The Studio

Kallang Basin Pictures

We are a two-room independent documentary studio in Singapore. We work slowly. We make films about small facts — the ones that don't fit in a news cycle but sit in a neighbourhood for years.

The studio was set up in 2022 by director Wei-Ming Toh and producer Sara Iskandar after nearly a decade of freelance work between local broadcast and NGO commissions. Our first release, Nights on the East Coast Parkway (2023, 28 min), followed lorry drivers on the overnight port run. Our second, The Ninth Floor (2024, 51 min), sat with the residents of an ageing SERS block during the year of their relocation.

How we work

Public records first, interviews second, atmosphere third. We do not stage reconstructions. We do not add music where the room was silent. Where we cannot verify a claim, we leave the claim out.

Everything we publish carries a plain disclaimer: our films are independent documentaries, not official reports, not journalism, and not affiliated with any government agency or news outlet. What we can show is what we watched, read, and were told, arranged in the order we understood it.

Why this film

The Chin Swee Road incident was reported in short bursts and then dropped from the front pages. We spent six months in the block. We spoke to fourteen residents. We filed three records-access requests. This release is what we came back with.

For press, festivals, or licensing enquiries: contact us.