COMMENT | Pesta Filem Kota Bharu will make you all tingly inside

COMMENT | The recent Malaysia Day weekend (which was also the start of the school holidays) saw massive traffic heading up to the East Coast.

I had several people I know who drove up to Kelantan from the Klang Valley for the holidays telling me that they were in their cars for up to 15 hours (the normal driving time is around five to six hours). If it was a flight, they would have already reached London.

“My wife and I watched two movies and several episodes of a series on Netflix before we arrived at Kota Bharu last night!” my friend Azim said.

I count my lucky stars as my wife Sheril A Bustaman and I had to go to Kelantan too for work but we were not caught in a traffic jam and it took us only five hours to get to Tanah Merah where we had to shoot a short documentary.

But I am not here to talk about traffic issues on our highways. Instead, I am excited to share an event that I attended that has inspired and motivated me.

Since we were already in Kelantan, we decided to extend our stay after the shoot to attend the Pesta Filem Kota Bharu which was happening that same weekend. The festival is a very young one and this year is only its second instalment.

Last year was its first and we really wanted to attend but we couldn’t due to timing conflict and Sheril had just bought a T-shirt to support them.

But we were here this year, and boy was it a good time!

Passionate filmmakers

We missed the first and opening day because it was on the day of our shoot. But we got there on the second day right as the festival was about to open its doors for the first film screening, which was a compilation of short films from Jambi, Indonesia. The festival had even flown in two of the producers of the films, Husni Turion and Yusril Mahendra, to represent the films.

We learned that Jambi, which is in Sumatra, has a very young but passionate filmmaking community. Being far from the capital Jakarta, they struggle to build a strong industry because, well, it just isn’t in a sexy place like the Mall of Jawa (or “Gedung Jawa” as the Indonesians put it!). But they persevere, telling stories that revolve around local culture and subculture.

They all help each other out when they make films and you can see it in the ending credits of their films because the same names appear in most of the films and all hold different roles.

They also organised community screenings to get their films seen by an audience, a local audience, as most of their films were meant for their own community too (although they have ambitions of creating a wider audience).

There was also a screening of short films from Aceh, Indonesia, and just like Jambi, the filmmaking scene in that once tumultuous province is new and growing.

Curator and programme director of the Aceh Film Festival, Akbar Rafsanjani, shares with us how he and a group of friends set up Aceh Documentary, a social enterprise that tries to develop documentary production and appreciation in the community.

Keeping to the spirit

I remember when the Malaysian Digital New Wave movement started in the early 2000s, we were all helping each other out with our films and also organising film screenings among ourselves so that our films would be seen.

It was that independent, DIY and punk rock spirit that attracted me to filmmaking back in the day, and seeing these small communities doing the same thing made me smile.

The Pesta Filem Kota Bharu kept to this spirit by inviting the films and filmmakers from Jambi and Aceh to join in that spirit and lively discussions were held.

They compared the differences and similarities between their film communities with those in Kelantan and also in Sabah. Challenges such as censorship, public awareness and local identity were at the top of the discourse list.

Aside from small, independent short films, the festival also had an impressive lineup of feature films.

Filmmaking siblings the Azizuddin Brothers (Feisal and Iskander) screened their latest feature, “Tafakur”, which is a psychological thriller that deals with the issue of polygamy among the Malay community was a treat to watch and the Q&A session was lively. The film is currently playing in Malaysian cinemas.

We were also fortunate enough to see a screening of Malaysian Indian director Sun-J Perumal’s latest feature film, “Fire on Water”. His last film which was released nine years ago was a critical success winning awards in festivals and also had a good run in the cinemas and later on, on streaming platforms.

It talks about the struggles of being ahead of one’s time. The film is currently making rounds in the festival circuit.

My favourite part of the festival, however, was watching the short film produced by the participants of the filmmaking workshop which was facilitated and mentored by film director Razaisyam Rashid.

All first-time filmmakers, they managed to produce a pretty hilarious and cheeky short mockumentary about Kota Bharu. The film was only funny because it was obvious that the participants had a lot of fun doing it.

Community-inspired festival

Pesta Filem Kota Bharu is a small festival held in a small hall in the Hokkien Association of Kelantan’s building. It is organised by Kuman Pictures, Kolektif Rumah Kosong, Kedai Hitam Putih, Studio T2BD and the Hokkien Association of Kelantan. Aside from Kuman Pictures, the rest are all Kelantan-based collectives. It is truly a community-inspired festival.

So, it is the same everywhere. Small communities that were outside of the usual mainstream capital cities tend to be invisible, or at the most, barely visible, and it takes passionate and dedicated people to help grow it.

I’m glad that we made it to the festival and four days that we were there watching films and hanging with friends filled me with inspiration and motivation to continue with my work.

When it was all over, Sheril and I had to drive back to the Klang Valley. As we turned on Waze, we were relieved that it would only take us about six hours to go home. I guess we managed to skip the traffic rush. But then as we drove, the estimated time of arrival started to increase gradually. Eventually, it took us eleven hours to get back home.

Did the traffic back make us regret staying on in Kelantan after our documentary shoot to attend the Pesta Filem Kota Bharu? Of course not!

It is a wonderful and quaint festival that will welcome you like a friend. We will definitely try to make it again next year, and we encourage everyone out there to check out the festival. However, we might take a flight to Kota Bharu next year.

Go and check out Pesta Filem Kota Bharu’s Facebook page to find out more.

ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

Young stateless filmmakers in the spotlight at Freedom Film Fest

Activists slam Home Ministry visit to film fest as 'intimidation'

Refugee Fest 2024 to kick off with new interactive elements

'Pesta TUT' to reconsider impact of film censorship - FFN