Singapore Synopsis

Alan Bresnahan filmed a Singapore in transition, with skyscrapers and cars mingling with smaller buildings, building sites – often with bamboo scaffolding – and rickshaws.

The majority of this footage was shot around Raffles Place, with Robinson & Co. department store featuring prominently.

Raffles Place had been developed extensively in 1965, providing a park to walk through and Singapore's first underground car park, as recorded in the footage.

Alan Bresnahan was an active member of the Victorian Amateur Cine Society – later Victorian Movie Makers – for over 60 years.

The NFSA holds 65 of his films along with associated documentation, including amateur radio QSL cards that he had collected from 1927.

The majority of his home movies document his travels around Australia and overseas.

Alan Bresnahan recorded an oral history interview with the NFSA in 2003.