Freedom Film Fest is here again!

Freedom Film Fest 2015 in the theme, Unseen, Unheard, Untold, will be presented in Johor with five films screened at two venues, on Nov 7 in Southern University College, Skudai, (1pm to 6pm) and on Nov 8 in Lotta Café in Muar (12pm to 5pm).

Event press conference with [L to R] Ashleigh Lim,
Thomas Fann, Koh Jit Huat and Isma Ezwan Safri

Viewers can enjoy each film, sub-titled in Malay, English and/or Chinese, and meet the film-makers from Malaysia and Singapore in a Question & Answer session after the screening.

The films by Malaysian film-makers are Memory As Resistance by Chan Seong Foong and Victor Chin, Di Sebalik Runcit by J. Arrivu Jacob, Viral, Sial! By David Buri and Sindiket by Nizam Adnan while Untracing the Conspiracy, by Singapore film-maker Jason Soo, will also be screened.

“This year, we are expecting the most number of film-makers to share their thoughts, skills and experience with Johoreans,” said organizing committee member, Koh Jit Huat, who is thrilled that we have the opportunity to learn from them and apply these skills to create our own community stories.

Event flyer with details of venues and the films' synopsis

Muar organising committee member, Ashleigh Lim, said that this will be the first time such a film fest is held in Muar and hopes that it can become an annual event.

Representative of Iskandar Malaysia Sustainable Communities Network (IMSCN), Isma Ezwan Safri, is pleased to support this community initiated project because media and film-making to develop creative, critical and innovative thinking, is one of the key elements of the IMSCN.

"This film fest is unique in that it has a facilitated session at the end of each film which encourages critical thinking – something that I observed from social media comments, is apparently lacking in our communities,” said Isma Ezwan.

Seats for the film fest are limited and viewers are advised to make advance bookings by applying for entry passes at RM10 each for Nov 7 and Free-of-Charge for Nov 8, to ENGAGE Facebook Admin or by email to engage.my@gmail.com

Walk-in entry passes, subject to availability, on Nov 7 cost RM15 and is Free-of-Charge for students with student cards and senior citizens aged above 60.

The Freedom Film Fest 2015 is jointly organized by Komunikasi Masyarakat (Komas), Engage NGO, IMSCN and Southern University College (Student Union and Film Art Society).

A version of this was published in The Malaysian Insider on 6 Nov 2015