KKIFF turns 10, sees more quality entries
Published on: Sunday, September 15, 2019
By: Ricardo Unto
Text Size:
Some of the instructors for the previous filmmaking course with the participants.
After a decade of numerous trial-and-error, KKIFF had served 127 movies, both Malaysian and international films, to more than 4,500 movie buffs.
Borneo’s first and longest-running independent film festival had also awarded 55 film enthusiasts through its filmmakers’ competitions and trained 107 filmmakers on filmmaking and pitching.
It all started as an experimental fun event, said festival director Jude Day.
The Daily Express has also played a supportive role for the annual festival since the beginning.
“I came to Kota Kinabalu in 2007 and I already have friends here…one of them was Datuk Adeline Leong (KKIFF patron),” Day said.
“If not mistaken, she (Leong) started the Society of Performing Arts Kota Kinabalu Sabah (SPArKS) in 2008 and she asked to join it to be part of its KK Theatre Group.
“It was not that SPArKS was going to put on plays or something like that, but they needed a different ‘flavour’ in the society as they already have music.”
Hassan (left) comments on the entries of the filmmakers’ competition. (Inset) Day
Day then sat down with her team to come up with an event that could be organised under the KK Theatre Group.
“I like films, so why not a film festival? So we get in touched with the French Embassy as they have interesting films and they love to share their culture.
“Eventually we made it happened – the French Film Festival before it was expanded into KKIFF the following year.
“We also hooked up with internationally-known Sabahan filmmaker Chris Chong to further develop KKIFF… we added more films such as Japanese movies.
“Chris assisted in organising the filmmakers’ competition which is still part of the annual event,” she said.
The festival, she said, gradually grew every year.
“You need people to push you and tell you what is good for the festival.
“At the same time, there are interesting challenges. The festival’s direction had changed as well.
“The focus is not only on getting the audience for the film screenings but also the people who make movies so they can be trained to make films.”
One of the pitching training sessions during the festival.
She said it is best for KKIFF to steer itself to be good film festival in the region.
“The programmes in the festival were designed gearing towards this mission.
“We may have included other countries like Taiwan, South Korea and Japan as well, but our goal is to connect with filmmakers around Southeast Asia.
“And I think we are doing it quite well…we keep on adding activities and taking them away – it is a process.
“But I think now the elements that we have in KKIFF are the four basic activities – Cinebalu, Sabah Filmmakers’ Competition, Sabah Filmmaking Course and Sabah Pitching Training and Awards, which I hope will be continued in future,” she said.
Animator-film director-critic Hassan Abdul Muthalib, who helmed the judging panel for KKIFF’s filmmakers’ competition for seven consecutive years, including this year, said the quality of entries had improved over the years.
“During my first year as the chief judge, I gave many critical comments about the entries.
“Now, I can only give little comments on the recent entries, which means that you need to be very good, especially technical-wise as well as the story-telling part to enter the competition.”
A director of photography conducts a masterclass.
Widely regarded as the Father of Malaysian Animation, Hassan commended the efforts by Jude to make KKIFF happen.
“For a festival to survive 10 years is very incredible, especially when it benefitted the young people of Sabah as KKIFF is now open to Southeast Asia and beyond,” he said.
Day, herself, did not expect to continue organising the festival for a decade.
“One of the main challenges for KKIFF is getting funding. If it was not for Sedia (Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority) to provide us a sizeable funding for five years in a row, we do not think we would still be here.
“Thanks to them for believing and supporting us. We do not have KKIFF in 2018 for a lot of reasons and with a change of government, I also think it would be really difficult to get funding.
“It is good to have that one-year break and then come to our 10th year anniversary.
“It is still very difficult to get funding but Finas (National Film Development Corporation) has come in with a nice grant for us. We are very grateful for that.”
An instructor guiding an editing process with a participant.
One of the biggest achievements for KKIFF, she said, is the increasing number of young filmmakers who had gone through KKIFF’s programmes and still actively make films.
“Some even came back to KKIFF to take part as participants or contribute as volunteers,” she said.
Bebbra Mailin was one of the 67 Sabahan filmmakers trained under the Sabah Filmmaking Course who had shown significant progress.
Her first experimental short film, “Eye Love”, won KKIFF’s filmmakers’ competition in 2011.
In 2015, she returned to KKIFF to participate in the Sabah Filmmaking Course where she made a short documentary film “Rapuh” which had since screened at the Visual Documentary Project in Kyoto University, Japan, and other countries.
This year, the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) lecturer made a comeback with a screening of her award-winning short film “Ninavau”.
“I think KKIFF is a platform that inspired me to do experimentations like in ‘Eye Love’.
“I was exposed to short films as I was a film-major student and I applied my knowledge in the project.
“Even when I made ‘Rapuh’, which touched on stateless people in Sabah, I experimented with the characters through the perspective of the children.”
For “Ninavau”, she took a bolder step by making a film on religion and conversion.
“I think we have to be brave to try something different, something out of the box. In fact, ‘the box’ does not have to be big…we should try to work on rare storylines or themes.
“We do not have to concord with the existing norms. As filmmakers, we should look for our own uniqueness,” she said, adding that she is now in the midst of producing a feature film.
Envisioning KKIFF to be more recognised, Day said it would generate a positive impact to the local filmmaking scene.
“What I hope for in future is that KKIFF can be recognised as a Sabah event. It is good for Sabah to have such programme.
“It is good for Sabah in the region and beyond as filmmakers had came here and used KKIFF as a stepping stone to go further.
“The event had witnessed filmmakers and their projects coming in and going out from the festival.
“As such, it is great to put Sabah in the mental map of filmmakers.
“I also hope the State Government can recognise KKIFF as making a significant contribution to the city’s place in the world of filmmaking.”
To this end, she hoped that the festival could secure funding and support from the Government as well as Sabah-based companies.
ADVERTISEMENT
