer Women SG, Tan Si En, TBG, The Sims, Wee Li Lin, Xie Feng Mao, Yin Hwang |
Research references:
Dr. Shawna Tang, University of Sydney:
- Tang, S. (2018). Same-sex partnering and same-sex parented families in Singapore. In Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, Shu Hu (Eds.), Family and Population Changes in Singapore: A unique case in the global family change, (pp. 180-196). Abingdon: Routledge.
- Tang, S. (2016). Postcolonial lesbian identities in Singapore: Re-thinking global sexualities. Oxford: Routledge (Taylor and Francis).
- Tang, S. (2012). Transnational Lesbian Identities: Lessons from Singapore? In A. Yue and J. Zubillaga-Pow (Eds.), Queer Singapore: Illiberal Citizenship and Mediated Cultures, (pp. 83-96). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Dr. Lynette J. Chua, National University of Singapore
- Mobilizing Gay Singapore: Rights and Resistance in an Authoritarian State (Temple University Press 2014).
Assoc Professor Natalie Oswin, University of Toronto Scarborough
- Oswin, N. (2019) Global City Futures: Desire and Development in Singapore, Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation Series. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
- Oswin, N. (2010) The modern model family at home in Singapore: A queer geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35(2): 256-268.
- Oswin, N. (2010) Sexual tensions in modernizing Singapore: The postcolonial and the intimate, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28(1): 128-141.
Dr. Ad Maloud
- Maulod, A. (2016). Exiles of Heteronormativity: Queer Production and Female Same-Sex Families in Singapore. Open Access Dissertations. 1261. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1261
Viewing link available upon request.