Meet Kew Lin of Anna Barbara Films

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kew Lin.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Kew. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am a visual effects artist by training and a film director by passion. I was born in a little dot of an island called Singapore and Michel Gondry’s music videos and films greatly influenced my love for VFX – the movie-making magic. I’ve been trained autodidactically by the internet, in particular, Andrew Kramer’s Video Copilot, something that all VFX aficionados should know about.

In 2011 I took the leap and started studying visual effects formally at Met Film School in London, where I met some of my future filmmaking colleagues Michael Boccalini and Che Grant, based in LA and would later write feature film Love Possibly together. 

Between 2014 and 2016 I was working in major Hollywood VFX house Double Negative. Some of my credits as a VFX artist as part of the VFX family include Interstellar, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Bridge of Spies and The Hunger Games series. My first job as a junior was to rotoscope Matthew McConnaughey’s face on a piece of footage, a memorable dive into the deep end because it was my first industry-standard task.

Even though I have been making my own short films all this time, in 2016 I took another turn to depart from the visual effects industry and started focusing on making films full-time as a freelancer. As an ethnographic filmmaker, I have been commissioned by clients such as IKEA and Coca-Cola to direct documentary shorts and interviews in China and the US.

It was fortuitous and satisfying to join Michael and Che’s team to co-write British feature film Love Possibly, which premiered at Raindance Film Festival and found great successes in LA/California. The film won Best International Feature at Catalina Film Festival, LA Edge Awards, LA Indie Fest, Catalina Film Festival, Laughlin International Film Festival and more. It was a surprise to find this British comedy mockumentary popular in America, something that we are very grateful for.

The fourth and latest short film that I directed Of Pets & Dinner had its world premiere at the International Short Film Festival of Oberhausen in Germany, one of the world’s oldest film festivals. Thereafter, the film has been screened so far in South Korea, England, Ukraine, Colombia and so on, garnering Best Experimental Film award, Special Mention of Jury and a Critics’ Choice nomination. My next film will be an arthouse short film about an old man waiting for a phone that never really arrives – fully funded by media agency CreativesAtWork and the government of Singapore.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Singapore is a young country and over there in our tropical climate, we are constantly searching and creating our own identity. Pursuing filmmaking as a career and not just a hobby is an upstream journey for every filmmaker, that is not a surprise. But it is an especially discouraging thing to be using cinema as a tool for expression in Singapore. This opposing force permeates the society over here because the market and audienceship are small, much unlike London where I am based currently.

Visiting places in America and Europe where cinema is glorious and rooted keeps me inspired as a filmmaker – where everyone gets to have a voice and use it. Over the last few years as a growing filmmaker, I’ve developed the attitude of a contrarian and an obsession for absurdity. I hope that these will be reflected in my body of work.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
For better or worse, I’ve always been surrounded by people who are crazy about cinema. Films are visions, dreams, ideas, opinions, life experiences of people, and we get to live them in a vicarious way, possess those memories and thoughts in that second-hand, hand-me-down way. It is a beautiful way of sharing. Having friends who love cinema as much as I do has been one of the biggest things that propel me to move forward and improve myself as a storyteller.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.annabarb.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_spacebarman/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magicalmiserytour
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9741424/

Image Credit:
Kew Lin

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