Ceritaku, Melayu

"From the semen of a father, swimming fast, moving forward, attaching itself to the egg of a mother, I am made. I, who have been in this bright cave, nine months long. Swaying my heartbeat thumping till my time has come. Tone of voice that shrieks from my tiny throat, no language, no idea of what is to come, I am suddenly Malay, made this way without guarantee."

Last week, I was invited to attend a little screening that had quite a lineup of short films produced by students all over the city. The evening was so pretty that I have to make a quick and special mention of where this was because i thought it was too charming. Anyway, it was housed at, urm well, House at Dempsey. It's really quite a tricky, humongous former barrack turned cafe, bar, restaurant, spa and art gallery. So you get the idea i mean business when i said huge. Humongous, rather.

Moving along, Syafiq's been doing so well lately that i can't resist to tell you little details about him. Eversince the infamous Lady Marmalade video for The Sally's, Fiq's moved on to do far better films. He's not Tarantino great, not Moore great either. But i'm smelling the possibilities of a big hit in the not too distant future if he sticks it out to the end. Also, a selection of his films will be screening across the border in the next couple of months. I just can't recall which countries those were. By the way, Fiq calls his works video art, part being the concept. I may appear blatantly biased to you but of the many films screened that night (too many i got restless), i liked his best. To further prove that i am innocent of friendship fueled biasness, i liked just one of two of his films. That'd be Ceritaku, Melayu.

Obvious even to the blind, Fiq's film hero is no other than the late, legendary P. Ramlee. Fiq also believes that filming his culture (in any sense of the word), is a movement with a purpose. And that purpose cannot ever be communicated if he cooked up a film, say about, the american dream? I don't know. Which is self-explanatory that most, not all, of his films are knotted to the roots of his being- Malay.

After the show, we were zoned into an excellent discussion on film art in general, the screenings we watched earlier, film art in singapore, the acceptence of new ideas and open-ness of the local malay society and heaps more. All squeezed into a very intense, some 35 minutes conversation between 4 (note: we're just a few art students/nobodies).

What i've gathered from our little chat at good ol' youth park is that Fiq's ideas are both radical and anarchic, too ferociously eager to attack Malay, in every aspect you can imagine and then demanding a movement. I think, he's all angst about the overrated, classic use of "blablabla, macam mana melayu nak maju?" or the also classic tossing of blame, "(talks about someone), melayu memang malas". Said to Malays by Malays. Did you really swallow that horseshit? We're all talk but we don't give a rat's ass about it, don't we?

Hence, unlike Fiq, i don't address these stuff and i believe i don't have the right to, judging from my influences and way of life. But just one more thing though, all those years of yaking these useless, catchy phrases, what a botch of it we made! Don't you think? From the mighty dumb and dangerously horny sultans, to the current self-destructive teenage mommy/murderer culture.

I understand how Fiq feels emotionally responsible to sprout change in our little society conveyed through his art. I, however, made me a simple stand. If you and i make the best of our lives, we, the supposed bums known as malays, will move eventually.

So shut up with those phrases before i join in the fun with an unshaded coy fish tattoo and GiNa_BoyAn for a name. Okay, just kidding, maybe BaBy_SaChek.

It's laborious work to get into details about this film of his, but i liked it best that evening because of the depth and commitment injected into it. The rest of the films were made of, well, polaroids, vintage bags, typewriters.. go figure. You can't blame them, they're "artsy". Hahaha.

So if you wish to watch this film, come on down to substation this Thursday evening. Details are up here. Plenty more brilliant films from all over will be screening the whole of this week. Have a good time, darlings.

Thank you, for wanting a better life for all of us- Malays.

.....

7.20 a.m and not a wink of sleep yet, have a good morning.