Radio and TV

Met up with PY and RR tonight at Asia Cafe, which according to RR has everything he needs: Chicks, Food and Pool. Apparently, it also has funny titled porn. But then again, porn titles are generally rather amusing. But I digress. In fact all of us did tonight. Mostly towards sex.

I wanted to meet up with PY because I owed her some money. And since she was already meeting up with RR, I thought about asking them both about doing a radio show with me. The original idea I had was to do a show at the Centre of Independent Journalism (CIJ). It was conceived after a couple of visits to their headquarters in Ampang. I wanted to do a Sophie's World type of programme, introducing kids and the Malaysian public to philosophy. With possibly actors (i.e. me friends from VTC) playing the role of the major philosophers.

But after tonight's discussion. Everybody thought it was boring. Though they were quite nice about it. It was decided that we needed to do a more accessible show, perhaps a forum type of programme. For example, asking people whether "all was fair in love and war". And let it all flow naturally. I came up with another idea: "If you could be invisible, would you commit a crime?" I thought it would be fun to ask children these type of questions and do an analysis. This would include what philosophers thought about such an ethical quagmire. Other possible ideas include "Time travel: Is it possible to change the past? Would you do it?"

Out of nowhere, RR asked us whether we should do a TV programme instead. We decided that we were going to do one based on our experiences in VTC, which had many weird characters and plenty of drama. PY said we should spice it up by making them have sex with each other. RR said it would be totally cool/fucked up if we cast the people of VTC as themselves. PY said maybe we could have a Simon Cowell character auditioning the wannabe actors! I thought it would be really cool too, if we had Gavin Yap auditioning for the show and our judges huddle and our Simon says: "Nah... He's too Gavin Yap!" Hilarious!

Hence, it was resolved that each of us was to write an idea/synopsis/treatment for one episode. Due next year. I cant wait.

Cinema Close Down

2006 is almost over. It would appear that the free movie screenings by Finas in conjunction with Kaki Kino which was stopped nearly half a year ago has died. It is indeed very sad that movie lovers of this country is deprived due to irresponsible people who are not worthy to be called journalists. People should be allowed to think for themselves. Or else we might as well be sheep. I would like to record for posterity a letter I wrote to the subscribers of Kaki Kino and Finas film buffs, written in April 2006.

Dear all

It really pissed me off to see an incompetent reporter and editor of a newspaper lambasting a decent effort by decent people to watch and learn about film. This reporter did not interview me or many of you whom I believe thoroughly enjoyed the terribly nice movies shown at Finas. I did not see any children there. If wayward children wanted to see nudity they do not have to travel all the way to Finas. They can go to any shopping centre and buy pirated pornography, which is far more graphic, base and totally meaningless. How can someone compare the films to pornography? Must be mad!

The point of the movies shown at Finas is not the nudity (or the violence, which was hardly mentioned in the article written by an OM). I believe these scenes are important and crucial to the story.

It is depressing that the clarion of the nation chose to highlight the nude scenes and not the fact that:
(a) millions of jews were killed by a single mad resolute tyrant (Die-untergang or The Final Day);
(b) the imposition of drugs on the lives of ordinary people (Maria Full of Grace);
(c) conflict and hardships of people who have resorted to killing children in order to raise their own (Blind Shaft); or
(d) Paris can be violent and unromantic and you'll miss your parents when they die and killing their murderers will not help. (The Beat that My Heart Skipped).

I think we should do something about this. Maybe write a petition (see draft petition below, cut and paste, print and send/fax or email it) to the Powers That Be and get the reporter and editor of the Berita Harian dismissed. Because they clearly favour sensationalism and spreading of lies about Finas and Kaki Kino which is unworthy of a national newspaper and unhealthy to our nation and therefore a potential threat to the well-being of her citizens.

p.s.: If this is the reporter (AA) who was awarded the Anugerah Kewartawanan bagi kategori media cetak in 2000 given to him by PAPITA, they should take the award back because clearly this shows a lack of journalism spirit.

pps: Sorry to scare everyone, Finas is not closing down (well not that I know of). I just thought I needed an attention-grabbing Subject Line. Sigh.

pps: If you do not have the time, at the very least spread the word: forward this to everyone on your mailing list.

The Draft Petition

"BRING OUR FILMS BACK" :

Y.B. DATUK ZAINUDIN BIN MAIDIN
Menteri Penerangan,
Kementerian Penerangan,
Tingkat 8, Angkasapuri,
50610 KUALA LUMPUR.

Dear Powers That Be

We the undersigned totally enjoyed the screenings at Finas. The screening was for film enthusiasts. Not for people who wish to watch pornography. No one was hurt by the screening of these films, except perhaps OMs who have no clue what real films are about.

Please grant Finas and Kaki Kino permission to carry on with the screenings of the films in their original form i.e. without censorship. If you are concerned that children will be harmed, we promise that no children will be allowed to enter the cinema and require that every participant register and produce proper identification. Furthermore, we the undersign commit that we are all of child bearing age. This means that if we choose to, we are allowed to get married in real life. Therefore are very likely to indulge in sex. We also declare that we are patriots, willing to die for Malaysia.

Therefore in view that we are legally allowed to have sex and die for our country in real life, we should be allowed to view works of art which depict the reality in which we live in.

As such, we believe that the Powers That Be must recognise our right to behold such works of art if we choose to. Those who object nudity should stay at home and read Popular Fairy Tales. However, skip the Emperor's New Clothes because (spoiler warning -stop reading now if you dont want to know about a major plot twist) there is nudity in there too.

Yours sincerely,
"BRING OUR FILMS BACK" SUPPORTER

[Sign here]

c.c.

Y.A.B. DATO' SERI ABDULLAH BIN HAJI AHMAD BADAWI
Perdana Menteri merangkap Menteri Kewangan dan Menteri Keselamatan Dalam Negeri,
Pejabat Perdana Menteri,
Bangunan Perdana Putra,
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan,
62502 PUTRAJAYA
Fax: 03-88884333

Y.B. DATUK SERI UTAMA DR. RAIS YATIM
Menteri Kesenian, Kebudayaan dan Warisan,
Kementerian Kesenian, Kebudayaan dan Warisan,
Tingkat 36, Menara Dato' Onn,
Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra,
45, Jalan Tun Ismail,
50694 KUALA LUMPUR

Fax: 03 2691 3758

Perbadanan Kemajuan Filem Nasional Malaysia
Kompleks Studio Merdeka
Jalan Hulu Kelang,
68000 Ampang, Selangor
Fax: 603-41075216

Berita Harian
Balai Berita, 31 Jalan Riong, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
Fax: 03 2283 2425, 03 22824340
E-mail: bh@bharian.com.my

The offending (read: criminal and ironically immoral) article

Babak lucah ditayang di pawagam Finas?

Oleh Akmal Abdullah

BEBERAPA warga filem yang mengikuti tayangan siri filem antarabangsa pada setiap malam Rabu di Pawagam P Ramlee, di Kompleks Studio Merdeka, kesal dan marah terhadap penganjur yang tidak menapis filem berkenaan terlebih terdahulu kerana membiarkan aksi seks dan pelakon berbogel dipertontonkan kepada umum.

Babak tidak senonoh itu dikatakan bukan saja ditunjukkan dalam satu filem tetapi sudah beberapa kali ditayangkan mengikut judul tertentu sejak siri filem antarabangsa diperkenalkan pada Februari lalu, tanpa larangan sesiapa sekalipun ia ditayangkan di pawagam dalam bangunan bangunan milik kerajaan di ibu pejabat agensi perfileman nasional.

Lebih memalukan, beberapa filem yang ditayang itu turut ditonton remaja belasan tahun, pelajar pusat pengajian tinggi dan sekolah yang menemani ibu bapa mereka menerusi siri tayangan filem itu yang dijadikan acara mingguan di ibu pejabat Perbadanan Kemajuan Filem Nasional Malaysia (Finas).

Difahamkan, semua filem yang ditayangkan di situ juga tidak pernah mendapat kelulusan Lembaga Penapisan Filem Malaysia (LPF). Malah, pengurusan Finas juga dikatakan tidak pernah memeriksa terlebih dulu filem berkenaan sebelum ia dipertontonkan kepada umum.

Sesi tayangan itu dikendalikan Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu (Atma) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) dan Kaki Kino, iaitu grup peminat dan perunding filem artistik yang banyak merujuk filem Barat dan Asia untuk pendedahan peminat filem di negara ini.

Tayangan filem berkenaan yang dibuka kepada orang ramai secara percuma dan diberi siaran publisiti termasuk menerusi internet adalah salah satu usaha mengajak peminat filem tempatan menontonnya bertujuan 'mendedahkan filem hebat dari luar negara'.

Sumber-sumber dalam industri berkata, tayangan salah satu filem berjudul Blind Shaft pada 5 April lalu jelas menunjukkan beberapa babak perlakuan pelakon berbogel dan melakukan hubungan seks yang boleh dikategorikan sebagai lucah.

"Adegan lucah seperti seorang pelakon wanita berbogel dan kemudian melakukan hubungan seks tidak wajar ditayang secara terbuka seperti ini, sekalipun atas alasan mahu mengajak penonton menonton filem bermutu dan menarik dari segi artistik atau naratifnya. Apa yang jelas, babak lucah adalah haram ditayang secara terbuka kerana tayangan filem ini dibuka kepada orang ramai.

"Kami berharap Finas dapat memantau kegiatan tayangan filem sebegini. Kementerian Kebudayaan Ksenian dan Warisan juga harus bertanggungjawab memastikan tidak ada pihak menyalahgunakan kemudahan dan pawagam kerajaan untuk membenarkan filem tidak bermoral ditayangkan secara terbuka.

"Lebih mengecewakan, tayangan filem sebegini dianjurkan Atma iaitu satu agensi akademik dari UKM yang memperjuangkan alam, adab, budaya, pemikiran dan tamadun Melayu," kata sumber itu.

Selain Blind Shaft, iaitu filem dari China arahan Li Yang, antara babak lucah lain dan aksi bogel yang pernah ditunjukkan ialah menerusi filem Korea, berjudul Spring Summer Autumn Winter...And Spring arahan Kim ki-duk yang ditayangkan di pawagam sama pada 1 Mac lalu.

Merujuk kepada risalah publisiti yang diterima Hip dan dikeluarkan Atma UKM dan Kaki Kino, antara individu yang mengendalikan urusan penayangan filem berkenaan ialah Ahli Lembaga Pengarah Finas sendiri, Dr Wan Zawawi Ibrahim yang juga Karyawan Tamu Atma serta Gareth A Richards dari Kaki Kino.

Filem Jerman papar aksi wanita tunjuk buah dada

SEORANG penonton yang enggan namanya disiarkan berkata, dia mengaku turut bersama menonton semua filem berkenaan yang ditayang di Pawagam P Ramlee menerusi siri tayangan berkenaan dan mendapati memang ada babak lucah dan bogel dibiarkan tanpa potongan pada filem tertentu.

"Secara undang-undang dan moral, ia nyata memang lucah dan tidak boleh ditayangkan kepada umum, apatah lagi ditayang dalam kawasan bangunan kerajaan. Selain Blind Shaft dan satu filem Korea, saya juga pernah menonton satu filem Jerman berjudul Die-untergang (The Final Day) yang mengisahkan sejarah Hitler tetapi dalam satu adegan berparti, ada babak aksi watak perempuan menunjukkan buah dada. Saya terkejut kerana filem itu tidak dipotong.

"Penganjur sesi tayangan ini harus lebih bertanggungjawab dan menghantar filem berkenaan terlebih dulu untuk tapisan kepada LPF. Memang babak lucah tidak disiarkan dalam tempoh lama iaitu cuma sekitar beberapa saat tetapi ia dipaparkan secara kerap," kata penonton itu.

Seorang karyawan filem yang turut bersama menonton Blind Shat dan Spring Summer Autumn Winter... And Spring mengaku terkejut apabila babak seks secara terang diperontonkan di pawagam berkenaan dan menegur wakil penganjur kerana babak itu tidak sesuai untuk tayangan kepada orang ramai.

"Tetapi teguran saya tidak diendahkan mereka. Malah, mereka beri alasan tidak perlu hantar filem berkenaan kepada LPF kerana banyak kerenah birokrasi. Saya dan beberapa kawan yang datang menonton filem pada malam berkenaan juga terasa malu dan marah apatah lagi ada remaja dan pelajar turut bersama menonton. Kami jadi tidak selesa," katanya yang berhasrat menghantar surat aduan kepada Finas dan Atma.

Pawagam P Ramlee terletak di tingkat dua ibu pejabat Perbadanan Kemajuan Filem Nasional Malaysia (Malaysia). Siri tayangan filem itu menyajikan judul filem asing atau filem tempatan hasil pengarah indie untuk seminggu sekali pada setiap Rabu.

Untuk bulan ini, filem yang dipilih ialah Blind Shaft (5 April), The Beat That My Heard Skipped (12 April), Machuca (19 April), King's game (26 April) dan The Big Durian (29 April).