Singaporean films are all set to make its debut on iTunes in mid-2017. The news was announced by Mocha Chai Laboratories founder and Singaporean filmmaker Chai Yee-Wei at the 2017 Hong Kong Film Mart. Acclaimed works like Anthony Chen's family drama Ilo Ilo (2013), Boo Junfeng's coming-of-age drama Sandcastle (2010) and SG50 omnibus film 7 Letters (2015) will lead the suit.
Initially, around 10 to 12 films will be released and the numbers will be increased later. The initiative is a part of filmmaker Chai Yee Wei's new venture, A Little Seed—an iTunes aggregator, which formats and delivers content to iTunes. "A Little Seed was set up with the goal to work with many independent filmmakers, especially those in Asia - many of whom had wonderful works which are not available on any platform today. I feel that iTunes would be a great platform to ensure that people around the world can have access to them easily," Chai was quoted by Channel New Asia.
Objectifs Centre For Photography & Film, a non-profit visual arts center for filmmaking and photography is taking care of the content creation. Objectifs' director, Yuni Hadi expressed her happiness in broadening the audience base of Singaporean films. She also stated that the new initiative will benefit independent filmmakers who want to exhibit beyond festival circuits. "Independent filmmakers are still learning about the rules of digital distribution and understanding contracts and technical deliverables. We have to participate in order to get to the next step of where we want to take Singapore cinema," she was quoted in the same report.
Filmmaker Eric Khoo—whose groundbreaking "Mee Pok Man" is also on the list—called it "an absolutely wonderful experience." "Mee Pok Man" is the first Singaporean film to be screened at the Cannes. Now, on its 20th anniversary, the film gets its due and will be watched by a whole new generation. He further added that iTunes will be a great platform to share work for all kind of audience.
