Daring You to Document...

It's that time of the year again...

for...

*drum rolls*

Yeah baby.. Freedom Film Festival 2010~!

And yes, I am now a KOMAS crew. Though temporarily.. ;) hehe.

Don't believe? Here's the proof. Me and my two lovely seniors.

I got to know about this volunteer thingy from a friend of mine, Man Lee. Though it was in the exam season, I could not lose this opportunity to participate in something happening like this. So voila, me, two seniors and two juniors jumped up to this opportunity to volunteer in Freedom Film Festival 2010 at Kompleks Penyayang Pulau Pinang, and the rest of the process, as they say, is history...

The two of us with Sarah, one of the organizers.


Counter girls in action!

Me and my seniors & juniors kept switching roles and taking turns in our duty so that each of us could have the opportunity to watch the movies.

We switched between the duty as registration receptionist and the usher - which is also a good thing to train us to be more versatile (hak3) besides being not bored to death to stuck with one job the whole day.

The three winning films for this year are namely;
1) Pilih (by Loo Que Lin)
2) Hak Dinafikan (by Abri Yok Chopil & Shafie bin Dris)
3) Kisah Tauke Mancis & Minyak Tumpah (by Sheridan Mahavera & Siti Nurbayah Nadzmi)

Pilih is briefly about the student body election in Malaysian campuses and how the AUKU (Akta Universiti and Kolej Universiti) had put a boundary to the students' freedom and rights in decision-making.

Hak Dinafikan, on the other hand, portrayed how the orang Asli protested against a proposed new land policy, and among the faces there I recognized is Kak Tijah, one of the orang Asli active spokeperson.

Kisah Tauke Mancis & Minyak Tumpah depicted the story of the extremism regarding the relocation of a temple - and how some intolerance occur among neighbours in a neighbourhood. This film is somewhat daring for portraying a little sensitive issue regarding races and religions.

Among the three, I liked Pilih the best because it was something I can relate to, which is the student body election. I never really knew my rights as a university student until I watched this film.

There were a lot of other films but I did not get to watch them because it was about the overseas countries.

Quite a crowd turning up during the night of 13th November. ;)

Last but not least, say hi to the friendly usher, my junior Vera. ;)

Actually, KOMAS did come to Sarawak for this FFF screening at Miri but the feedback was cold. Not many who turned up for the screening. Perhaps the issues being shown were not that relevant to Sarawakians compared to here at Peninsular. Thus, we Sarawakians were encouraged to propose and idea for short films to document it back there so that the other Sarawakians can relate to it. Issues? haha. I have no trouble looking for issues as the first issue back in my hometown Sibu would be about gangsterism. How many of us Sibu people are daring to do some short film about that? Hmm..

What I can conclude from my experience here was that there are many issues around the country but many do not dare to document or even to speak about it. Most of us just kept quiet, since it did not affect us directly. Well, I am one of them. When I saw injustice, I rage and vent my anger over it but I did not do anything which may lessen or even make a little difference to that injustice.

Wow you may say that I start to involve politics here but that was not it. I want to talk about social responsibility. Since I couldn't do something about it, all I can do for now is to blog about it.

And yeah, I had fun volunteering at FFF for the priceless experience!

PS: Thanks KOMAS (as if they are reading my blog lol but anyway) for the free t-shirt, free food and the pocket money lol. Thanks for rewarding me for doing something which I would do for free!