Singaporean director Tan Pin Pin on her new documentary walk walk, and 30 years of capturing the Lion City on film
- Tan Pin Pin’s new documentary, walk walk, looks at walking for more than just exercise, combining original material with archival footage and interviews
- The director talks about her three decades of filmmaking, including Moving House – her first film for Discovery Channel – censorship and finding a community
Walking the walk, not just talking the talk: a handy phrase to be mangled into service in assessing the impact of Tan Pin Pin’s films.
And one that’s particularly apt considering her latest work, which ruminates on the shifting significance of the act of walking.
Tan’s 2023 film walk walk features several Singaporean women for whom walking is more than mere exercise. One walks to hear herself think; another as an extension of her art practice; a group of four meets socially, striding out along Singapore’s Rail Corridor, the 24km-long (15 mile) route of a former British railway, now a city state conservation artery.
The film combines original material with archival footage and interviews. And it feels, variously, like the subjects Tan follows exhibit a quiet defiance in their right to perambulate.
“Walk walk is a documentary about people who walk by choice and it’s sited near [and on] the Rail Corridor, because walking is one of the main activities along it,” says Tan in a video call from Singapore.