The Invisible City is directed by Tan Pin Pin, one of Singapore’s best known filmmakers. I first met Pin Pin during the screening of her 2003 documentary 80kmh, a continuous single take of the drive from Tuas to Changi along PIE, lasting 38 minutes.

Fresh from having directed the critically and commercially acclaimed Singapore GaGa as well as the multiple award-winning Moving House, she now turns her camera to the subject of memory in her latest film.From an avid amateur film director trying to preserve his decaying trove of Singapore footage to an intrepid Japanese journalist hunting down Singaporean war veterans, Tan Pin Pin draws out doubts, hopes and the ordinary moments of these protagonists who attempt immortality. Through their footage and photos rarely seen until now, we begin to perceive faint silhouettes of a City that could have been.

Alas, she is a woman of few words, and prefers to let her films do the talking. She talks about her love for capturing moments on film and how she did not want to make Invisible City the way it was. After she filmed a huge portion of it, looked at the footage and edited together no less than 10 different versions.