By Rosheen Fatima

Discovery Channel teams up with FINAS for the second year to bring Malaysian filmmakers to an international platform, pushing Malaysian documentaries one step closer to the international standard. Rosheen Fatima speaks to the four lucky directors.

Imagine having world-class ideas and stories to tell, but you lack the equipment and finances to put those ideas into work. Or imagine having to do rushed, less detailed pieces which don’t do justice to your subject because that’s what you can manage with the small budget given. Constricted and held back, the Malaysian documentary scene suffers from a lack of financial support, which stunts it, not allowing for growth and learning.

    This is why the opportunity given to some of Malaysia’s documentary filmmakers is such a boon for the local industry. Aimed at arming Malaysian filmmakers with the funds and tools to create an international level documentary, the Discovery Channel has teamed up with FINAS (National Film Development Corporation Malaysia). Giving them a platform to be able to reach an international audience, the programme gives the filmmakers a grant of USD50,000 and provides them with expert advice during the different stages of making a documentary. This method has allowed the filmmakers to learn different techniques as well as the structure to make documentaries more presentable.

    From hundreds of applicants, five filmmakers were chosen – Shuhaimi Baba, Ikhwan Rivai, Abdul Hamid Abdullah, Chew Han Tah and Jak Othman (who, unfortunately, was forced to postpone his documentary due to scheduling problems). The four remaining documentaries show glimpses into Malaysian life and relate obscure tales of Malaysian culture, festivities and tradition, bringing the viewer into real Malaysian heritage, far from the Twin Towers and KLIA.

    The Asiatic Giant Bees and those who harvest their honey is the subject of Abdul Hamid Abdullah’s ‘Honey Hunters’. A subject he had previously covered in a TV3 documentary 20 years ago, Abdul Hamid chose to revisit this subject in order to thoroughly cover the topic without the same constraints he faced the first time around. Shot amidst the 60-metre-tall Tualang trees in Pedu, Kedah, the honey hunters climb the trees to harvest the rare honey only once a year. The documentary also goes into the environmental conditions that are affecting the bees.

    Shuhaimi Baba, known to many as the critically-acclaimed director of ‘Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam’, is not new to documentary filmmaking, having made documentaries for local television channels in the past. She chose to film the story of a traditional healer from Kelantan in ‘Wind Chucker’. Ida, a female traditional healer, uses different massages and treatments to rid patients of trapped wind in their bodies. ‘Ida is a mystical wind chucker with healing powers. Angin or wind is a very common element in Malay culture, Malays always relate angin to well-being; “angin dia tak elok”, “naik angin”, “angin akma” (stroke), “perut masuk angin”,’ Shuhaimi explains.

    Travelling even further east is Ikhwan Rivai, whose documentary entitled ‘The Seasmiths’ looks at the Regatta Lepa, a boat festival of the Sabahan Bajau people, which is held every year on the island of Semporna. ‘There are so many stories to tell from Sabah, and there are many cultures that are not seen by the Semenanjung people as much. The Regatta Lepa ‘was very colourful and I thought that it would be really nice to shoot,’ says Ikhwan. ‘The Bajau on the west coast of Sabah are famous for their horse men and Sunday market. But those on the east coast are still more tied to the sea. It is a beauty boat competition, using the lepa, a traditional hand-carved Bajau boat.’

    Documenting the craft of 81-year-old Mr Lee Beng Chun – who makes joss sticks by hand – is Chew Han Tah, who previously worked as the head of production for ‘Fear Factor Asia’. Han Tah had featured Mr Lee in a previous project and decided to capture Mr Lee’s craft and life as he attempts to make a specially commissioned 12-foot dragon joss stick by hand, using the UNESCO World Heritage city of Georgetown (where Mr Lee’s house is located) and its heritage, as a backdrop to the story.

    The opportunity offered by this programme is priceless for these directors, giving them a chance to screen their work internationally as well as to be a learning experience aimed at bringing local industry standards to an international level. ‘[Currently], documentaries in Malaysia are not up to international standards because of the budget, the time factor, and therefore the lack of research.’ Abdul Hamid explains. The programme teaches the directors different methods in the three stages of creating a documentary: the pre-production, production and post-production. ‘We learn a lot in terms of structuring the story, the treatment and proper guidelines. This opportunity is very important for local directors to move into the international platform,’ Han Tah elaborates.

    ‘The dilemma [here is] how to create a product which is of international quality. That is something that FINAS and Discovery Channel aim to tackle. During the construction of the script we work closely with them and they go through the structure with us. We saw that the international structure emphasises on selling your facts rather then telling your facts. The directors and filmmakers can see the differences in how international films and documentaries are made as compared to how they are done here. It is a learning process,’ says Shuhaimi.

    Hopefully the documentary industry in Malaysia sits up, takes note and starts steps to make Malaysian documentaries on par with international ones. And maybe, in a few years, the Academy Awards will give us a call.