EC: "So what do you all think of the movie? You all like it?
All: "I like!" "Not bad" "I like Singapore Ga-Ga better leh." "A qualified No"
(i.e.various responses)
E.C: "What do you all think it is about?"
SomeBody Who Read The Review: "It's about history-both national and personal, and attempts to preserve the seldom spoken parts of it. It's also about memory and the atrophy of memory."
(Conversation then proceeded to recount the things in the past which we no longer see today, including snail-mail pen pals, IRC chat rooms, typewritten school assignments, the kok-kok noodle man. LKP won hands down with his account of the night soil collector who visited his estate up till the time when he was 10 years old)
Me: Will there really be an invisible city in 50 years time? I mean, with the internet, digital photography, personal blogging, electronic storage, everything can be and is being archived for posterity.
E.C.: I think there will definitely still be an invisible city. There will always be people who will keep their memories and private to themselves.
LKP: There will also be those people in society who are marginalized or repressed, who may not find a voice at all despite this state of technological advancement.
Me: That's probably true. I guess preserving history is not the same as preserving the experience of people who lived through that history. Sometimes we ourselves don't remember what happened, even though we have photographs or films depicting the past.
E.C: Ya. Commentary is key. That's why the Ivan guy said he included personal commentary for his old film footage! Other people won't have a chance of knowing what in the world they were about otherwise!
Arrow (ex-government officer) : Anyway, you think our National Archives really keep everything? They destroy records after a certain time you know?
All: "Really ah?!"
Arrow: "Ya lor! That's why the old guy said he didn't like the National Archives mah!"
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To me, Invisible City is about ordinary people trying to make a mark about their existence, or the existence of something else important to them. Anything that exists, must be reasonable, so saith Hegel. So to be of reason, one must exist, and be visible in some form, even if only to oneself.