CNA launches major Singapore history series

Channel NewsAsia (CNA) has launched Days of Rage, which it calls its most significant Singapore history documentary project in recent times.

The series revolves around five key incidents in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s in Singapore’s history, marked by instability and riots. It is being shown on CNA from 19 January 2014 and will be available as video-on-demand from their website a day after the television broadcast of each episode. 

Shot in HD and produced in five countries over the course of a year, the series features previously unseen footage, photos and interviews. The company says that with personal accounts from survivors and key people involved in the period, the series goes beyond history books and comes alive with the help of state-of-the-art animation, motion graphics and re-enactments.

“To ensure the series is insightful, accurate and compelling, the producers and research team scoured through highly confidential documents that have recently been declassified in the British and Indonesian archives,” a company spokesperson says. “Some examples of new material include an interview with [former Prime Minister] Mr Lee Kuan Yew in the British archives that has not been seen in the last 50 years.”

Producers say the series aims to reach out to younger people who may not have witnessed those tumultuous historical episodes, as well as to the rest of the population who would be enthralled by the exposition of critical events that help explain Singapore for what it is today.

Days of Rage is produced as part of a multi-million dollar project supported by the Singapore Media Development Authority for a slate of top-notch iconic documentaries to celebrate Singapore’s 50 years of independence in 2015. CNA announced in August 2013 that it would commission, produce and outsource more than 30 hours of these documentaries.