Short documentary film
Silent

Original film title in French: Un jour de régates à Singapour
English title: Regatta Day at Singapore
Produced by Pathé Frères
Year of release: 1913
Film Locations: Singapore Harbour, vicinity of Johnston’s Pier

 

INFORMATION ON THE FILM REGATTA DAY AT SINGAPORE is far and few between. We guess it might have been a documentary of the annual regatta (boat races) held on the New Year’s Day of 1913. The synopsis provided in the film’s entry in Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé’s website noted the “low, cloudy sky” and race categories such as “bugis-sampans”, “life rafts (handicap)” and “transport-sampans”. The Singapore Free Press report on the regatta similarly bemoaned the “unpleasant weather”, “grey skies and almost continuous rain”. It also reported that the event took place near the “Singapore Club and the sea walls with Johnston’s Pier”, and there were races of “Malay Colehs”(koleks), “Bugis boats”, “Malay sampans”, “clipper sampans”, “Men of war boats” and rowing boats (the payongs).

The film was shown at both the Alhambra and Marlborough Theatres at Beach Road in Singapore in May 1913.

 

 

 

Regatta Day at Singapore is in the collection of the British Film Institute (BFI) and the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé:
http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150276635
http://filmographie.fondation-jeromeseydoux-pathe.com/14405-un-jour-de-regates-a-singapour

 

Further Reading:
‘NEW YEAR SEA SPORTS’. The Singapore Free Press, 2 January 1913, p. 12.