Making friends out of neighbours

Singapore Kindness Movement Encourages Neighbours To Face The Music, And Each Other

Singapore, 6 July 2015 – The Singapore Kindness Movement has released today an emotive short film entitled Neighbours, which centres on the theme of friendship among neighbours. The 60-second spot will premiere on Channels 5 and 8 on 6 July, Monday, and has already begun its run in selected cinemas island-wide. The clip is also on SKM’s YouTube channel, KindnessSG.

Commissioned by the Singapore Kindness Movement, Neighbours follows an unlikely turn of events in a single working lady’s interactions with her noisy neighbours one evening. Aggravated by the incessant nuisances, Peggy brands her neighbours as “idiots” in frustration before attempting to confront them face to face. Unexpectedly, she finds herself confronted instead by her neighbours’ own stories of familial love and struggle. This discovery leads Peggy to reach out with simple acts of kindness towards those she had earlier lambasted unkindly.

Set in a public housing backdrop familiar to most Singaporeans, Neighbours shows that while the odd disagreements among neighbours are an inevitable part of urban living, taking the effort to get to know our neighbours beyond the superficial makes it easier to empathize with each other and temper such situations with kindness. In line with SKM’s theme of A Nation of Kindness Starts with One, the spot ends with the simple message “Neighbours by chance, friends by choice”, emphasising that we can each take the step to befriend our neighbours and make Singapore a kinder, better place to reside in.

This spot’s particular focus on good neighbourliness is a first for SKM. According to SKM’s Graciousness Index 2015, more than half of the respondents surveyed maintained mostly superficial relationships with their neighbours, stopping at greeting and acknowledging each other in common spaces. Neighbours tackles the reality of neighbourly nuisances by showing that friendship can eliminate barriers and pave the way for mutually thoughtful and accommodating relationships.

Conceptualised by 3-Sixty Brand Communications, Neighbours builds on the success of SKM’s previous campaign Mud Doll, adopting a similar approach of an emotive short film that hopes to inspire the viewer towards personal initiation of kind acts within society, no matter how small and simple. While one can relate to Peggy’s annoyance, Neighbours gently invokes the viewer to consider their own course of actions, and invites them to ‘confront’ their neighbours, and their own preconceived attitudes and beliefs.

“By definition, a nation is a community brought together by common culture and history, but these two factors alone are not enough to foster unity and coherence. We remain strangers to one another unless we choose to break the ice. By reaching out and sharing our stories, we can better relate to one another’s humanity and realise that we are bound by similar fears, struggles and aspirations”, said Dr William Wan, General Secretary, Singapore Kindness Movement. “If more individuals would reach out to their neighbours in kindness, building up a network of mutually-supportive friendships in the process, the idea of a Nation of Kindness will soon materialise.”