Malaysian independent filmmaking has been hitting the news recently. All local media are scrambling to get a piece of the cultural pie, only belatedly realising the newsworthiness of the indies. Low-budget indies like The Big Durian, The Beautiful Washing Machine, Sanctuary and Sepet are winning awards and honourable mentions in festivals abroad, beating out big budget productions like Puteri Gunung Ledang .

Some were screened at the GSC-MidValley late last year: Visits: The Hungry Ghost Anthology , Ng Tian Hann's First Take Final Cut , Deepak Kumaran's Chemman Chaalai ( The Gravel Road ), and soon, The Beautiful Washing Machine . Sepet played nationwide. What accounts for this phenomenon? What is the future of independent (indie) filmmaking in Malaysia?

The digital revolution has been largely responsible for democratising filmmaking, making it many times cheaper and easier. Labour power can be reduced to one person holding a small digital video camera and then editing it on her home PC instead of processing it in a film lab. Although the current wave of indie filmmakers really began making their films around 1999/2000, interest and momentum have only picked up recently.