Private Film Screening and Fireside Chat with filmmaker Ms Kelly Ng
From ideation to production to promotion
Event sponsored by CLA Global TS
Date/time: 29 May 2024, Wednesday, 6.30pm - 9.00pm
Venue: CLA Global TS Holdings, 80, Robinson Road, #25-00, Singapore 068898
Film: LADY! - Caregiving, early-onset dementia and stigma
Programme
6.30pm
Registration and Networking Reception
7.00pm
Welcome by Lau Joon-Nie, Vice President, Singapore Press Club
Welcome by Henry Tan, Group CEO & Chief Innovation Officer, CLA Global TS (Sponsor of the film screening and venue)
Video Introduction of Lady! by Tan Pei Lin, Director of Lady! and documentary filmmaker
7.15pm
Film Screening (45 minutes)
8.00pm
Fireside Chat with Kelly Ng, co-producer of Lady! and Q&A moderated by Lau Joon-Nie
8.45pm
Networking and Good Night
Register to join this event now! Limited seats available.
A token registration fee of $5 will be charged for confirmation of attendance. No refund for no-show.
Attendees will enjoy a private film screening and light rice bowl dinner with drinks.
The film
Siti was still a young mother in her mid-30s when an insidious disease fell upon her beloved husband Gary and upended their lives forever. Lady! chronicles the intimate and bittersweet journey as she takes on the hardest role in her life to care for Gary, who was diagnosed with young-onset dementia in 2014.
Dementia, what's typically seen as an "old-person's disease", is now afflicting younger Singaporeans, as early as in their late 30s. Gary was one of some 4,000 such patients in Singapore, aged between 35 and 65. That number is steadily growing. These young patients – as well as their families – find their lives abruptly interrupted. Many struggle to perform simple daily tasks, amid declining physical and cognitive health.
There is no cure.
In Siti's and Gary's deeply moving tale, this short documentary shows a young caregiver navigating the emotional turmoil surrounding a lesser-known disease, yet still facing the world with resilience, humour and quiet grace.
Why it matters
While Singapore has been steadily increasing its support for dementia patients, some feel that the majority of services are still geared towards the elderly, as the illness is more prevalent among this demographic. More than ever, there is an urgent need for more structural support and interventions in the area of young-onset dementia. Siti's story exposes some of these gaps.
That said, this is not just a film about dementia. No matter how old you are or where you come from, you will find resonance in the universal themes of identity, love, family, loss, death – the sweeping collective experience of what it means to be human. This film creates the space for difficult conversations about death and dying, especially in an Asian society where such topics are often swept under the carpet.
Lady! provides a space to be fragile and tender. To pause, to feel, to understand. And finally, it compels us to reflect on how we, as a community, can rally for these caregivers in our midst.
Lady! is the brainchild of three Singaporean ladies - (from left to right) Kelly Ng, Toh Ee Ming, Tan Pei Lin (the filmmakers)
Fireside Chat with
Joon-Nie Lau
Vice President at SINGAPORE PRESS CLUB LTD
Trained as a lawyer, Joon-Nie spent 15 years in broadcast and digital news as a journalist, online editor, current affairs producer and assignments editor at Channel NewsAsia and its predecessors SBC News and TCS News. She covered extensively the law and technology beats, including the rise and growth of commercial Internet services and emerging technologies in Asia, digital transformation of the legal system and development of arbitration and mediation in Singapore.
Joon-Nie was part of the four-person team which built and launched channelnewsasia.com. She later went on to teach at Nanyang Technological University for seven years before heading the APAC office of the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) for five years.
From February 2022 to March 2024, Joon-Nie returned to her legal roots and was Deputy CEO of the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) She is also a Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC) Accredited Mediator.
Joon-Nie graduated from the National University of Singapore and is called to the Singapore Bar. She holds a Master's degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and received a Student Emmy in 2001 for her Master's documentary project, "Blue Sky Station: New York's Third Chinatown". She is a member of the National Youth Achievement Award Council, Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Film and Media Studies Advisory Committee and the Info-Comm & Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) Skills Expert Panel.
Kelly Ng
Filmmaker and Producer at LADY!
Kelly is a journalist drawn to stories of people living on the fringes in Asia. She lived most of her journalism life in text, but is exploring new ways of telling stories.
She finds film a particularly powerful medium for understanding the world. In 2019, she co-directed Curtain Up!, a film on Asian-American children doing theatre in New York. Lady! is her second venture into documentary filmmaking. This craft, which she considers herself still an amateur at, has also taught her empathy and challenged her to break some journalism conventions.
Kelly loves the outdoors and spends a great amount of time running and hiking. These are when she feels most alive.
About the other Filmmakers
Toh Ee Ming, producer
Ee Ming is a freelance journalist and writer who is passionate about social issues.
Her stories have been published globally on news outlets like the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, South China Morning Post, Southeast Asia Globe, and more. She has covered everything from endangered vultures deep in the Himalaya, the aftermath of a disastrous toxic waste crisis in Malaysia, 24-hour child care in Sweden to Finland's creative senior living models.
Her work has earned her multiple awards, including being recognised by the International Journalists' Network.
Tan Pei Lin, director
Pei Lin is a documentary filmmaker who believes that stories can create shifts within people, eventually causing a continuous ripple across time.
She has produced and directed broadcast television documentaries that have taken her from a petroleum megastructure in Malaysia to the home of a second-generation refugee in Hong Kong. She has also produced and directed short docs about social issues in Southeast Asia, especially in the mental health space. Pei Lin has always been enamoured with the power of moving visuals. Lady! is her first feature documentary.
The subtleties of life inspire her. She is an adrenaline junkie, and her current obsession is bouldering. Also a home baker, she uses dessert as a way to express her imagination and to form connections with people. Pei Lin is fascinated by the psyche and wants to make more films exploring the human condition.
Tickets
Ticket with Dinner meal
S$5.-
Buy TicketTicket to attend film screening and after-screening fireside chat with filmmaker - includes a complimentary light rice-bowl dinner and drinks. No refund for no-show.
Brought to you by
Event Sponsor
CLA Global TS, an award-winning Asia-Centred Business Advisor, provides assurance, taxation, and various advisory services from locations in Singapore, China and Malaysia.
CLA Global TS Holdings Pte. Ltd.
Founded in 1993, CLA Global TS is an award-winning Asia-Centred Business Advisor. An independent member firm of CLA Global Network, CLA Global TS provides a full spectrum of professional services including, but not limited to Assurance & IPO Reporting, Tax, Risk Advisory, Valuation, Insolvency & Restructuring, Sustainability & Climate Change Advisory and more.
https://www.cla-ts.com
