On the surface, the cities of Singapore and Brunei appear to be like night and day — but Bruneian creatives learned that things may not be all that different after all ! “(The delegation of creative industry representatives) learnt more about Singapore’s current creative landscape at the festival, which is not too different from us,” shared Syazni Bakar, co-founder of the Bruneian creative lab and think tank Kitani Kreatif, of their experiences at the inaugural edition of the festival. Bakar, who is also a founder of 247 Studios, also shared about the National Theatre Festival Brunei (NTFB) with counterparts in Singapore such as Buds Theatre Festival (AYTF), which they’ve also been a part of since 2020.
This year’s edition of The Idea of North was focused on Brunei and Singapore’s creative scenes and held in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Sultanate’s independence and its diplomatic ties with Singapore. According to Bakar, the main difference is that Singapore has an Arts Council that helps with important aspects like policies and funding, and its impact is actually quite significant especially on policies. He explained that the council also takes action on preparing roadmaps, rules adherence, educational institution involvement, amongst other things. Touching on topics like business and economy, arts and culture, the festival events proved to be a unique experience for all involved including a screening of the 1968 Ministry of Religious Affairs-produced ‘Gema Dari Menara’ — Brunei’s first ever feature film and a live performance by Bruneian Jazz Fusion band Elisha Tiga Eksperiment. The annual Idea of North was organised by the Global Cultural Alliance Singapore, a non-profit organisation that focuses on building communities and bridging borders through arts and cultural programmes.
