Special Series10 – Film Seminar

Programmed by Nadira Ilana
15 September, 2019 – City Lounge, 2nd Floor, Riverson Walk

	MYCREATIVE VENTURES Sdn. Bhd. is a Government investment arm launched in September 2012 to spur Malaysia’s creative industry via strategic and innovative funding through debt or equity investments in Malaysian creative companies. RM200 million was allocated from the 2012 Malaysian Budget to help boost the creative industry’s significance to the Malaysian economy.
	PAULA WHETU JONES – is Director of Whitiora Production Ltd and a New Zealand film-maker. She has directed and produced a wide range of works over the last 20 years including a web based documentary series. Paula has been writing short and feature film scripts for the last 15 years, often taking her inspiration from her personal experiences. Currently she is in pre production for a web series she wrote and will produce called I DATE REJECTS which is about a group of Gen X friends who get rejected from an exclusive dating agency called I DATE so they decide to start their own.
	MARC ABAS – Marcellus Abas is a KadazanDusun from Putatan. Originally a painter and sculptor by trade, he later ventured into filmmaking in 2010. Taking a leap into the film industry at the mature age of 45, he soon became a scriptwriter, actor-stuntman, storyboard artist, editor, cameraman, director and producer. Abas has been involved in 30 films and has produced 8 independent Sabahan films, his latest being ‘Avakas’, an action genre film about a headhunter turned peacemaker.
	MELISSA LEONG has been the Programme and Festival Director of the Borneo Eco Film Festival (BEFF) since 2012. A former journalist and magazine editor, Melissa is a trainer for BEFF’s Suara Community Filmmaking Programme, a year-long workshop tailor-made for aspiring indigenous and local filmmakers. She has previously served as a Jury Member for Italy’s Cinemambiente (2017), Crotia’s Smaragdni Eco Film Festival (2019) and a panelist during the first Singapore Eco Film Festival (2017).
	GEOFFREY SIN – How does an animator survive when there are hardly any animation jobs available in Sabah? Geoffrey Sin is a Tawau-borne 2D animator who graduated from LimKokWing University with an Advanced Diploma in Digital Animation and Multimedia. Sinn began his career as Head of Animator at Alternatif Animation Studio (Kuala Lumpur) and was later head-hunted by Gray Global Group Singapore where he worked as a visualizer for several years before returning to Sabah. In 2012, Sinn co-founded All-For-One Productions, focusing an animation, film and motion graphics. Their Kota Kinabalu-based studio handles international clients from Singapore, US and Europe. With over 15 years of industry experience, Sinn shares his insights on what it’s like to be an animator in Sabah where the industry is still in its infancy. All-For-One has recently completed an animated short film called Legends of Ancient Borneo based on a graphic novel by Sabahan artist, Aks Kwan.
	ONN NORSHAL HAMZAH – Tawau-borne Onn Norshal is an expert in film distribution, cinemas and theatrical releases. He is a former Head of Operations for Reliance Media Group in Mumbai, India, Manager for CJ CGV Group based in Seoul, South Korea. He also worked as Manager for Mammoth Empire Group. He is currently a FINAS Board Member and Chairman of Skim Wajib Tayang (Mandatory Screening Scheme) under FINAS, which is a policy designed to prioritise and support local films in Malaysian cinemas.
	WONG TUCK CHEONG – is a co-founder of Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia (KSFM) in Kuala Lumpur. It screens a weekly programme of international arthouse cinema. It also organises special film focus events and retrospectives, all aimed at encouraging film appreciation and nurturing film literacy. KSFM’s partners include the Goethe-Institut, Alliance Francaise, Astro A-List, GMBB, Wayang@BUDIMAN and European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC). Wong has also built up an international network with film festivals, programmers, academics and critics throughout his involvement with the Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema (NETPAC).
	TONY PIETRA ARJUNA – Graduating from Emerson College in Boston and moving to Malaysia, Tony started as a TVC editor before making his directorial debuts in two omnibus features: CUAK and CollabFeature’s TRAIN STATION. The latter won awards at international and US festivals. Two co-directing efforts followed: RED STORM (an action/martial arts movie) and most recently, THE DARK EYE (a genre-bending ode to classic horror). Tony’s followup to SHADOWPLAY is DEVOTED, a drama/thriller series for streaming platform Viu. With his “third culture” background and obsession with Gen X nostalgia, Tony hopes to establish a signature in his work that’s drawn from his Indonesian-Malaysian heritage and western upbringing.
	HASSAN ABD MUTHALIB is a self-taught artist, designer & filmmaker who has been involved in the film scene for 50 years. He directed the popular, animated SANG KANCIL series & SILAT LEGENDA, Malaysia’s first animated feature film. He is officially recognized as the Father of Malaysian Animation & as an Animation Pioneer by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. Hassan is a film historian & a film critic. His book, Malaysian Cinema in a Bottle published in 2013, is a history & analysis of Malaysian cinema from the first film screening in 1897 right up to 2013. He conducts film & animation workshops in many countries on story development & visual storytelling & is also a jury member for numerous local & international film festivals. For his achievements, he was awarded an Honorary Masters in Creative Technology by UiTM where he was an Artist-in-Residence. In 2018, Hassan was given the Merdeka Award for his contributions to the industry and for having produced Malaysia’s first animated feature film, SILAT LAGENDA, in 1995.
	AL JAFREE MD YUSOP has worked as a scriptwriter for stage, television and feature films. He has directed telemovies and a documentary, winning awards for P. Ramlee, The Musical Boh Cameronian Awards Best Original Script (2007); Best Telemovie Asian Television Awards for Tulus Ikhlas (2016); Anugerah Khas Juri for Anugerah Tribute P. Ramlee (2016)