KUCHING, July 13: The longest-running short film festival in Malaysia, the 18th Mini Film Festival of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) will manifest as the 18th Mini Film Festival x Mini Arts Festival (MFF x MAF) at Saradise Edge here from July 14 to 17.
According to a press release, this year’s highlights include 18 newly created artworks by Sarawakian artists brought from across Sarawak from as near as Samarahan and Kuching to as far as Mukah and Miri, as well as other carefully curated events such as an arts and crafts market, arts demo, art and film workshops, film screenings, and Q&A sessions with artists, filmmakers, and juries.
Furthermore, in response to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival’s organiser wishes to provide festival events this year that align with the theme ‘Revival’.
Among the 18 artworks exhibited publicly at Saradise Edge starting from July 14 is Lilly Metom’s oil painting entitled “Endurance”, which is set to enthrall its viewers with the visual of fighting spirit of an Iban lad, clad in his tribal costume, uplifting his faithful companion (a rooster).
Meanwhile, Awangko’ Hamdan and Doris Maying’s 3D sculpture, ‘Usog Ram Series’ negotiates a sense of place and belonging by using the shoots of Stenochlaena palustris (known as pucuk midin in local Malay) with their very unique individual expressions.
Apart from the exhibition, the festival also provides exciting events such as an art demo on Sunday (July 17, 11am, Saradise Edge) where four local artists will be showcasing their talents in creating arts, live before the eyes of audiences who attend the art demo.
The four artists, led by the most experienced artist, Sylvester Wielding Jussem, also the festival’s artistic advisor, will be showcasing their artwork creation process from scratch, presented in the form of painting, sculpture (ceramic), and sketching.
While festival participants will be served with loads of arts-related-events, in the evening from 5pm to 7pm each day, music performances showcasing Bornean artists such as Pinanak Sentah (a local Bidayuh youth band), Alia Tenor, JayC Ho, and Reening Lau will perform live at Saradise Stage, an open air performance area to audiences who come by in Saradise Edge area, for free.
At its core, the Mini Film Festival is striving to provide exciting short films programmes made through collaboration with its regional partners such as S-Express that showcases awards winning short films from around Southeast Asia.
This effort is part and parcel of the result of collaboration with its regional film festivals network such as Ganffest (Indonesia), Thai Short Film, and Video Festival (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Fest (environmental short films from the United States and Russia), SeaShorts Film Festival (short films from around Southeast Asia).
Apart from short films, there will be two feature length films shown for the first time in Sarawak, namely ‘Mentega Terbang’ by Khairi Anwar, and ‘Sometime, Sometime’ by Jacky Yeap. The former is also the jury and facilitator of the festival, while the latter is an alumnus of Cinematography Programme, Unimas.
While most of the arts-related events will take place in Saradise Edge, all screening events will be organised in Taka Patisserie (Saradise), from July 14 to 17.
Ranging from timely topics such as non-fungible token (NFT) to producing creative contents, non-professional acting manual to story with Khairi, and clay and basic sketching workshops, participants who registered for the workshops will meet their passionate facilitators who have built their careers for a long time.
Yow Chong Lee, the festival’s director for the past eight years, stated that there is so much they want to offer to the local communities in Sarawak.
“We work hard and collaborate with all potential parties to make this possible”, he added.
The festival is made possible by collaboration and supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts Sarawak (MTCP), Sarawak Arts Council (MSS), Yayasan Sarawak, Saradise Gallery, Saradise Feast, TVS, DayakDaily, Engage Media, PORT, Quickcons, LY Enterprise, and Perseni.
Interested participants should visit the festival’s website at https://bit.ly/18thMFF for more information on the festival’s schedule, passes, and workshop registration or contact Pei Pei, the festival coordinator at 011-1242 4309. — DayakDaily
