9 August 2004



Curated by Bernard Chauly & Amir Muhammad



Audience Choice Awards:



Gold: PTUIHH... by Arif Rafhan Othman

Silver: OUT OF THE CLOSET by Chi Too

Bronze: NOT COOL by Liew Seng Tat





Programme (120mins)



1. RUMAHKU SYURGAKU (Dir: Fairul Hilmi, 3 min, Malaysia, animation)



Cica, a Pontianak, has been having trouble scaring people and animals lately. Pissed off, she and her best friend Cak, a skull, start an adventure to find new surroundings and new people to scare.



* Fairul Hilmi B Ahmad Hawari is a Multimedia University graduate, with a degree in Creative Multimedia, majoring in Film and Animation. He is currently seeking jobs, yet still enjoying the freedom of graduating.





2. THE BREAKFAST (Dir: Nor Hazlin Norsalam, 7 min, Malaysia,

experimental drama)



Alan has a simple breakfast. A peanut butter sandwich with eggs.



* A 23 year old final year student at LUCT majoring in Film, TV & Advertising, Hazlin is also a stage performer. She aspires to produce more films as well aspursue formal training in Performing Arts.





3. NOT COOL (Dir: Liew Seng Tat, 20 min, Malaysia, comedy)



With his 80 year old mother in hospital, 20 year old Ah Cool takes over the family business of sewing bras! Meanwhile, 3rd Aunty sizes up a girl that she pressures onto her helpless nephew.



* KLUE magazine highlighted Liew Seng Tat as a young filmmaker to watch. An MMU graduate, Seng Tat won Best Short Film at the 8th Malaysian Video Awards 2003 for Breadskin And Strawberry Jam which premiered at KSFM Malaysian shorts in July 03.





4. DANCING KITES (Dir: Azharr Rudin, 11 min, Malaysia, experimental docu)



This experimental documentary, originally meant as the filmmaker's search for his long-lost Indonesian grandmother, is a poetic mini-odyssey of a different kind.



* Azharr Rudin, 23, is a graduate of Lim Kok Wing Univesity College of Creative Technology, where he was the Class of 2003 recipient of The Industry Award for Excellence - Best in Video Production.





5. PTUIHH... (Dir: Arif Rafhan Othman, 11 min, Malaysia, comedy)



Terrorism, multiple sex partners and religious issues all bubble to the surface during a mission to catch a cheating girlfriend.



Arif Rafhan is an Information Technology graduate and is currently a partner in an IT consultancy. His knowledge for film trivia has earned him the nickname "God of Celluloid". "Ptuihh. . ." is his first short film.





6. OUT OF THE CLOSET (Dir: Chi Too, 2 min, Malaysia, comedy)



A man struggles as he discovers himself and his true identity.



* Chi Too studied at Kolej Damansara Utama.





7. ECHOES (Dir: Patrick Lim, 20 min, Malaysia, psycho-thriller)



Julia (Deanna Yusoff) works late in her office and she starts to see things. An encounter with her two colleagues is repeated before her eyes, a mysterious woman that walks past her without responding to her and a little girl in black dress and holding a black balloon. The first short to be shot on HD format in Malaysia.



* Patrick Lim spent seven years in US, studying and worked in several independent projects. He returned to Malaysia in 1996 and was involved with a few projects before he landed a teaching career at LimKokWing University College of Creative Technology. EXIT, KILLERVATOR and CHOICE are some of the works that he has under his belt. He is currently working on developing a feature length version of CHOICE





8. LIFE IS ELSEWHERE (Dir: Kok Kai Foong, 8 min, Malaysia, drama)



Do you sometimes feel like you're being watched? Who is watching whom? Whose life are we living right now? Looking at the mirror, who do you see?



* A Computer Science graduate, Kai Foong became the film critic in Sin Chew Daily from 1996-97. After getting a distinction in the Global Film School online film course in 2002, he started making short films. Currently, he is a freelance software engineer and filmmaker.





9. NICOTINE (Dir: Khairil M. Bahar, 11 min, Malaysia, comedy-drama)



Rizal, a smoker, decides to quit after seeing his cousin Nizam cough up blood. The story follows his trials and tribulations as he overcomes the need for nicotine.



* Khairil grew up in London where he was born and bred on film, music and British comedy. He is currently a copywriter for ad agency. In his spare time, he plays music, pokes random animals with pointed sticks and writes bios of himself in the third person.





10. ONE DAY IN A FISHERMAN'S DREAM (Dir: Yiren Lam, 7 min, Canada/Malaysia, experimental)



The Narrator of this dream is looking for a place to fish. As he encounters the Sailor, the Wild Flower Picker and the Middle of Nowhere Cat, he realises that a sea monster has infiltrated the ocean.



* Malaysian-born Lam Yiren obtained a Communication Studies Degree from the University of Windsor, Canada. Unclear of what he had learnt he moved on to film studies in Spring 2003.





11. BALLAD OF THE LAST BALUT (Dir: Abror Rivai, 4 min, Malaysia, experimental)



2 guys head for a happy ending after meeting at an abandoned train station.



* Abror Rivai graduated from UiTM and works as a freelance journalist. Born on 10 May 1976, the same day Travis Bickle wrote his diary in Scorsese's Taxi Driver. A coincidence that makes Abror believe he was destined to be a filmmaker.





12. GOODBYE TO LOVE (Dir: James Lee, 16 min, Malaysia, experimental)



A phone call makes all the difference.



James Lee is Malaysia's most prolific independent filmmaker. As his latest feature, The Beautiful Washing Machine continues riding the festival circuit, James is one of four directors in the Visits anthology, premiering at GSC in late August 2004.