Lesbian Club Culture of 1990s Singapore Explored in Kirsten Tan and Tan Si En’s Busan APM Project ‘Crocodile Rock’: ‘Queer Erasure Is Real’

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.”

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“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 With the repeal of Section 377A [a British colonial law that criminalized gay sex repealed in 2023], it finally feels safe to do a queer film in Singapore. I hope to do as much as I can to patch the gaps of queer narratives in history, so that our interconnected hopes, struggles, dreams and failures will make sense on the larger canvas of time,” Tan said.

Tan’s research for the film involved interviewing over 20 lesbians in their 50s and 60s who lived through the politically charged 1990s in Singapore. While the film is fictional, it draws from these personal accounts set against the backdrop of a time when police raids on gay and activist spaces were widespread, “due to the fear of the AIDS crisis, Western liberalism and alternative ideologies,” Tan said.

“While ‘Crocodile Rock’ is unapologetically queer, it also very much speaks to larger themes of drifters and outsiders searching for love and connection, in a time of social alienation amidst the neon-lit excess and impersonal density of an Asian cosmopolis,” Tan said.

Producer Tan Si En, whose “Dont Cry, Butterfly” recently won three awards at Venice, is backing the project. “As a queer person who grew up in Singapore, my narrative was never depicted in mainstream culture. But when I first read ‘Crocodile Rock,’ I felt seen,” Tan Si En said. “This is a story that captures time, places, and thoughts forbidden to its people. It is important for me to produce ‘Crocodile Rock,’ Singapore’s first historical lesbian film.’

The film will be produced by Tan Si En’s Momo Film Co (Singapore) and Kirsten Tan’s 10 Minutes Later Films (U.S.). The film’s budget is set at $1.2 million, with 20% currently financed. The team is aiming for principal photography to begin in mid to late 2026.

At APM, the filmmakers are seeking co-producers, financiers, creative heads of departments and a world sales agent. “As the important hub of Asian and international co-productions, we hope that APM can connect us with a diverse array of film industry professionals,” Tan Si En said.

The APM takes place Oct. 5-8 alongside the Busan International Film Festival, which unspools Oct. 2-11.