JOHN LUI FILM CORRESPONDENT & BOON CHAN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT RECOMMEND

Film Picks: I Am Eleven

I Am Eleven. PHOTOS: HENRIK NORDSTROM

I AM ELEVEN (TBC)

94 minutes /opens Sunday/4/5

Australian film-maker Genevieve Bailey took six years to make this documentary about children on the cusp of teenhood.

When she was 11, says Bailey she was the happiest she had been in her life and wondered what the experience was like for children of that age in other parts of the world. She begins with one child in Japan, and after glimpsing at the lives of more than 20 kids, ends with the story of an Aboriginal girl in her home city of Melbourne.

From an orphanage in Kerala, India, to an elephant farm in Thailand to the suburbs of America, Bailey proves that talking to the right 11-year-old can be the most educational and uplifting thing an adult can do.

WHERE: The Projector, Golden Mile Tower, Beach Road MRT: Nicoll Highway WHEN: Opens on Sunday, 6.30pm ADMISSION: Tickets $13 from theprojector.sg

John Lui

•Director Genevieve Bailey will be present for a Q&A at this Sunday's screening.


INSIDE OUT (PG)

102 minutes/4/5

PHOTO: DISNEY PIXAR

Pixar Animation Studios has gone back to what it does best: Making characters you care about and want to stay with, who feel and act the way real people do.

Inside our heads, there are five principal emotions, each personified here as Fear (Bill Hader), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black) and Joy (Amy Poehler). They live inside young girl Riley (Kaitlyn Dias). Joy, by running the controls and keeping everyone else under check, becomes the de facto boss.A happy Riley is a well-adjusted Riley, and her parents (Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane) are pleased with her. This sort of personification, of making the abstract either concrete or literal, goes on constantly - categories of life, such as sports and family, are floating islands.

There is an actual tail-riding Train of Thought moving between them. Each new example is unveiled as a little throwaway joke for adults who enjoy the wordplay. For everyone else, it is just fun to look at.

John Lui


UTTER 2015: HEAD TRIPS

PHOTO: UTTER 2015: HEAD TRIPS

The stories of five Singapore authors meet the visual styles of five animation teams in the anthology Head Trips, presented as part of the Singapore Writers Festival.

The 45-minute collection, screened from today till Sunday, will also feature 45-minute-long post-screening chats with the authors and animators.

Today, for example, writers Amanda Lee Koe and Chow Teck Seng will take the panel with animation directors Samantha Seah and Ang Qing Sheng.

Three of Lee Koe's stories were adapted to make Round, directed by Seah. Other writers and animators will speak tomorrow and on Sunday.

WHERE: Golden Village Suntec City, 7.30pm, today nightly till Sunday MRT: City Hall ADMISSION: $12.50 from singaporewritersfestival.com

John Lui


SEPTFEST 2015: THE BOY WITH MANY BALLOONS

PHOTO: GIN TAY

Septfest is independent arts centre The Substation's annual birthday bash and this year, it celebrates turning 25.

To help mark the occasion, film-maker Victric Thng, co-director of popular feature documentaries Old Places (2010) and Old Romances (2012), has made a new short film titled The Boy With Many Balloons.

In this whimsical work, the titular boy has to decide whether to let go of his precious balloons in order to rescue someone trapped in a suitcase. The screening is paired with a live performance element.

WHERE: Objectifs, 155 Middle Road MRT: Bras Basah WHEN: Sept 3 & 4,8pm ADMISSION: $7 (concession) & $10 from peatix.com. Limited door sales may be available on a first-come, first-served basis

Boon Chan


The award-winning documentary I Am Eleven will screen again tomorrow (sept1) at 6.30pm The Projector, Golden Mile Tower, Beach Road. Melbourne-based film-maker Genevieve Bailey travelled to 15 countries, filming and interviewing over two dozen 11-year-olds in a project that took six years to complete.

Director and producer Ms Bailey will be present after the screening for questions.

Tickets $13, at theprojector.sg

Being 11 is a special time, she says, as it exists between childhood and teenhood, when idealism is at its peak and before self-consciousness appears.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 28, 2015, with the headline I Am Eleven, Inside Out and more. Subscribe