Film revival?

The Temasya Kampong Gelam was held last week 18-19 November 2011, being a "festival showcase of art and music" organised by the Malay Heritage Foundation.

An invitation was graciously sent out to filmmakers via email to submit their work, in a showcase scheduled for Friday, 18 November at 9.45pm to 10.45pm. I jumped at the opportunity to showcase my film, AMEEN, which incidentally is the third film in my LOVE Trilogy film compilation. AMEEN will be in competition at the upcoming Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (13-17 December 2011). This event seemed perfect to share AMEEN to the local audience who might have not seen my work beyond those in commercial television.

The Singapore Malay Film Society "SMFS" was also approached to submit films from its members. Subsequently, AMEEN and only 2 other films from the society was eventually screened that evening. I was there to support the event in person, also this would be the perfect chance to interact with the audience.

It appeared I was the only filmmaker in attendance.

With all respect to the organisers, there were many things that were disturbing that I sincerely felt strongly about. I do not wish to comment on events other than the respective film screening.

Like all "artistes", I am very passionate about my film work. The filmmaking process is laborious. It involves
1. a period of personal experiences that are eventually encapsulated in the script,
2. pre-production that involves negotiating with the cast and crew about availability and character development respectively,
3. production where it involves the actual shooting of the film for a few days depending the complexities of the story and cast availability.
4. finally the post-production - assembling the film footage and integrating it with a soundtrack, ie., finishing the film.
The whole process for a properly-executed, short film would have taken 6 months - minimum. Also, a large number of short filmmakers complete their film using independent resources, ie self-funded.

If only the organisers had appreciated the complex process that had gone in filmmaking I would imagine they would have given more consideration into the venue and schedule of the screening. The screening was allocated at the tail end of the day's long event. It felt like an afterthought. AMEEN was the first film to be screened but I was disheartened to observe that 5 minutes into it, a large chunk of the audience, which I noted were young teens from an orphanage, was herded out of the cavernous, air-conditioned tent (the Malay Heritage Centre complex is shut for redevelopment). I understood the curfews imposed on these kids - it was already past 10pm by the time AMEEN screened.

Now put yourself in the shoes of a filmmaker whose audience walked out on your film. Or how about you sitting in a cinema and having a crowd of latecomers walk across your view, or a performer with a heckler at the front row, or a batik painter discovering your work being used as a doormat? I think you get the picture. A handful of VIPs were there but I observed they looked too exhausted to concentrate on the films properly. Halfway through AMEEN, the were only a handful of people in the audience. The VIPs left at the end of AMEEN.

Just prior to the event day, observing that no one raised the matter on honorarium, I gently voiced the issue. Typically an honorarium is a healthy acknowledgment by organisers to filmmakers and this practice is common at many film events. Nevertheless the organiser responded surprised, which stumped me.

I was stumped because I was puzzled that the issue of honorarium was raised by myself - not the Singapore Malay Film Society. I am stumped because this sort of event would be the perfect environment where the Society could have exercised its ideals, facilitated and promoted some education of the filmmaking process to the public. One can speak only of revival of the "golden age of Singapore Malay filmmaking" too easily, it seemed. I do not wish to dictate how a society or an organisation should be run but ignoring basic ethics of handling films (that include negotiating of venue, schedule and overall positive acknowledgment to the artiste) is not one of them.

I wonder how would the late Hussein Haniff might have reacted. P Ramlee would have already turned in his grave to discover how his films are being handled these days. For those unaware, these dudes were legendary Malay filmmakers.

In such an event, films, filmmaking and cinema are not about fulfilling KPIs nor it is about standing on ceremonies. Films are made to empower the community that the filmmaker choose to represent. Films give that community a voice with its stories. Like other artistic pursuits, films have a voice and this voice deserves proper avenue and facilitation so that the voices can be communicated effectively.

Is such slipshot handling of films the way forward to educate films, filmmaking and cinema to the endearing local adik-abang-kakak-pakcik-makcik?

Nevertheless, on behalf of the filmmakers whose films were screened, I sincerely extend our gratitude to the organisers for the opportunity to screen our work. I hope it would be a better showcase in future.