I dare say that the Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival (KLIFF) is the most ridiculous film festival in the world. I have attended many international film festivals all over the world and I have not seen anyone like this.
In short, by my standards KLIFF is a FAILURE! It is not a festival to celebrate the art of the cinema but a social event that allows the male officers of the organizers of the festival and Finas to wear their tuxedo that they could never get to wear in more prestigious international film festivals such as the Academy Awards or Cannes Film Festival, and so on.
I want the higher authorities to stop this festival; it is a joke and a sheer waste of money which could be used for other meaningful purposes.
And at the same time, I want the parliamentarians who are deliberating in the august house to bring this issue and ask the ministry of culture, arts and heritage or KPPKW why they agreed to support this festival knowing that those who organize it are not qualified to do so.
That the festival has failed to bring the local filmmakers together and further allows those who are not qualified unnecessary attention and respect that they do not deserve.
And I dare its ‘festival director’ and the senior Finas officials to debate with me on this in public.
It is the more shocking when the festival director, Wafa Abdul Raof had said that they had spent RM3 million to organize the festival. Three million ringgit!
This is too much especially when one takes into account that it was held over three days. So, on the average RM1 million was spent each day!
And they gave out fifteen awards, and this averages RM200,000 per award. And some of the awards are so ridiculous that they are able to give best film awards for different continents in the world like they do not have film festivals in each of the continents where they could get the proper recognition from.
One could get a double-storey house with this amount. So with the budget, they could easily buy fifteen such houses each year.
Where in the world do they spend so much money to organize an international film festival that is basically a cultural and social event like KLIFF?
Can the government afford to spend so much money to have such a festival, especially at such a time?
They had organized it twice and chances are they will never learn from their experience.
The problem is that those who organize this festival are not qualified in film.
How could Wafa be appointed its ‘festival director’ in the first place? And why was a private company called KLIFF sdn bhd be given the opportunity to organize it?
What experience does this company had in organizing any film festival before they were offered to organize KLIFF for the first time last year and again this year?
I was not invited to attend KLIFF 1 or 2, but I still managed to sneak into the last event which was held from 27 to 29 November (excluding the opening night on 26 November, that is) because I was invited by the Film Directors’ Association of Malaysia or Fdam.
And from my personal experience and encounters with the staff of the festival office, I found a lot to be wanting.
It is definitely a festival where any filmmaker in the world comes to gain any experience that he could not get in his own country’s film festival or elsewhere.
And not surprisingly, KLIFF turned out to be nothing but a cultural and social event. It is mostly social in nature where nothing academic is held, except for the forums that were held at the Seri Pacific Hotel which where the turnout was sparse.
Most of the foreign delegates who were brought in at huge expense did not attend these sessions as they were busy trying to see some of the films that were shown in the festival or shopping.
And the business-matching session that the festival had arranged for local producers and directors to meet with representatives of film companies from some foreign countries, failed, since nothing substantial happened. There were just some informal discussions between them and the local producers.
Regretfully, those who had been invited by the festival and flown in business class were not committed to what they had pledged to do with some leaving the city after a day, and the others who remained were not serious.
What I find to be interesting was how the festival and Finas officers who were there hardly did anything. They just joined the crowd and remained distant and not able to strike any conversation on film with anyone, least of all with the foreign delegates.
Wafa, the director-general of Finas, Mahyidin and the others grouped together and I thought they were very uncomfortable at my sight. And I also did not make any attempt to talk to them, as it would make them even disappointed knowing how I could still be there.
Actually, I had not bothered to join the festival. I had only wanted to ‘spy’ on Wafa, Mahyidin and the other officers to write a report and share it with the Malaysian public.
And what I discovered from attending KLIFF 2 shocked me. And that it cost so much to organize, but because of the whole thing which does not make any sense.
If Wafa and Mahyidin wanted to prove to all Malaysians and the foreign delegates, what they should have done was to chair any of the forums, so we can see how knowledgeable they are in film and are in constant touch with what’s happening in the development of world cinema.
The fact that they did not say anything throughout the three-day event said a lot about whom and what they are.
In fact, I took a lot of delight in bullying a representative from one of the most prestigious European film festivals by asking him something which he could not reply, and the session was stopped by the moderator, who did not want this guy to be bullied more than he could handle.
I pitied him because had come to Kuala Lumpur hoping to TEACH us on how to make better films, but he ended up being taught some bloody manners on how we should not be making those films that the festivals in Europe like all the time as they are too demeaning for us but interesting to them. So in the end we have to produce films which they like and not those which we and our audiences like.
I do hope Wafa and Mahyidin and the other festival and Finas officers, most of whom I know personally are still able to speak in any public forum in the city to talk about what they know about films.
They should also tell us what is their formal academic qualification in film and how many papers or books on the cinema have they written that have also been published.
More than that, how many times have they been invited to present papers on film in seminars in the country and more so abroad.
I know none of them has any formal training in film or has been invited to attend film seminars abroad and present papers.
It is too bad that such a group of people have been entrusted by KPKKW with many companies sponsoring KLIFF, when we have other better qualified people who can do a better job and attracting the right crowd of filmmakers from abroad to attend it.
Those who were invited to show their films were relatively unknown and still even after some of them had won awards, their films are still not marketed locally and shown in the cinemas.
And the two-day seminar was also conducted in such an amateurish manner with topics which are stale. There are many other more interesting topics that they can get the participants or delegates to discuss together, but this could not happen because they had chosen to discuss ‘wayang kulit’ instead.
As for the jury, most of them are not established internationally and are also on the lookout for awards themselves. So why does any filmmaker in Malaysia as well as abroad, need to seek any recognition from them anyway?
The festival committee just cannot get a small group of people from Malaysia and a few others from abroad to form the jury who are only needed to choose films as they please.
As for the awards night I find it silly, with almost the same characters who were invited to appear on stage to perform and to give awards.
Can’t they find other singers to perform other than Siti Nurhaliza, and Hans Isaac or Sarimah Ibrahim as the host?
Hans and Sarimah are naïve when they make sexist jokes the type that we had heard of many times before in less respectable joints, when Mumbai actress, Mallika Sheerawat appeared on stage as a guest of the festival. Just who is she anyway?
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