Private Project

Lost Waterfronts

Singapore’s Eastern and Southern coastlines underwent massive reclamation to make room for places like Marine Parade, Changi Airport and MBS. Once, they were part of the sea and they saw a lot of action. This hour long documentary peels open intriguing stories brought to life with quirky animation. Why did the Dutch and Portuguese battle off the coast of Tanah Merah in 1603, why did the Okinawans come to prewar Siglap and help create a local food tradition, why early day Singapore was full of hills and how did they get destroyed? The Merlion isn’t just a souvenir but an emblem of adventurers from 1600.

  • Chih Chong Tan
    Director
    Route Awakening
  • Soh Kiak Chang
    Writer
    Belly of a Nation
  • Melvin Tham
    Producer
  • Adrian Pang
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Documentary, Television
  • Runtime:
    47 minutes 34 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 10, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    185,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Singapore
  • Country of Filming:
    Singapore
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Chih Chong Tan

With 30 years of experience in the local film and television industry behind him, Chih Chong brings along with him both depth and breadth gained over a broad spectrum of works in factual entertainment, magazine, comedy, drama and feature film projects as well as accolades earned from New York Fests, The World Media Festival, WorldFest Houston, Venice TV Awards, Impact Awards and the Asian Television Awards.

Since graduating with a B.Sc in film production from the University of Texas at Austin, Chih Chong has proved his mettle in this extremely volatile and competitive industry in Singapore having done work for companies as diverse as MediaCorp, CTN, RTM, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, Fremantle Media, Voom Networks, AETN and many others. Apart from television, Chih Chong also dabbled in feature films and was a producer on the highly successful Singapore film, Forever Fever.

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Director Statement

Lost Waterfronts is one of a rare breed of Singapore made documentaries that tells a story with the use of animation. Choosing to engage the audience with a quirky narration, we put a spin into a compendium of otherwise dry facts and historical anecdotes.