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Just-Do-It-(Yourself): independent filmmaking in Malaysia

2007; Routledge; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13583880701238696

1469-8447

Gaik Cheng Khoo,

Maritime Security and History

Abstract Abstract This paper provides a brief introduction to the current independent film movement in Malaysia. I will then analyse some of the short films through theories of cosmopolitanism and space to talk about subjectivities‐in‐the‐making. How are these films Malaysian and do the filmmakers necessarily identify their works as Malaysian? In this regard, I am of the opinion that although some filmmakers may want to represent a multiethnic Malaysia and touch on 'sensitive' issues that form the crux of Malaysian society, ultimately the desire to see a Malaysian film, defined as a film that represents Malaysian multiracialism or multiethnicity, is perhaps unrealistic, taking into account the segregated pluralist society these filmmakers inhabit. In fact, how these films identify as Malaysian seems to depend much more on the specifics of what each film is not. I will select a few films to give an overall perspective of the 'diversality' (Mignolo 2000 Mignolo, Walter. 2000. 'The many faces of cosmo‐polis: border thinking and critical cosmopolitanism'. Public Culture, 12(3): 721–748. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]: 743) that is reflective of cosmopolitanism in current Malaysian independent filmmaking. This is commensurate with a larger theoretical framework from which I am currently working in order to understand and position independent Malaysian filmmakers in relation to mainstream Malay cinema as well as on the global stage. The indie filmmakers' JDIY motto sums up the in‐built tensions Malaysian indie filmmakers experience from economic globalization as well as from the state and from being cosmopolitan and cosmopolitical. Keywords: Independent cinemacosmopolitanismracespaceMalaysian cinema Notes 1. This paper was first presented at the New Southeast Asian Cinemas: Where Big Budget Meets No Budget conference at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, May 2004. I would like to thank ARI for making it possible to organize this film conference during my postdoctoral fellowship there. My thanks go also to the two anonymous journal reviewers and Sophia Harvey for their productive feedback on this essay. Any oversight is of course my own. 2. I emphasize 'current independent' as there were independent Malaysian filmmakers working on film and analogue beta in the late 1980s and 1990s, such as Bernice Chauly and Farouk Al‐Joffrey (Child's Play, []), Julian Cheah and Stephen Teo (Bejalai, []). I'd like to thank Bryant Low for pointing this out. See also my appendix article which deconstructs the idea that the 'indie' film movement is novel or the term, uncontested (Khoo 2004 Khoo, Gaik Cheng. 2004. 'The Malaysian indies, or "Oh really"?'. Aliran Monthly, 24(9): 22 [Google Scholar]: 22). 3. In some of the interviews and casual conversations I have had with Malaysian filmmakers, the common sentiment was, 'If Amir can do it, so can we,' or 'so should we'! Before making Lips to Lips, Amir Muhammad was better known as a writer and literary and film critic. See Fahmi Fadzil's interview with Tan Chui Mui (Fadzil 2005 Fadzil, Fahmi. 3 July 2005. "'Mui's moving movies'". In The Star Online 3 July, Lifestyle section [Google Scholar]). 4. BigO (Singapore magazine) interview by Stephen Tan (2002 Tan, Stephen. December 2002. "'Shooting from the hip: Amir Muhammad and his 6horts VCD'". In BigO December, http://www.bigozine2.com/archive/ARfeatures/ARamir.html , accessed 10 December 2006 [Google Scholar]); Hishamuddin Rais (interview with Jessica Lim, 2004 Lim, Jessica. 18 January 2004. "'Short films going places'". In New Sunday Times 18 January, IIIMalaysia [Google Scholar]); Wayne Ho (2004 Ho, Chun How and Wayne. 2 March 2004. Email interview by author 2 March, [Google Scholar]); Danny Lim (2004 Lim, Jessica. 18 January 2004. "'Short films going places'". In New Sunday Times 18 January, IIIMalaysia [Google Scholar]). A journalist and photographer, Lim himself lived out the title of his article, 'Do‐It‐Yourself?', by going on to make a short documentary about political graffiti in KL entitled 18? (2004). This film is downloadable on his website: http://danlim.twofishy.net.nyud.net:8090/18.avi. 5. For example, one clever short film, 28 Hours Later (Ng Ken Kin, []), pays homage to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later through splicing the two together into a seamless narrative that is set in KL instead of England. 6. Highly personalised and individual, with virtually no commercial aspirations, necessarily revolutionary in structure, visual technique and/or intellectual attitude, films like Bonnie and Clyde, Blowup and 2001 began attracting wider mainstream attention in the mid‐1960s (Mast and Kawin 1992 Mast, Gerald and Kawin, Bruce F. 1992. A Short History of the Movies , 5th edn, New York: Macmillan. [Google Scholar]: 465). Other films made outside the Hollywood system then included blaxploitation films and pornographic films like Deep Throat. 7. Peter Biskind notes then that 'Miramax became, as it were, the Trojan Horse through which studio values came to permeate much of the indie scene' (Biskind 2004 Biskind, Peter. 2004. 'Down and dirty pictures', interview by Leigh Singer. BBC Collective: the Interactive Culture Magazine, 179 17 September http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A3009287 [Google Scholar]). 8. Shot without permits and licences, shooting on the run rather than a reference to revolutionary filmmaking of the 1960s and 1970s associated with Latin American filmmaking. 9. I regard Malay cinema as a subset of Malaysian cinema because it speaks predominantly to the majority ethnic Malay audience alone: its actors, directors and viewers are usually Malay and the stories revolve around Malay characters and their culture. This distinction is necessary as Malay cinema is sometimes regarded as proprietary of the term 'national cinema' because it is purportedly in Bahasa Malaysia, the national language. 10. Stonor Centre closed in May 2004 for relocation; the cultural pullout of The Business Edge, [Options] 2 is now a monthly magazine, Off the Edge, launched in December 2004. 11. For example, James Lee and Lina Tan, director of RedComm and a strong sponsor of independents, spoke to students at Monash University in late October 2003; I have also given talks about the Malaysian indies at Monash University (14 October 2003) as well as at the International Islamic University (February 2004). 12. This included the creation of the Multimedia SuperCorridor, Cyberjaya, and the Multimedia Development Corporation. 13. Akademi Filem has been closed down and became incorporated into Akademi Seni Kebangsaan as of 2005. 14. The NEP (1971–1990) was regarded as a solution in the aftermath of the 1969 race riots between the Malays and Chinese to address the economic marginalization of the Malays. It was meant to eradicate poverty across all races and to remove the stereotypical link between race and occupation (Malay rural farmer/fisherman, urban Chinese businessman, Indian rubber tapper). The NEP succeeded in creating a more visible Malay capitalist class and established Malay hegemony with the introduction of the category 'sons of the soil' (bumiputera) to define indigenous privilege over the Chinese, Indians and other Malaysian citizens regarded as of 'immigrant' stock. The NEP was later replaced by the National Development Policy (NDP) in the 1990s. 15. Amir Muhammad has also pointed out in personal communication that Malay characters in mainstream Malay cinema are equally likely to be caricatures and stereotypes, the implication being that the tendency to stereotype is not limited to minority ethnic groups alone. 16. In Malaysia, the word 'race' is still widely used in public and official discourse, understood not so much as a maligned constructed biological category but as a convenient colonial vestigial term to be used interchangeably with 'ethnicity' and containing notions of cultural, religious and linguistic difference. Where possible, I will use the term 'ethnicity' except when 'race' is unavoidable and deliberate. 17. Topics deemed sensitive to national security with those raising the issues being liable to arrest and detention without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA) include questioning the special status of Malays in the country, the position of the traditional Malay rulers as heads of state, Malay as the national language and Islam, the official religion, as well as the citizenship rights of non‐Malays (Loh 2002 Loh, Kok Wah and Francis. 2002. "'Developmentalism and the limits of democratic discourse'". In Democracy in Malaysia: Discourses and Practices, Edited by: Loh, Francis and Teik, Khoo Boo. 19–50. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. [Google Scholar]: 24). 18. See Benjamin McKay's essay on Spinning Gasing (McKay 2003 McKay, Benjamin. 'Taking gender and identity on the road: spinning gasing and Dari Jemapoh ke Manchestee'. paper presented at New Southeast Asian Cinemas: Where Big Budget Meets No Budget, Asia Research Institute. May3–4, Singapore. [Google Scholar]); the teenage romantic comedy Sepet (Yasmin Ahmad 2004); this is true even of the expensive, structurally bold Malay historical drama Paloh (Adman Salleh 2003 Stephens, Chuck. 2005. 'Now and For‐IFFR'. Film Comment, 41(2) March–April [Google Scholar]). 19. Amir Muhammad was labelled by film critic Chuck Stephens as 'the funniest Muslim filmmaker working today' (Stephens 2005 Muhammad, Amir. 13 October 2005. "'A conversation with Amir Muhammad', interviewed by Benjamin McKay". In criticine.com 13 October, http://www.criticine.com/interview_article.php?id=18 [Google Scholar]), a label that had more to do with the racialized representations of Muslims in the west than Amir's own sense of identity: 'Well I have never thought of myself as a Muslim filmmaker, quote/unquote, because I don't want people to say that this is representative of how Muslims are thinking. It is certainly not. This is a very particular take on things' (Amir Muhammad 2005 Muhammad, Amir. 13 October 2005. "'A conversation with Amir Muhammad', interviewed by Benjamin McKay". In criticine.com 13 October, http://www.criticine.com/interview_article.php?id=18 [Google Scholar]). 20. While cosmopolitanism has been adopted by progressive liberals and leftists, Paul Gilroy warns us that the same language of ethics and human rights can justify supranational political and military intervention in the 21st century (Gilroy 2004 Gilroy, Paul. 2004. After Empire: Melancholia or Convivial Culture?, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 69). 21. For example, when asked to talk about the influences on his work, animator Wayne Ho responds, 'My daily life and feelings are the main influences' (Ho 2004 Ho, Chun How and Wayne. 2 March 2004. Email interview by author 2 March, [Google Scholar]). 22. Both Moris Rasik () and When Buddha () were screened at the Freedom Film Festival, a documentary film festival organized and sponsored by activist groups such as the community media organization, KOMAS, and Amnesty International. Bamadhaj has personal connections to Timor: her brother Kamal, a student activist, had been killed in the Dili Massacre of 1992, and her mother runs Moris Rasik, the microcredit union for women in East Timor. 23. The Asia Film Symposium organised by the Substation, Singapore (an annual event since 2001) feature short films from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, as does the First Sarawak Millennium Film Festival 2002 and the Malaysian Video Awards. Larger and more renowned international film festivals and experimental film festivals in Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, and Manila are also supportive of ASEAN films. 24. The Vancouver International Film Festival slogan. The festival boasts of films from 50 countries. 25. Ng Tian Hann's First Take Final Cut () indirectly comments on James Lee's more avant garde films; James Lee's short Goodbye is influenced by Ho Yuhang's Min (2003); Yasmin Ahmad's real parents act in Yuhang's Min as a couple even as their real‐life relationship is played out by professional actors in Yasmin's film Rabun, we hear Yasmin Ahmad's voice narrating Bryant Low's Day After Tomorrow (), the list goes on. 26. This is understandable as most of the professional production facilities and post‐production houses, studio and services are located at the nation's cultural centre. 27. Frequent in the productions of Tan Chui Mui, Amir Muhammad and the kino‐I team. 28. K. Shunmugam's Me, My Mother and Mosquito (). 29. In Ho Yuhang's Min (), space takes on a character of its own and provides the psychological depth that the camera does not allow its characters (or rather, its audience) via close‐ups. A Short Story About Seau Ming (Tan Kui Lan ) uses space effectively to tell a story without any human actors and Bryant Low's Day After Tomorrow () combines mixed media representations of urban spaces to render and effect a longing for Other temporal and geographical spaces. Previously neglected spaces such as the rubber estate (Chemman Chaalai) (Deepak Kumaran Menon 2000), everyday Chinese suburban Petaling Jaya (Ho Yuhang's Sanctuary []), and abandoned old houses (Room To Let []) accumulate significance in the works of indie filmmakers. 30. My thanks go to my Asia Research Institute colleague Tan Ying Ying for pointing out the possible connection to Taiwanese film. The filmmaker informed me that she likes Taiwanese writers and that among the films she showed her friends in Taiwan, they liked Hometown the best. 31. This is my interpretation of the film. Tan tells me that the intention of the original story was to portray a young man who was detached from everything around him, including himself, and who did not know what or who he was. Her title 'living elsewhere' refers to a space external to the self, rather than poses the impersonal city as the 'elsewhere' to the familial home. 32. Tan's short film, A Tree in Tanjung Malim (), again includes a scene of painful waiting in an extended long take as the teenage girl, based on a younger Tan herself, waits for her older male friend to come down the stairs. When asked about the length of this scene, Tan explains that waiting around a lot was part of growing up. Regrettably, length limitations do not permit me to write about this film. 33. Robert Williamson discusses alienation and emotional isolation in Tan's work, as well as other Malaysian indie filmmakers (Williamson 2005 Williamson, Robert. 8 July 2005. "'Affection and disaffection: ideas, themes and styles in current Malaysian independent cinema'". In Firecracker online magazine 8 July, http://www.firecracker-magazine.com/ [Google Scholar]). 34. In There Is Treasure Everywhere () Tan also focuses on a father–son relationship. A young Indian boy imagines his father, a scrap metal collector, as an adventurer and hero. 35. My Father and His Celluloid () is filmmaker R. Devan's nostalgic exploration of film history in the rural landscape of Malaysia. It follows his father, a young itinerant film projectionist travelling to rubber estates to show Tamil films. Liew Seng Tat's Don't Play Play () revolves around a Hokkien grandfather and his mischievous grandson's outing to the local coffeeshop. The film has a nostalgic feel and texture (as the grandfather reminisces in a flashback about his lost love) and is set in a sleepy small town where there is little traffic. See also The Gravel Road (Chemman Chaalai) () written and based on the experience of the director's mother. 36. For Pete Teo's music video, Arms for Marianne (), animators Mussadique and Jordan Suleiman took photographs of old buildings, some of which were subsequently demolished, around KL to form the collage‐animation. They also included parts of the Malaysian‐made car. To the untrained eye, the imagery and style of the music video may be regarded as not unique when compared with MTV videos, but it is in the details that difference and diversality are effected. The painstakingly shot and technically detailed music video/animation won the best music video award at the 2004 Malaysian Video Award (MVA). 37. Indeed, the dedication of Coffeeshop () reads, 'In memory of all our memories' and 'dedicated once again, to our childhood and everything else that goes with it'. 38. Some of the Odisi television dramas come to mind: Piala Untuk Mama (), Min (), The Son (), Tetangga (). Some of the Chinese Malaysian directors have also worked on local Malay‐language television programmes. One US film graduate, Woo Ming Jin, when asked in an interview whether he felt confident in directing Malay‐language television programmes, said he did not anticipate any problems and had, in fact, already directed a few (Woo 2003 Woo, Ming Jin. 9 October 2003. Interview by author, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia 9 October, [Google Scholar]). 39. Linus and Aaron Chung are interested in the martial arts/action genre and Low Ngai Yuen (Your World, My World ) is a fan of Hong Kong director, Sylvia Chang.