Educator, Artist, Filmmaker, Researcher

Tzang Merwyn Tong is an award winning Singaporean independent filmmaker known for offbeat films often set in surreal worlds. His films include Singapore’s first dystopian film Faeryville (2015), V1K1 (Gold Remi Award at Houston WorldFest 2011), A Wicked Tale (World Premiere at Rotterdam International Film Festival 2005) and e'Tzaintes (Opening Night Film at Berlin Asia Pacific Film Festival 2003). A graduate of the 2005 Berlin Talent Campus, Tzang’s works have travelled to critical acclaim and full house crowds in film festivals in Rotterdam, Montreal, Berlin, Potsdam, Munich, Tel Aviv, Lund, and Leeds. His films were featured in publications like Res, Cinependent, Montreal Mirror, Fangoria and Rue Morgue. In 2005, Tzang was the youngest Singaporean filmmaker to release his film on DVD. Tzang is a former journalist/ film critic for FiRST in SPH Magazines. He has also worked as an advertising copywriter and consultant in creative agencies.

Tzang has been invited to present keynote speeches on various topics from “Surrealism in Independent Filmmaking” (Yale-NUS) to “Storytelling beyond Language” (PSBK, Yogyakarta, Indonesia), “Visualizing a Narrative” (LASALLE, School of Fashion), “Sustainability in Creativity” (Rangsit University, Thailand), “An Interdisciplinary Approach to investigation of culture” (SOTA’s Arts in Education Forum in Singapore / RMIT University in Australia).

He recently co-presented his research on The Legacy of X’Ho (Chris Ho, Singapore alternative music icon): Punkdom in an Illiberal State at 2022 International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) in Daegu, Korea, with Dr Liew Kai Khuin from HK Metropolitan University.

 

He is currently a lecturer teaching Visual Storytelling and Film Appreciation with Republic Polytechnic. He is also the founder and programming director of First Shot(s) - a student-run film festival that showcases first works of budding visual storytellers. He has previously taught at ITE College West, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Nanyang Technological University, and has guest lectured in Lasalle College and Yale-NUS.

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