Filmmakers Anonymous 3
On the 27th of April, I went to FILMMAKERS ANONYMOUS 3 with Chewxy, just hours after attending the James Lee press conference (check out my vlog entry of the press conference if you haven't already).
2 months have passed since the previous session of FILMMAKERS ANONYMOUS, in which my short, GIRL DISCONNECTED, had its Malaysian premiere, (check out my videoblog entry of FA2 if you haven't already as well) I was absolutely eager to check out the list of short films available this time.
The following were the list of short films screened on that night (taken from Filmmakers Anonymous's official site)
1. ‘The Symphony of Life’ by Wendy Lai 6 mins51 secs/color 16:9/ stereo/ 2007
Synopsis
Life is like a melody. It sound beautiful, but not everything in life is perfect. Sometimes we fall, sometimes we keep trying and sometimes, we enjoy it. No matter what, we must remember to persevere and never give up.
Director’s Statement::
Pioneer student filmmaker and trying to bring a simple message to the audience. Though it’s a simple film, hope the audience will realize that life is always full of up and downs and never give up in their life.
Director’s Profile
Occupation : Undergraduate
Email : szechin84@lycos.com
2. ‘Listen 2 What U C’ by Khairil M Bahar 5 mins/ colour/ 2006
Music video of song by that name by the Malaysian Indie band Soft Touch.
Director's Profile
Khairil also directed CIPLAK. The video was assisted by Tony Pietra.
3. ‘I; Me’ by Chan Siew Ling 6 minute 21 seconds/ color/ 2007
Synopsis :
According to the poem of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, this story portrays the dilemma of a person who is torn between two decisions. A pair of hands suspended in mid-air represents two choices in that person’s life: a well trodden road and a road less taken. Here, he will have interaction with the objects in his house. This is to show the interchange of an individual with the society. He will express his feeling and opinion about life to the objects as if they are ‘him’ and he as the ‘society’ looking down on him. As if in life, there are only black and white but somehow, some times something just happens to be unanswerable. Finally, he pushed the white clothes and black clothes aside and left the grey in the middle. You wanted to fit into the society or to take road that less taken and make a different?
Director’s Statement:
The objective of us making this short film is to indicate the society today is being label as a factory product. You will be rejected if you fail to fit into the society. And we have no choice here but to make a choice between to follow the road of most people or to follow our own path.
Director’s Profile
I am a mass communication student in USM, majoring in Film and Broadcasting. I love making film and would like to involve myself in this industry after I graduate. Ambitious and goal-orientated, with clear vision of future objectives, I am keen to begin my career in Film productions. Email vanling84@hotmail.com, sling_van110@yahoo.com
4. ‘Life is an Illusion’ by Abel Cheah Sze Wei 8.59 minutes/color/ film
Synopsis
The story of the life of a man named James, who seems like an average person but as the title suggests, has in fact more than what meets the eye.
Director’s Profile
Abel is currently a student in HELP University College. He pretty much enjoys everything about movies and is generally tolerant to most genres. Among the things he loves are Swing music, themes on love, engaging conversations and interesting people. He also believes that in life, passion is oxygen. http://mrtestosterone.blogspot.com
5. VROOM² & BOOT² by Law Gwo Yunn 5:10 min /colour/ Silent / 2007
Synopsis
It was love at first sight for both Boot-Boot & Vroom-Vroom when they met one fine day. Alas, there was nothing they could do when their owners drove separate ways.
15 years later, a twist of fate brought them back to the same crossroads. This time Boot-Boot is not about to give up without a fight...... And guess who else came along for the ride?
Director’s Statement:
This is my 1st attempt in directing a short film. Since it was my 1st, I didn’t want anything too complicated, just something simple & fun. Basically it was a cute love story incorporating fantasy & reality. It was a low- almost -No- Budget, 2 day, 2 crew member shoot. (including myself) Hope you enjoy watching this as much I do while making it.
Director’s Profile
I majored in Industrial Design and got my degree in Swinburne University, Australia. However I’ve always been fascinated with the movie industry. Started off as producer in post production, now freelancing in Production designing/ Art directing in Tv & Film. Will continue to make more movies in the near future.
6. ‘She’ By Idora Alhabshi 13mins/color/2006
Synopsis
An art house short film featuring the talents of Bernice Chauly. A story placing moments before bitter separation. It explores her intuitions, past experience and emotional turmoil before making her first step of courage.
Director’s Profile
I’m based in kl but im in melbourne studying fine arts: media arts and photography in RMIT. eeedowrah@yahoo.com
SHE (PART 1)
SHE (PART 2)
7. ‘28 hours later’ by Ng Ken Kin 14min/ Color/ Sound/ 2005.
Synopsis
After a night of disco dancing, a man wakes up to find himself alone in the city.
Director's statement
This is my first attempt making a comedy. I like '28 days later' and thought "hey, what if this happens in KL?"
Director’s Profile
Ken Kin is a self-taught filmmaker who has made a few shorts in his spare time nad spare money. ngkenkin@gmail.com
8. ‘Twelve 11’ by Loh Yin San & Claudia Theophilus 20 mins/ color/2006
Synopsis
A tragedy of a magnitude never before seen in Malaysia had claimed tens of lives and shocked a nation. In unraveling the mystery surrounding the incident, Twelve 11 tries to show how the loss of life and property could have been avoided. More importantly, it strives to expose a legal loophole which begs urgent action. It also questions why history keeps repeating itself.
Director’s Profile
Claudia Theophilus is an investigative journalist with over 10 years experience. This is her first attempt at filmmaking. She is the researcher, interviewer, editor and co-director for this documentary project.
Loh Yin San is the executive producer and co-director. She was moved to undertake this project after learning of a survivor’s struggle for justice.
Unfortunately, due to some rock blockade and major traffic jam, Chewxy and I were late for the screening, we could only catch the last two and a half short films (we saw half of SHE). Chewxy was supposed to fill in for Abel (who directed LIFE IS AN ILLUSION) during the Q & A session.
So, yeah, if any of the above filmmakers have managed to read this entry, please feel free to send me your films if you've uploaded it anywhere. I tried running a search on Youtube for the films listed above, but to no avail. SHE was the only one I could find.
The only short film I've seen prior to this event was Law Gwo Yunn's crowd-pleasing VROOM VROOM AND BOOT BOOT as it was screened right before my GIRL DISCONNECTED during MALAYSIAN SHORTS on March (check out my vlog entry). Chewxy and I couldn't resist smiling during the Q & A session when Law said that she intended to strike a balance between commercial and art for her upcoming films, it was the exact same thing I was telling Chewxy just moments earlier in the car.
When we walked into the place, we could only catch the last few minutes of SHE, but it seemed pretty intense stuff. Coincidentally, Idora, director of SHE is an acquaintance of mine I knew through the net, just that we never really had the time to chat via MSN since she was perpetually busy. Wasn't aware that her film was going to be screened until I saw her name on the brochure given to me when I walked in.
Then there was the much-talked about and highly entertaining 28 HOURS LATER by Ng Ken Kim, which I've heard about since two years ago. It got the audience's choice award at Malaysian Shorts, and I remembered someone leaving a message on this blog sometime in late 2005 asking whether I was the one who made this film. I was befuddled.
Anyway, 28 HOURS LATER was really more a mashup video that featured some footages shot in KL and actual clips from Danny Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER. Funny that just days after I watched this short film, I actually ended up having drinks with Kok Kai Foong (both he and Ken Kim are friends of Kannan, my boss from the TV movie I was involved in last month).
Twelve 11, to my embarrassment, was actually a documentary about the collapse of the Highland Towers in 1993, and the lawsuit that followed which lasted until last year, which reached a very infuriating verdict. I said that I was embarrassed because I initially thought that it was supposed to be a fictional post-apocalyptic film based on the synopsis I read.
A few filmmakers were present for the Q & A session, the aforementioned Law Gwo Yunn, Chewxy, the members of Soft Touch (sorry, I didn't catch their names), Loh Yin San ('Twelve 11') and Bernice Chualy (a writer director/ photographer/ poet who starred in Idora's SHE). Many sharing their valuable experiences from the production of their films, and one of the most encouraging signs then was that many audience members seemed eager to ask questions.
My video above, like my previous vlog entries of Filmmakers Anonymous 3, is mostly about the Q & A session (except this time, you get the new format where you see my handsome face giving an introduction at the beginning), and you'll hear me asking, during the second-minute mark, whether the filmmakers have uploaded their works online, or are they against the idea of sharing their works with others for free.
One reason I asked was because I was truly enthralled by the events documented by TWELVE 11 (a rarity, frankly), and was actually hoping that Loh Yin San would post her works on Youtube or somewhere just so that it could gain a much wider audience beyond festival circuits as she has had some difficulties trying to get TV stations to broadcast the documentary. I personally would try to help her spread the film around.
Crowd reaction during Q & A session was ah, pretty polite and subdued. At situations like this, especially after something like TWELVE 11 was shown, I was actually expecting it to become a rabble-rousing event of sorts, my efforts to jeer when a filmmaker complained about the problems caused by the country's censorship board or other restrictions and disrespect they got, and cheer when a filmmaker illustrated his or her future plans were counter-productive at best, with more than one person staring at me as if I've just, ah, farted in a funeral. Oops.
Well, here's hoping that I'll be able to finish my next short film in time for the next session of FA3.
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