About Zihan

Loo Zihan 罗子涵
Nationality: Singaporean

Touted to be one of Singapore’s boldest filmmakers, Zihan is completing his BFA in Digital Filmmaking at the Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art Design and Media.

Zihan wrote, co-directed, co-edited and starred in his debut feature film Solos (2007), which premiered at the 12th Pusan International Film Festival, and is the first Singaporean film to be selected for the prestigious AFI (American Film Institute) Fest in Los Angeles.

Solos hit the international headlines when it was pulled from its debut screening in the 20th Singapore International Film Festival due to its explicit depiction of homosexual sex. It has gone on to make the rounds of the international film festival circuit and has been screened at festivals in various cities including Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Madrid, Sydney and London.

Most notably, Solos picked up the ‘Nuovo Sguardi’ Award in the 23rd Turino Gay and Lesbian Festival, which is awarded by the Jury to the film which “reflects the evolution of queer cinema”.

Besides writing and directing, Zihan has also acted alongside acclaimed Taiwanese actress Yang Kuei Mei and Thai heartthrob Ananda Everingham in Pleasure Factory as one of the main leads, directed by Thai-Singaporean director Ekachai Uekrongtham. The film had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Zihan has also ventured into the theatre scene in recent years, designing multimedia for Frozen Angels by The Necessary Stage (TNS). The critically acclaimed multimedia collaboration was restaged in January 2009 as one of the anchor productions for the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival.

Zihan also worked on multimedia for Gemuk Girls, a TNS main season play and Past Carin’, a Singapore – Australian theatre production. His design for Gemuk Girls won him a nomination for “Best Multimedia Design” at the 9th Life! Theatre Awards, where the production was awarded the “Production of the Year” award.

An avid dancer and performer, Zihan collaborated on several video pieces with Singaporean contemporary dancers. Most recently, he worked on a video piece 377 with leading Singaporean choreographers and performers Ming Poon and daniel k.

Filmography:

- Solos (2007) Experimental Feature Film
- Autopsy (2007) Short Documentary
- 377 (2007) Experimental Dance Film
- Embryo (2006) Experimental Short Film
- Untitled (2006) Short Film