KwanTeo Film Archive · Creator
Philip Cheah
谢福龙Philip Cheah is a Singaporean film critic, editor and programmer whose work involves Asian cinema and exchange across the region.
About the Creator
Cheah moved from reviewing films into programming when he joined the Singapore International Film Festival in 1987. In a 2017 interview, he described learning through travel and encounters with filmmakers, stressing that programmers need to understand the cultures in which films take shape.
In his New Nanyang lecture at KwanTeo CineLab 2026, he situated his account in the postwar baby-boom generation. He considered how independence, popular culture and life across ethnic communities shaped identities, and how filmmakers map their worlds through different languages and local cultures.
His perspective connects Teochew filmmaking with Southeast Asian experiences of migration and cultural change. In KwanTeo’s work with emerging filmmakers, he sees opportunities for local stories to enter a wider conversation about new cinemas in Asia.
Works
Works in progress.