MADE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Sharing stories through short films
Viddsee: Watch Awesome Stories
Short films, docus and series
Telling stories is important – you never know who they might touch. Viddsee was created in 2013 by Singaporean film-makers who recognised that the great stories that indie film-makers were telling weren’t reaching as wide an audience as they deserved because they were limited to the confines of physical film screenings.
Since good storytelling is universal, Viddsee aims to bridge the gap between Asian film-makers and a global audience. “We wanted to share our own lens on Asian stories as there wasn’t a dedicated media platform for Asian short-form content,” explains Derek Tan, Viddsee co-founder.
Some of the incredible stories include Balik Jakarta by Jason Iskandar, The Lessons of the Night by Christian Rae Villanueva and Queen of Hearts by JD Chua (a drama series shot entirely on iPhone X).
Besides being a platform for cinematic submissions, Viddsee also collaborates with film-makers from the region to make original content. Dive into drama series Scene City or the documentary collection Voices, which includes food-focused Memories On A Plate and the musically inclined Keep the Music Going, amongst other series.
“We see film-makers as the storytellers of their communities,” says Tan. He says a Brazilian student emailed to tell him how a Singaporean film called Gift inspired his high school project. “Beyond the story, the kid was also inspired about other aspects of Singaporean life; he was fascinated by our accent and our unique Singlish language.”
It was just one example of how great stories travel.
Championing local film-makers
To ensure local stories can be celebrated in all their cultural nuances, Viddsee holds local editions of their Juree Awards in Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, which are judged by panels with local, regional and global representation. Viddsee also works with schools to encourage students to submit their creations and these account for dozens of entries with each edition.
Some of the award-winners have gone on to make films for bigger audiences. Take Rein Maychaelson, for example, who worked with the Viddsee team on their first Indonesian original series, Unscripted Man, for streaming app MAXStream. Or Singapore–based film-maker Ler Jiyuan, whose Juree–winning film The Drum was the precursor to the HDB–themed anthology series Invisible Stories, now available on HBO.
From culture to community, it’s clear that short films have an important role to play in inspiring hope and connecting people, and Viddsee provides a platform for these stories to flourish.
Join the community and check out the films – you might just find a new favourite Southeast Asian story.