Boundaries
mentary filmmakers. In 2011, participants were put through a total of three workshops which provided insights into the whole process of setting up international coproductions.
Through one-to-one access to renowned professionals and trainers, they offered creative and practical support for every phase in the development of a project for the international market.
The workshops were held last July in Kuala Lumpur, then in Liepzig, Germany, in October and a final pitching session took place last month in KL. Trainers for the workshops came from Germany, France, China, Britain, Israel, Canada, United States and Singapore.
“The idea is to give aspiring filmmakers a chance to pitch their ideas and to get industrial feedback from a panel of about 10-15 commissioning editors from various broadcast stations around the world.” Filmmakers will also get to learn from regional and international film specialists how to better present and execute their ideas.
The final pitching session at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre was held over two days and saw a total of 15 shortlisted documentary proposals from the 90 entries submitted from across Australia, China, Europe, India, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea. From the 15, five that made the final list came from Malaysia. These were: Beauty Queen Confessions (by Lina Teoh, Running Water Sdn Bhd), Why Europe Can’t Conquer Asia – The Secret Culture of Asian Scissorhands (by Siang Ching Tang & Shun Ming, Image Farm), Swimming With Dragons (by Chew Han Tah & Wong Ai Nie), The (Un)making of The Betrayal (by Dain Iskandar Said & Nandita Solomon, Apparat) and Red Light District Prayers (by Justin Ong & Aminda Faradilla Omar, Dos Fellas).
They were presented before a panel of commissioning editors that included Rudy Buttignol from Canada’s Knowledge Network; Flora Gregory from UK’S Al Jazeera English; Margje de Koning from Ikon in The Netherlands; Vikram Channa from Discovery Networks AsiaPacific, Singapore; Chaowei Chang, the chief producer of Suntv(hong Kong), China; and Albert Cheung of RTHK, China.
It remains to be seen which of these aspiring filmmakers will seal a deal with potential broadcasters.
For actress and TV host Lina Teoh, her shortlisted entry at last year’s instalment of Crossing Borders, Beauty Queen Confessions, revolves primarily around her personal experiences as a beauty queen. Teoh won the Miss Malaysia World title in 1998 and finished third in the Miss World pageant the same year.
What was it like working on something that has been so close to her person? “Horrible,” she says with a laugh. Now an established documentary filmmaker with production credits such as The Great Apes Of Asia with Michelle Yeoh (2009) and A Leaders Legacy: Tun Abdul Razak (2010), under her belt, Teoh seeks to explore the various discourses surrounding the beauty queen persona in her documentary pitch.
“Only a small amount of women get to experience something like that. Maybe that’s why people are so fascinated by it. Some people see it as something great, others as horrible, some as degrading to women, while some as embracing being a woman. She adds: “The majority of Malaysians have been very warm towards the idea of beauty queens, but I want to know what it’s like for someone in Japan, in South America, the Middle East.”
Himself a documentary filmmaker who has worked with the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel and the Crime & Investigation Network, Naguib feels the future is bright for Malaysian filmmakers. He reveals that the judging panel, which comprised top film experts in Europe, were impressed with the quality of projects by our local filmmakers. “That definitely sent a strong message to our European partners,” he says.