Freedom Film Festival '08 Saturday

This past weekend marked my first visit to the Freedom Film Festival. The FFM is a showcase for films and documentaries not usually made available on mainstream distribution platforms. These are pure independent films, made not for money (at least not mainly money), but to highlight certain issues, and in some cases quirkiness. It was a personal embarrassment, after seeing two of the award winners that I hadn’t made it here before in the past five years. Entry to each show was by email reservation, and the process was refreshingly efficient. I was supposed to be here on each day this time around, but due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances, only made it for Saturday night’s screening of two of the award-winning documentaries. Below I will post a short review of each, as well as a summary of my opinions on the subject matter.

FFF 08 – Winner
Who Speaks for Me?
Director – Justin Johari

The crux of this short film was the use of music to highlight and voice opinions on issues deemed sensitive. Justin Johari heads a hip-hop band calling themselves D&A (unexplained acronym) who try to infuse activism in their beats. The film starts out with highlights from Namewee’s infamous Negarakuku, and explores the commotion which surrounded it, while getting reaction from several Malaysian intellectuals, as well as the man on the street, the street being the town of Muar, Johor. Justin portrays Namewee as a person willing to exercise his freedom of speech by creating a music video to voice out his opinions. The aftermath of which, as we know by now, saw liberals being pitted against Malay-Islamic conservatives, mainly in administration. There were calls at the time for his citizenship to be revoked with heavy criticism levelled at him, all the time tempered by calls from the left for his freedom of expression to be protected, and a few prominent voices in administration calling for him to be left alone after apologising. Next came scenes of certain issues being raised, including the Bar Council’s Article 11 forum. Justin accompanied these with intermissions of discussions among his band mates, excerpts from a song they perform, and musings by intellectuals including prominent academics Farish Noor and Azmi Sharom. Despite the initial theme of freedom of expression, the discussion gradually moved into the domain of religious contradictions, and the use of religion as a means of suppressing freedom of speech. The final scenes showed the full song created by the band, in which Justin raps in Malay, while another member raps rather comically in English. The treatment felt slick in general, with economical use of screen time, and simplistic angles allowing the overall focus to be maintained on the issues at hand. It was good to see opinions from the different sides of civil society and its stakeholders, and it was on this that the film was ultimately built upon.

Inferences:
It is slightly alarming to note through this film that one can sit on only two sides of the intellectual spectrum, that of a conservative right-winger or a red-blooded liberal. Ex-health minister, Dr. Chua Soi Lek, in his argument for pressure on Namewee to be ended was the only voice which dared stray onto the fence. No one on the liberal extreme of the spectrum dared take a similar dissenting stand from their peers. It must be noted that Namewee used the national anthem to create buzz for a piece of rap which was ignorant at worst and snobbish at best. Negarakuku was pure sensationalism. The fact the video was called so, implied that this was his version of the national anthem, Negaraku-ku, or my Negaraku. It should be noted also that there is no precedent for this kind of work, indicating it might not be acceptable for a national anthem to be used in this way. A proposition I would like to put forward is this: if someone snipped the Jalur Gemilang into a dozen pieces and interspersed it with colours of her choice and sewed it back together calling it Jalur Gemilang – ku, would that be acceptable? Or interspersing the Rukunegara with tenets of their choice? Let it be clear that I don’t believe that Namewee should be punished beyond what he eventually got, but that there should have been voices in support of free speech also recognising that he was not completely innocent. The heart of the matter remains, that there are more than two viewpoints to every story. In raising issues deemed ‘sensitive’, all voices have to be heard, whether they echo with yours or not.

FFF 08 – Winner
Pecah Lobang
Director : Teng Poh Si

Poh Si’s amazingly raw work was the highlight between the two screenings. A thought-provoking insight into the lives of Muslim transsexual workers in Malaysia, it managed to do what the other winner couldn’t, that is to break new ground in dispersing knowledge on the subject matter. The filming location was centred around the transsexual red light area of Lorong Haji Taib. Poh Si revealed the dangers of filming alone in the area, armed with an extra-large piece of equipment. The act of Pecah Lobang, literally to break a hole, put the Mak Nyah in the area at risk of being found out, and this was the hardest part in the filming process. Eventually, a Mak Nyah named Natasha was kind enough to reveal the inner workings of the clandestine ‘sisterhood’ and it was he who provided most of the insights. Poh Si also went to great lengths to interview representatives of both sides, providing a well-balanced perspective. The PT Foundation provided a human side of the story, balanced with the strict interpretations of religious leaders. There was plenty of new ground broken in the presentation, from the revelations of legal sex-changes in the past to the only academic studies of Malaysian transsexuals available today. This documentary will become a significant standard-bearer for future explorations of attention-deprived segments of Malaysian society.

Inferences:
In the interest of basic human rights, it was shocking to know how the rights of transsexuals, mainly Muslim ones, were being brazenly trampled upon in modern Malaysia. The documentary raised numerous fundamental questions. For example, if Iran and Saudi Arabia can allow sex-changes, what religious understanding are we following that we can’t allow them? As the judge in a landmark court case where a transsexual was allowed to change her sex in official identification asserts, the right of a person to his/her sexual identity is a component of his/her constitutional liberties. It is an anomaly that despite the literature and judgements in favour of transsexual rights, we are still taking them away.

Post-Screening
Tikar Talk

The tikar talk is an opportunity for stakeholders in activist film-making, i.e. audience and filmmakers to have frank discussions on the direction of future undertakings. In the discussion of the night, there were a myriad of issues raised, with some applicable only to the producers of content with a significant amount of audience input. It was sad that only a fraction of the almost 300 people who attended the screenings stayed to watch, but it was a step-forward nevertheless. On distribution of films, the fine line between producer compensation and open distribution was discussed. It is safe to say that one has to choose between the activist inside, or the filmmaker. If the issue raised is more important to you than the actual distribution method, whether it being through films, music, websites, etc. take the activist approach. If you are a filmmaker looking for as many eyeballs as possible, the only way is through wide, uncontrollable distribution channels. Either way, profits take a backseat. On the engagement of more Malaysians on social issues raised through filmmaking, it is imperative that producers and activists realise that the onus is on them to reach out to their audience. In modern times of information overload, there are way too many channels fighting for a piece of the pie. In this, the FFF is a major step forward. In engaging the margin, the people who wouldn’t watch movies of this type without a platform as such, the FFF does a good job. Stakeholders must work harder to engage people though, through barbaric publicity. The issues at stake need to be heard by a wide audience, not just urbanites. Especially in KL, the festival needs a wider reach.