As Yasmin Ahmad said, it's an exciting time to be making films in Malaysia right now. The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam recently expanded its support to include a 20,000 Euro digital production grant for low-budget digital video productions from developing countries.
Out of the four filmmakers awarded, two are from Malaysia - Ho Yuhang (pic, right) for At The End Of Daybreak, and Liew Seng Tat for In What City Does It Live?.
The other two are Khavn De La Cruz (the Philippines) for MondoManila: How I Fixed My Hair After A Rather Long Journey, and Wang Liren (China) for Weed.
Ho is a familiar name at festivals, but Liew Seng Tat is an emerging new talent who has been winning awards back home for his often-comedic, always imaginative short films. In What City Does It Live? is described as "an original and humorous approach to superstition and racism in a small Muslim village. A haunted house and an African immigrant upset a traditional community." Interesting!
Liew said the story was inspired by an actual news report of an old man who tried to move an abandoned house back to his village as a gift for his daughter's wedding. Liew and Tan Chui Mui are two closely watched talents whose feature films have been anxiously anticipated. Liew's short film, Flower, was one of the openers of last year's Busan Asian Short Film Festival.
Love the fact that one of the guys in the picture is wearing an IFFR shirt!