We Interrupt Our Regular Programming To Bring You This Emergency Transmission

Sorry folks, we interrupt your irregular supply of "The World According To Ah Siong" to bring you this newsflash from the world of Ah Siong.......- the transport carrying the film is safely away. Repeat, the transport is safely away. Yes. Just in case you were still lost in my 'Empire' doublespeak, I have officially submitted my film to the Sundance Film Festival.

As of September 19th 9.21am Californian time, my film was signed for by a person named N Griffieth, whom I can only assume to be an employee of Sundance Institute on Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills. The padded envelope that I so preciously packed with my Sundance entry form printout and a DVD of the rough cut of my film "25 To Life" is now in Beverly Hills 90211 (yes just 1 number away from that famous TV Series area code). This has been a long time coming, and barring that particular employee throwing away my envelope in disgust or using it as a freesbie for her dog, my film will be viewed by Robert Redford's 'people' and hopefully passed fit for viewing in the Sundance Film Festival.

I actually tracked my package on Fed-Ex and ascertained its arrival. Even though some idiot at Fed Ex read my handwriting wrongly and actually thought Lusangfles was a place in California, the package did arrive safely in Los Angeles. However, there was a slight hiccup which I think will resolve itself, hopefully. The Sundance website actually has a colour code indicator next to your online entry for the Sundance Film Festival. The three colours are Red - when you haven't completed your submission properly, Olive Green - when you've completed all required info and are ready to submit your film and Dark Green - when they've received your film and they actually have their hands on it.

So needless to say, I immediately went and checked my colour coding the moment my package was delivered. Result? No change in the colours. My submission still read Olive Green - you are ready to submit your film. "So what the fuck?! Who the hell is this N. Griffieth and what the hell did he/she do to my film?" I wondered to myself. More like shouted to myself (in my mind, of course) actually. I felt like I was being mindfucked by Fed-EX. Why the hell didn't they just let me clarify that weird handwriting?

Then of course, I had to go back and check the Sundance website again. A few times more. And then a bit more. Then, I wrote an email to the powers at be at Sundance Film Festival, telling them what my film ID was, who received my package (a certain N Griffieth) and that my colour coding was still Olive Green. Then, I went and checked the website one last time and then it hit me. Written along the lines in the legend explaining the Dark Green coding were the words "please give us a week to go through your paper work upon submission". I don't know if those words mean that the colour coding won't be changed for a week or anything like that but with my email and that sentence, I'm beginning to feel a bit better that Fed-Ex didn't just piss the last year of my life down some dark alley in Los Angeles, California.

So with my mind calmed down a tad, I suddenly feel more at peace with the world. Its as if some load has been lifted from my shoulders. The film is now in the hands of the people I made the film for. Now all it takes is for them to say yes and I would have succeeded in this little venture of mine. The journey is almost at an end. I think that certainly has had a calming effect on me. Last night, I had the best sleep of my life in recent months. I felt sleepy at 8.45pm and went to have a snooze. Didn't wake up until 7.30am this morning. Although I still feel I haven't recovered all the lost hours of sleep this past few weeks, part of me is now more rested.

I now have a very subtle feeling that this Christmas will feel like the Christmases of old. Full of joy, shopping and happiness. Sorta like those what I call "wonderful world of Disney" Christmases I used to have in the late seventies and early eighties when you'll see early morning cartoons and features on Wonderful World of Disney and feel that all in the world is fine. This feeling makes me more hopeful that come the first week of December I'll hopefully get a positive response from Sundance and finally make my way to the high mountains of Utah and participate in my film festival. However, even if that doesn't pan out, I'm still happy that at least I'll be able to start submitting my film to festivals worldwide and start awaiting good news rather than continue toiling through post production.

I think this must be what they say "turning a corner". And what a long corner it has been. About a more than year's worth of time to turn this corner. From quitting my job at Starhub in June 2005 to September 2006.

Time has flew by. Before I started on this journey, I told myself I want to make a film before I turned 30. A Week from today, I'll turn 31 and not a moment too soon. With a week to spare, I think I've finally achieved my goal. I've finally made my film. And now, people are going to see it. I hope these people support my movie so that more people can see it. I hope everyone who is in their little quarterlife crisis see it and know that they are not alone. I hope Generation Xers out there watch it and take solace in my movie the way all of us Generation Xers dug 'Reality Bites'. And although my film won't make 'My Sharona' big again, I hope that it will tell people everywhere that Terence Koh is a filmmaker. That in itself would be the best present for me I think.