In Last Shadow at First Light, 16-year-old Ami embarks on a journey from Singapore to Japan in search of her missing mother, who mysteriously disappeared after returning to her hometown to help with rescue efforts following the 2011 tsunami. Between hauntings and hallucinations, against a landscape heavy with loss, lies a tender look at healing in the face of lingering trauma and unspeakable grief.
It is a triumph of a debut feature, seven years in the making, from local writer-director Nicole Midori Woodford. Chosen to be a part of Berlinale Talents and the Asian Film Academy in 2010, and currently a film lecturer at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media, she is one of Singapore’s most acclaimed independent filmmakers of this generation.
“For their first film, most directors tend to go back to their personal experiences or questions that they have while growing up. The seed of this film comes from my family and my Japanese grandmother,” Woodford shares. In the ’40s, her grandmother had missed her train to work from her home in Kure one day and thus survived the Hiroshima atomic blast. It’s a story she only shared for the first time a few years before her passing.
Last Shadow at First Light deals with the aftermath of a different disaster, but its devastating impacts are no less visceral. Most of the film was shot in Rikuzentakata, a city almost wiped out by the 2011 tsunami, and its poignancy permeates every moment. “The bigger part of the story came later, after discovering the space and landscape when I started to do my research in Japan in 2017. I wanted to tell a story about a family that is dealing with their own struggles internally as well as externally. So you have the backdrop of the disaster, but you also have something that is broken and needs healing among the family members.”
“I’m drawn to ambiguity—to the grey area of life, of the thought processes behind decisions, and conflicts that human characters face”
A day after the theatrical opening of her film in Singapore, Woodford sits down to chat about her filmmaking journey and the stories that fascinate her. She also picks out six movies by female directors that have inspired her along the way.
Take us back to the start of your filmmaking career. How did it begin and what has that journey been like for you?
I never thought that filmmaking was in the cards for me, but I’ve always had a passion for storytelling and I loved watching films. I used to rent films from video shops and from the Esplanade library, and I was curious how they got made. At the start, what drew me in was the multidisciplinary nature of film. I could explore music and I loved to write. But eventually, I realised that you can’t do everything on your own, so the second key milestone was discovering that directing came quite naturally to me. Still, I didn’t dare to call myself a director until much later, when I was selected for two talent development programmes that were quite prestigious: Berlinale Talents, and the Asian Film Academy in Busan. After that, I didn’t look back.
Were there any challenges for you as a female filmmaker?
When I started out, it felt like I had to prove myself first before people took me seriously as a director, whereas if a man shows up on set, people don’t question it even if he’s not known. It was strange to me because if I get the job done, why does it matter if I’m, for example, more soft-spoken? Now, it’s more of how people describe my work. They’ll say the film feels feminine, which I don’t think is a bad thing. I see it as a compliment.
Do you think your relationship with filmmaking has evolved over the years?
It’s a love-hate relationship, no doubt, because it’s always going to be at odds with my personal life. It forces you to make hard decisions and sacrifices because it demands so much time, energy and resources. I delayed having a baby until after the film because I felt it was going to be unfair to the child if I couldn’t be 100 percent committed, and I couldn’t live with that. In the beginning, I was living life without compromise. I was working hard on every project and not taking care of my health. But as I got older, I realised that was not sustainable because I was exhausting myself all the time, so I had to set boundaries. On the artistic side of things, I feel that I have finally found my voice. But it’s funny because now I want to try something else; I feel that I’m capable of taking on a different style as a director. That’s why film is so exciting. It’s an easy craft to get into, but a hard one to master.
What are the themes and stories that fascinate you? What kinds of stories do you hope to explore?
The one constant is a female protagonist. Not just for representation, but also because I’m drawn to ambiguity—to the grey area of life, of the thought processes behind decisions, and conflicts that human characters face. I feel that for women in general, the battles we face are more ambiguous and they’re harder to pin down. As a storyteller, I want to unravel and discover what is behind this ambiguity.
Is there an ultimate goal that you hope to achieve through your work?
Maybe it is a bit idealistic to say this, but the ultimate goal for me is to make works that have an influence on how people see the world. Film is a medium that you share with a group of people, not just one individual, and tapping into this collective consciousness is very evocative for me.
1 / 6
'Petite Maman' directed by Celine Sciamma
“A delicate and wistful take on time-travel, the mysterious power of mother and daughter relationships as well as childhood grief. Petite Maman is a very different film from her previous film A Portrait of A Lady On Fire but it is not to be missed.“
2 / 6
'The Nightingale' directed by Jennifer Kent
“Most people recall The Babadook as Jennifer Kent’s most famous work. Her sophomore film The Nightingale is a brutal and relentless exploration of colonialism, violence and trauma as a brittle but powerful revenge film.”
3 / 6
'Aftersun' directed by Charlotte Wells
“Most first feature films are linked closely to the director’s outlook on deeply personal truths and more often than not they are about parent-child relationships. The ending of Charlotte Wells’ breakout debut feature is a devastating one that breaks your heart over and over again.”
4 / 6
'House of Hummingbird' directed by Bora Kim
“Set in 1994, this is a heartfelt and loving portrait of a young girl growing up and dealing with the trials of female adolescence. Woven with a lot of empathy and care, the film is an honest and yet mesmerising take on the coming-of-age film.”
5 / 6
'Tótem' directed by Lila Avilés
“Tótem was one of my favourite films of last year. It has a lot of humanity and unfolds over the course of one afternoon in a Mexican family’s life as they grapple with life and death through the eyes of Sol, the 7-year-old protagonist.”
6 / 6
'Saint Maud' directed by Rose Glass
“Another debut film featuring a female protagonist but one where she descends into madness as she communes with an imagined God. Saint Maud is a film that questions our sense of reality and plumbs the depths somewhere between horrific and beatific.”
Photography Zantz Han
Styling Nicholas See
Hair and make-up Zhou Aiyi/Makeup Entourage
Wardrobe Massimo Dutti blazer and pants; tank and shoes, stylist’s own
The June ‘Impact’ issue of Vogue Singapore is now available online and in-store.
