Alleviating Poverty Is Not A One Size Fits All.
Filmmaking still in progress.
The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable. –– Arundhati Roy
Our starting point is a conversation with an Indian feminist working in the developmental sector who commented to us: "Alleviating poverty is not a one size fits all". The complexities of poverty and developmental work are more than meets the eye. Even in all our privilege and access, we take hours to reach the forlorn villages where beneficiaries live, we beg the question when we ask: "Why do these people struggle to leave poverty behind?" The film explores the importance of involving both boys and girls in achieving gender equality, rather than simply advocating female empowerment. Can working for change in the land of 1 million NGOs, truly transform mindsets, revolutionize glamorized giving and truly accord shakti (the bengalese word for power) to those who are disadvantaged? From vicariously listening to stories from our safe vantage point in Singapore, we experienced the slums and progress in India first-hand - in all its vibrancy, inequality, and fight.
You Can Just Learn It (2015)
In 1979, the Singapore government launched the Speak Mandarin Campaign to encourage Chinese Singaporeans to speak and teach their children Mandarin instead of dialect. The film explores bilingual policies implemented by the Singapore government to pragmatically establish and strengthen socio-economic ties with China and to maintain their economic competitive edge in the region.
The film also considers the effects of these policies on the individual and family and the loss encountered by systematically discouraging the use of dialects within homes. It features the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter and the learning and passing down of the traditional dish, Hainanese Chicken Rice.