Southeast Asian short films distributor Objectifs Films celebrated a successful back-to-back DVD launch event for local documentary Old Places as well as local experimental film Here on Saturday, 7th May 2011 which attracted an overwhelming fanfare and many interested customers.

The first DVD launch kicked off with filmmakers for Old Places Royston Tan, Eva Tang and Victric Thng chatting passionately about their inspirations and experiences of working on the local documentary, which was screened on local free-to-air TV channel Okto as a special National Day documentary feature in 2010. The intent for Old Places was to invite Singaporeans to reminisce yesterday’s past today and features the voices of Singaporeans as they recall their memories of disappearing places in Singapore.

With a tremendous crowd of fans and supporters, Old Places sold out during the event; and all of them were also lucky enough to get their copies of the DVD autographed by the very affable filmmakers who bantered joyously with them like long-time friends, reminiscing about the past.

The second DVD launch saw artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen, who was joined by producer Michel Cayla, take the centre stage for the DVD release of his first feature film Here, which received warm reception when screened at the 2009 Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival. Here, is a love story about mental patients set in a fictional hospital.

With scenes from the film playing in the background while the filmmaker and producer explained more about the movie, coupled with the appearance of several cast members, all of these contributed to a different atmosphere exuded for this DVD launch as compared to the earlier session, which also helped in gaining more customer interest in the film and DVD.