Ken Kwek

Ken Kwek (born 7 May 1979) is a Singaporean screenwriter, director, and playwright. His short film compendium, Sex.Violence.FamilyValues,[1] was banned by the Singapore and Malaysian governments in 2012.[2] His first feature film Unlucky Plaza premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014.[3] He has written several full-length plays, including the #MeToo drama, This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls, which was staged in Singapore in 2019.[4]

Ken Kwek
Born (1979-05-07) 7 May 1979
Singapore
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
OccupationScreenwriter, director, playwright
Spouse(s)Pamela Oei
Children1

Career

After graduating from the University of Cambridge in 2003, Kwek worked as a camera assistant on various film productions in the United Kingdom. During this time, he also shot and produced The Ballad of Vicki and Jake,[5] a documentary about a heroin addict struggling to raise her 11-year-old son in the ghettos of Bristol. The film won the Best Newcomer Award at the 2006 Visions Du Reel Film Festival in Switzerland.[6]

In 2008, after a three-year stint as a newspaper journalist, Kwek returned to filmmaking. He penned The Blue Mansion, a satirical comedy of manners. He also co-wrote the crime thriller Kidnapper and the period musical comedy It's a Great, Great World with director Kelvin Tong.

In 2011, Kwek directed a trio of short films, Sex.Violence.FamilyValues. The component films, Cartoons, Porn Masala and The Bouncer, were selected for the Miami International Short Film Festival, Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, Seoul International Youth Film Festival and Sydney Underground Film Festival, amongst others. Porn Masala won the Audience Choice Award (Short Film) at the Gotham Screen Film Festival[7] and was nominated for Best Comedy at the Super Shorts Film Festival in London.[8]

In 2012, Sex.Violence.FamilyValues was acquired by distributor Cathay, the first Singapore omnibus film to get a major theatrical release in Singapore. However, on 8 October 2012, just three days before the film's slated release, Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) revoked the film's M18 rating and banned it, citing public complaints about the film trailers' "racially offensive" content.[9] The ban ignited a debate about censorship in Singapore's Parliament.[10]

Kwek's first feature film, Unlucky Plaza (2014) made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and opened the Singapore International Film Festival in December.[11] In January 2016, the film was withdrawn from Kuala Lumpur's Titian Budaya Festival after Malaysian censors requested eight to ten edits to it, including its sex scenes and language.[12] Unlucky Plaza opened in the United States in the same month, playing in New York City and Los Angeles. The film, which travelled to various film festivals, including the Warsaw Film Festival, Kolkata International Film Festival, International Film Festival Manhattan (where Quizon picked up the Best Actor award) and the Tehran Jasmine Film Festival (where Kwek won the Best Director prize), was also released in the Philippines.[13]

Personal life

Kwek is married to actress Pamela Oei, and they have one son.[14][15][16]

Works

Feature films
Year Film Director Producer Writer Notes
2005 The Ballad of Vicki and Jake Yes Yes Yes Documentary film
2012 Sex.Violence.FamilyValues Yes Yes Yes
2014 Unlucky Plaza Yes Yes Yes

Screenplays
Year Screenplay Notes
2009 The Blue Mansion
2010 Kidnapper
2011 It's a Great, Great World
2012 Sex.Violence.FamilyValues
2014 Unlucky Plaza
2018 Republic of Food [17]
2019 Trafficker [18]

Short films
Year Film Notes
2011 Cartoons
2011 Porn Masala
2012 The Bouncer

Music Videos
Year Music Video Notes
2015 Riot City [19]
2019 You Can't Touch Me Now [20]

Plays
Year Play Notes
2008 I’ll Have The Special [21]
2008 Apocalypse Live! [22]
2008 Real Actors [23]
2009 The Composer [24]
2019 This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls [25]

Books
Year Book Publisher ISBN Notes
2018 Timothy and the Phubbers Epigram Books 9789814757980

9789814757973, 9781912098903,

 [26]
2019 Kelly and the Krumps Epigram Books 9789811700682,

9789811700699

References
  1. Sex.Violence.FamilyValues Archived 26 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Svfv.com.sg.
  2. Singapore bans satirical local film – Yahoo! Entertainment Singapore. Sg.entertainment.yahoo.com (10 October 2012).
  3. https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/singapore-film-festival-opening-film-unlucky-plaza-is-entertaining-and-has
  4. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/01/theater/singapore-metoo-play.html
  5. http://www.theballadofvickiandjake.co.uk
  6. Film Archive: Visions du Réel – Nyon – 19 au 26 avril 2013 Archived 16 January 2013 at Archive.today. Visionsdureel.ch.
  7. / 5th Gotham Screen Film Festival results
  8. SUPERSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL 2: Best Doc and Comedy | Hackney Picturehouse | London. Picturehouses.co.uk (2 January 2013).
  9. http://www.gov.sg/government/web/content/govsg/classic/factually/factually-24102012-mdaclassificationdecisionon+sex.violence.familyvalues%5B%5D
  10. MCI's response to the PQs on the film ‘Sex.Violence.FamilyValues’. Mci.gov.sg (4 December 2013).
  11. Yip, Wai Yee (2 October 2014). "Ken Kwek's Unlucky Plaza to open the Singapore International Film Festival". Singapore Press Holdings. The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 5 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  12. Chua, Genevieve (4 January 2016). "Malaysian censors take issue with Singapore films". MediaCorp. TODAY. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  13. Chua, Genevieve (31 December 2015). "S'pore film Unlucky Plaza to show in US". MediaCorp. TODAY. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  14. "How Luck Played its Part in Ken Kwek's Unlucky Plaza". Female. 14 April 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  15. migration (22 August 2014). "Ken Kwek's new movie Unlucky Plaza looking for distributor". The Straits Times. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  16. "Story Writing Workshop for Children: Why I Write". Peatix. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  17. "Kelvin Tong Looks Back at 20 Years of Directing Movies: From 'Eating Air' to 'The Maid' To 'Republic of Food'". TODAYonline. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  18. "Creative Capital: Ken Kwek, the introverted auteur who finds his voice in films and plays". CNA. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  19. Lim, Ry-anne (9 April 2018). "Pam Oei writes song about late friend Emma Yong for band's new album". The New Paper. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  20. "Actress Pam Oei and her band play tennis to smash bigotry in new music video". CNA Lifestyle. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  21. "Short+Sweet is very proud to be the first to stage a play by Ken Kwek".
  22. Kolesnikov-Jessop, Sonia (14 August 2008). "OCBC festival: Taking a closer look at life in Singapore". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  23. "FLYING INKPOT THEATRE REVIEW: Do Not Disturb - Late Checkout, Please by Tan Kheng Hua and Janice Koh". inkpotreviews.com. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  24. "Blinding Bling! Unbridled Lust! Virgins!". TODAYonline. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  25. "The next original Pangdemonium script". sgmagazine.com. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  26. Lingesh, Dhanya (28 May 2018). "Ken Kwek releases new book Timothy and the Phubbers". The New Paper. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
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