IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING (2010)

Visit the Official website here.

The Impossibility of Knowing. A documentary about Singapaore spaces which have experienced trauma.
Commissioned by the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival

Completed and first screened at DMZ Docs 11 Sep 2010
In Competition, Visions du Reel
In Competition, Oberhausen
Singapore Biennale 2011

Catch a review here

“As Tan describes, this is an experiment in the ability of film to capture aura, albeit a failed one — visually, the images remain fundamentally architectural and documentary, with no explicit reference to tragedy or haunting. A fascinating game emerges in the relationship between narrative voiceover, which consists of a deadpan recounting of the incidents in a tone of dry reportage, and the video, which is similarly devoid of any prurient interest, as the viewer cannot help but search for clues in the moving space of the film. Emotion shapes geography, and the filmmaker in turn recreates this topography of affect through the application of the cinematic process.”