Just came back from the FREEDOMFILMFEST 2004 at the HELP Institute down the road. Saw the following four movies. Not really reviews, but some of my comments are in italics, below:
Classrooms (6 mins)
Professional Category, By Ho Yuhang
A look at the building known as S-21 situated right in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and its significance during the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime.
This is a stark documentary with treatment to boot. Except for some minimal use of panning and zooming, this could very well have been a slide-show. This minimalist treatment permitted the story to be told without a narrator's voice getting in the way. Very effective for such a horrific and tragic story which embodies the Pol Pot regime.
Sex education in Malaysia: Are we doing enough? (35 mins)
Amateur Category, By Lydia Lubon and Ahmad Yazid
Through a series of interviews with students, teachers and directors of local NGOs, we discover the truth behind why sex education is lagging in Malaysia.
This movie's main failing appears to be that it talks simply of the use of condoms, as if equating their use and safe sex to sex education. This isn't so, as some pertinent points are made in the interviews with Dr Low Bin Tick, Marina Mahathir and Ivy Josiah. But the overall emphasis seems to be on the use of condoms. At one point, a teenage ISKL student demonstrates the proper use of the condom by slipping one over a banana (with her parents' consent, I might add). Teenagers (who were not ISKL students) interviewed were all Malays, something the directors attributed to a lack of time during film-making. The film misses out on the larger sexuality issues of sex as a communications tool to express love, pro-creational sex versus re-creational sex and, of course, sex within (versus without) the institution of marriage. But a good starting point, nevertheless. Hopefully, the next films made by these budding directors can give a deeper treatment to their subject as they learn to be more merciless in their editing.
Firefly in the darkness (5 mins)
Student Category, By Tan Siang Chen
Penang, Georgetown has been undergoing a series of development projects which has left some communities in destitute conditions. They are ignored by most, but some individuals do try to provide a helping hand.
KOMTAR as a metaphor for development and one of it's construction workers (now a little old lady) as a victim of development, the Rent Control Act and as someone not really benefitting from such a "mega-project." The background music all but drowned out the voice over, causing many of the audience to lose track of the storyline. And the firefly in the darkness? A lone voice in the wilderness. Doesn't quite crystalise.
Bukak api (80 mins)
Special Feature
By Julian Jayaseela
A community effort film about a small group of transsexual sex-workers under the care of Kak Su, a semi-retired mamasan who runs a tailor workshop in Chow Kit.
Really gives insight into this issue, much swept under the carpet by Malaysians in general. The actress who plays Murni is really good, performing monologues (of stream-of-consciousness internal dialogues) which would otherwise have seemed contrived, if she weren't such an outstanding artist.
Copyright 2003-2004 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
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