25th Jan 2008
Brookville, N.Y. – Assistant professor of education Dr. Yen Yen Woo and Dr. Robert Manheimer, dean of the School of Education at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, proudly present a screening of “Singapore Dreaming,” an internationally acclaimed, award-winning film written and directed by Woo, at the Hillwood Cinema at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008. Following the screening, Woo will hold a 15-minute Q&A session.
Woo, who teaches in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at C.W. Post, developed the idea for the film as she taught a course. She wrote, directed and produced the film with her husband, Colin Goh. “Singapore Dreaming” is a poignant yet darkly humorous story about a typical Singaporean family coming to grips with their aspirations, which entertainment magazine Variety described as "a graceful satire on Western capitalism in the East."
Woo and Goh won the Montblanc New Screenwriters Award at the 54th Annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, one of Europe’s top festivals. “Singapore Dreaming” also garnered the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at the Asian-American International Film Festival in New York in 2007. The San Francisco International Film Festival says Woo’s film "recalls the early films of Ang Lee” and is “a quiet wonder that bodes well for another cinematic renaissance in the East."
"Singapore Dreaming" also was featured as the Singapore representative in the Smithsonian Institution's New Films from Southeast Asia Series at the 2007 U.S. Asian Film Festival October 28 in Washington, D.C.
The film was broadcast via satellite channel LinkTV to more than 28 million U.S. households in December as part of the CineMondo series hosted by Tribeca Film Festival Executive Director Peter Scarlet.
A native of Singapore, Woo joined the faculty of C.W. Post in 2004 following her graduation from Teachers College, Columbia University, with a doctorate in curriculum studies. Prior to that, she spent some time in Afghanistan as a curriculum consultant to the Afghan Ministry of Education, as part of a UNICEF mission to aid in its textbook re-writing efforts.
