One day, last year, reporter Ong Ju Lin attended a forum and heard villager Alice Lee argue why a multi-billion dollar incinerator should not be built near her home in Kajang town, about 30km south of Kuala Lumpur.

''I was blown away by her passion. She was just a clerk but her delivery was so powerful that the audience was swept away,'' Ong later said, recalling the exact moment when she decided she had to make a film about Alice and the protest against the incinerator.

''I decided that only a film could truly portray her passion and anger,'' said Ong in a recent interview. She knew nothing about film making.