Singapore Film Festival

'Tiger' takes another step forward after being selected into the Singapore Film Festival next month. It will be our international première. The Festival, now in its 24th year, is the largest and longest-running in the country and one of the most important in the region.

The festival programme has a strong line-up and includes an Oscar winning film, a 3-D documentary, and the latest drama featuring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Even though we are really excited at the prospect of showing the film in Singapore, the simple truth is that there are 144 films taking part in the festival and people don't want to watch a foreign language documentary about AIDS. We were obviously surprised when the Straits Times ran a festival-preview feature and 'Tiger' was one of the highlighted films, together with a shot from the film as their main picture.

They describe the film as "One of the more serious Asian offerings at the festival". Yes, it has a serious underlying message but as anyone who has watched the film knows, the kids don't dwell on their plight and certainly don't take themselves too seriously.

The past several months has taught us that promoting the film is an impossible job. There are particular story lines that don't make commercial sense, so we applaud the festival organisers who, for whatever reason, have taken a chance by inviting us. We hope that we don't let them down. Of course, we also hope that we can get the message of the film out to the public.

Do you know anyone in Singapore? If so, you could really help us by getting the word out about the screening. Sometimes the extra efforts that we have to go to in order to find an audience don't make sense. We just know that we have to do it. Please tell your friends and colleagues.

Living with the Tiger plays at the Lido Cineplex on September 22nd

Mike