In Time to Come

Singapore's bustling life takes on an eerie, otherworldly tone in celebrated filmmaker Tan Pin Pin's playful essay on time. Tan is known for her keen observation of the overlooked and discarded people of her country, a nation so swiftly developed it often bulldozes its literal and figurative history. With her latest work, she adds time itself to her list of lost items. Moments that should be chaotic, like roll call at an elementary school or Christmas in a mall, are frozen in inactivity and silence. Wide framing and long stately takes render the everyday mysterious. Sly transitions reference two literal time capsules: one dug up at the film's beginning and one highly conceptual capsule on display at the end. Each playful scene in between appears timeless, betraying no detail that would date the action or location, leaving the viewer to wonder if they belong to the present or the past. (Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival)