Lesbian Club Culture of 1990s Singapore Explored in Kirsten Tan and Tan Si En’s Busan APM Project ‘Crocodile Rock’: ‘Queer Erasure Is Real’
Naman Ramachandran New York-based Singaporean filmmaker Kirsten Tan is set to direct “Crocodile Rock,” a film that explores the underground lesbian club culture of 1990s Singapore.
The project is currently being presented at the Busan Asian Project Market (APM). Tan’s debut feature “Pop Aye” (2017) earned international acclaim including awards at Sundance and Rotterdam. “Crocodile Rock” follows a homeless teenage drifter named Pepsi through the trancelike underbelly of lesbian club culture, intertwining her story with those of an elusive bar owner and an idealistic student activist. “‘Crocodile Rock’ is inspired by the longest-running lesbian bar in Singapore of the same name that operated throughout the ’90s,” Tan said. “I first learned of ‘Crocodile Rock’ over a dinner party from an older lesbian friend who regaled me with tales of an entire community of women who lived their fullest and most colorful selves and identities through this bar.
It hit me soon after that had I not attended this dinner party, I would not even have known of this important landmark in Singaporean queer history, and I am only one generation away.” “Queer erasure is real, and history tends to omit us.
With the repeal of Section 377A [a British colonial law that criminalized gay sex repealed in 2023], it finally feels safe to do a queer film in Singapore.
