HOME Fundraiser Screening & Panel Discussion: MONGREL (M18)

Time: 7.30pm to 10.30pm

Venue: Redrum, The Projector at Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road, #05-00, Singapore 199589

Tickets: $25

Join us as we commemorate International Migrants Day with a charity screening of the 77th Cannes Film Festival Golden Camera Special Mention award-winning film, MONGREL, to raise funds for the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME).

Director Chiang Wei-Liang and Co-Producer Elizabeth Wijaya will join Jaya Anil Kumar, Senior Research & Advocacy Manager at HOME in a post-screening panel discussion exploring migrant worker issues in Singapore and the region.

About Mongrel:

Oom, an undocumented Thai migrant in rural Taiwan, works as a caregiver for the elderly and disabled. He has to deal with suspicious employers, restricted mobility, withheld wages, and fellow migrants who question his complicit relationship with his exploitative boss. Torn between complying in hopes of eventually receiving his delayed pay, or maintaining his dignity, Oom must navigate his difficult circumstances to survive.

About HOME:

https://www.home.org.sg/

HOME (Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics) is dedicated to supporting and empowering migrant workers who experience abuse and exploitation.

In 2024, HOME celebrates its 20th Anniversary, having provided welfare assistance to over 40,000 migrant workers, equipped close to 20,000 migrant workers with skills through HOME Academy, provided temporary housing to more than 10,000 migrant workers through our shelter, and published a total of 17 research reports and position papers for the betterment of the migrant workers in Singapore.

About Chiang Wei Liang (Director, Mongrel):

Born in Singapore, Chiang Wei Liang graduated from the Nanyang Technological University with a degree in Communication Studies and completed his MFA (Film Directing) at the Taipei National University of the Arts. Based in Taiwan for the past decade, his work focuses on migration and diaspora of Southeast Asians in modern Asia. His film, Anchorage Prohibited received the Audi Short Film Award at the 66th Berlinale and recent short films Luzon, Nyi Ma Lay and the VR short film Only The Mountain Remains – in competition at the 76th Venice Film Festival – continue this commentary on the difficult lives of migrants. Chiang is an alumnus of the Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Talents Tokyo, FID Campus and the Golden Horse Film Academy, mentored by esteemed Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien. His debut feature, Mongrel, premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and received the Camera d’Or Special Mention.

About Elizabeth Wijaya (Co-Producer, Mongrel):

Elizabeth Wijaya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Studies and Graduate Faculty in the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. She is the Director of the Southeast Asian Seminar Series at the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She is the Co-Producer for Mongrel (dir. Chiang Wei Liang, Directors’ Fortnight, awarded the Caméra d’Or Special Mention at Cannes Film Festival 2024). She is Associate Producer for Viet and Nam (dir. Truong Minh Quý, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2024) and Associate Producer for Taste (dir. Lê Bảo, awarded the Special Jury Award at Encounters, Berlinale 2021). Taste was also awarded at Taipei, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and Jogja-NETPAC. She co-founded E&W Films and co-edits World Picture Journal (worldpicturejournal.com). She has published articles in the journals Verge, Cultural Critique. Discourse, Parallax and chapters in the edited volumes: Erotics of Deconstruction: Auto-Affection After Derrida (Edinburgh University Press, 2024, forthcoming), Routledge Companion to Asian Cinemas (2024), Remapping the Cold War in Asian Cinema (Amsterdam University Press, 2024), Ecology and Chinese-Language Cinema: Reimagining a Field (Routledge, 2021).

About Jaya Anil Kumar (HOME)

Jaya Anil Kumar is the Senior Research and Advocacy Manager at the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME), an NGO in Singapore that provides services for migrant workers in need, including shelter, legal assistance and training programmes. Prior to this, she oversaw casework relating to migrant domestic workers at HOME, and provided them advice and guidance on their rights.