Meteoor; The Dark Society

Beneath that make-up and eerie vibe that emanate from just a simple glance, is there more that meets the eye? Are Goths only known for looking as though "they have risen from the dead" or humans capable of emotion and thought? All of this and more are being explored and questioned in The Dark Society, a documentary done by students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic which aims to debuke myths and stereotypes while at the same time, talk to the Goths themselves in order to understand what being a Goth is all about. To further elaborate on it is Shobana Vikiraman, the director of The Dark Society and telling to yours truly on her experience first hand

Q; Aside from yourself, who else is involved in the production of The Dark Society?

Shobana; The film production team for The Dark Society comprises of myself as the director, Charmaine the producer, Khairul the cameraman, Jessica the researcher and Si Pei the editor

Q; Why did you decide to choose the Gothic subculture as the theme of your documentary?

Shobana; Singapore has been opening up itself to a lot of Western influences in recent years yet being a Goth is deemed unacceptable to most parents, seeing it as a form of rebellion and "straying off the path" while the general public carries a negative perception on them as well. The reason why we chose the Gothic subculture is simple; To show the people that there is more to this unique group of people than just their facade and also the faces beneath the make up, enlightening the masses on their existence

Q; What was your initial perception on Goths prior to the making of the documentary? Was it easy to work with them?

Shobana; Despite knowing that there was a possibility of my group members and I being different from them, we were looking forward to meeting the Goths and it helped that all of us were open minded and had no reservations on meeting them. Aside from appearances, it turns out that the Goths are no different from other people and that the conversations that they have are typically normal in addition to being friendly, sharing useful information about themselves to us. They were definitely easy to work with

Q; Why should people watch it? (aside from the host being given a makeover)

Shobana; Although we were disappointed that our shooting dates were not able to accomodate any of the Goth events, the participants for the interview actually managed to made up for it and as mentioned above, our aim is to create realisation among the public in Singapore that there's more to just the make up that these individuals wear

Facing the questions with host Harris

Time for a makeover!

From left: Lique, Ying Xian, Nevar and Dalsix

The Dark Society will be released soon, watch out for updates and details at www.sdam.sg