My name is Zan Azlee. I’m a FREELANCE MEDIA PROFESSIONAL who can’t decide which aspect of the media I enjoy more. So, I get myself involved in everything. I’m a TV/FILM DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, VIDEOGRAPHER and WRITER (not just for the screen, but also for print). I’m involved in JOURNALISM both for broadcast and print, a content developer for NEW MEDIA/INTERNET, and a CONTENT CONSULTANT. I'm also a mass-comm LECTURER at a local university.
I found a picture of myself in front of a line of riot police taken by my brother at the Sunway anti-toll hike protest in January 2007. I was filming for my ‘I May Be Malaysian, But I Carry A Big Stick’ documentary film (yeah… it’s been 2 years since I started working on the film).
This is a picture of one of my favourite documentary filmmakers, Sean Langan, who happens to be filming in front of a line of riot police too (in Argentina, I think). Somehow… he can pull off that ‘cool’ look way better than I can!
Here’s my video of the Sunway demonstration (I first posted it online on 8 January 2007). After the general elections last month, the guy who increased the toll rate is gone and some of the participants of the demonstration are now members of parliament! Wooo! This is the first time I’m working so long on a film and it’s pretty cool because you get to see things evolve and change.
I’m currently working on a ‘cari makan’ project (can’t blame a guy who has to support a high maintenance girlfriend who demands for designer handbags every month and also to feed his 39928 illegitimate kids, right?). It’s a 13-episode documentary series for ntv7 called ‘Malaysia My Second Home’. It’s about foreigners who make Malaysia their second home (didn’t expect that huh?? hahaha!). It will be on Sundays at 4pm. The series will start 6th April 2008.
Some of the people who will be featured include British photographer Tom Hayton, Iranian filmmaker Naeim Ghalili and former Indonesian badminton player Rexy Mainaky.
This is Nadzri the visual editor. He stays in till 3am every week just to finish the episodes in time.
This is Reem the assistant producer. She does nothing but boss me around (and I’m suppose to be the PRODUCER goddammit!) and demand for lollypops.
Jeff Ooi knows how to win the hearts and minds of his constituency. When other candidates spew out speeches, he rocks out with a guitar! This is during the DAP rally on the 6th of March 2008 which saw more than 60,000 people showing up. Pak Lah could only pull in 6,000.
The day started out fine and sunny. Unfortunately, I got up to a late start. The bed and air-con was just too comfortable! By the time I headed out it was late afternoon, and the heavy rain threatened to drown everyone.
You would think it would stop people from heading out to vote. Heck, even my camera started acting up and decided to go all foggy on me! But the people kept on coming in droves.
After the polls were closed, first stop was the Gerakan operations centre. Things looked grim. Every time a result was called in, it was a huge margin for the opposition. After a few hours, they just stopped counting.
Things were different in the DAP camp. Hugely different!
DAP won all the seats they contested. 19 state seats and 7 parliamentary seats. The new Penang state government consisting of DAP and PKR gave their first press conference to a horde of media representatives.
As for the rest of the country… PAS retains Kelantan and captures Kedah. DAP-PKR-PAS capture Perak. PKR settles down in Selangor. Big loss for Barisan National. Finally, some democracy!
(Videos to come very soon. And for more of the low-down, Oon has it here.)
Today (Friday) is the last day of campaigning and everyone will go to the polls tomorrow. Jeff Ooi had to make 2 final stops. The first was in Bagan where he campaigned for Lim Guan Eng. The second was in his own constituency of Jelutong.
The crowd was massive!
It’s too bad that the mainstream media won’t be reporting on it. But let me tell you, citizen journalism is at its peak. Isn’t it wonderful how accessibility is democratising the media?
Karpal Singh, the former Tiger of Jelutong (who is currently contesting for the Bukit Gelugor parliamentary seat), endorses Jeff, the new Tiger of Jelutong.
Jeff can really work the crowd even without a guitar.
The crowd went crazy over him just like how people would go crazy over Hollywood celebrities! They actually mobbed him. I have never seen anything like this in Malaysian politics. Not even with Anwar Ibrahim! This would all make for a good film, don’t you think?
All photos by me this time. It’s really tough juggling between my video camera and my still camera. Damn I’m good!
I’m in Penang. Reason… to follow Jeff Ooi as he campaigns and contests for the Jelutong parliamentary seat this general election (remember my long term film project ‘I May Be Malaysian, But I Carry A Big Stick‘?).
The big ceramah by the Opposition last night at Han Chiang High School saw more than 50,000 people showing up… apparently the biggest in history. The crowd was almost as wild as a crowd at a Foo Fighters concert (almost lah!)… thanks to Jeff’s Dave Grohl impersonation.
Pictures here are courtesy of Oon Yeoh. I’m traveling with him and you can view his pics and read his take on the evening here. I’ll have my still camera with me today so I hope to be updating more tonight. Videos will come later, of course.
For those who came… I would like to thank you (it was almost a full house! wahh!!). And also… to apologise for what happened to the projector midway through the film. Hence, there will be a re-screening. Details as posted by Kelab Seni Filem below…..
It ought not to have happened, but it did.
The screening of Zan Azlee’s I’m Muslim Too! on Tues 19 Feb was stopped halfway through coz the projector packed up.
Kelab Seni Filem apologises to the almost full house in attendance.
However the lively Q&A with Zan helped to make up for the disappointment.
The good news is that Kelab is re-screening it on Monday 3 March at 8pm.
Admission is still FREE.
And Zan will be present to do the Q&A again. Amir Muhammad will be introducing the film and moderating the Q&A session. Monday 3 March, 8.00pm
HELP University College Theatrette, Pusat Bandar Damansara, KL S P R E A D T H E W O R D
So come lah! The discussion we had after the projector broke down was great! And that was after everyone watched slightly less than half of the film. I would love to hear your feedback and (try to evade!) questions once you’ve seen the whole film.
For those of you who couldn’t make it the first time… here’s your chance! (no more excuses! muahaha!!!). Thank you all for the support.
Many see Malaysia as a moderate Islamic country that has found a unique and harmonious balance between religion, secularism and multiculturalism. Zan Azlee decides to learn and find out more about Islam and his own identity as a Malay Muslim. He embarks on a journey to the heartland of Islam, the Middle-East, with nothing but his video camera and a bag full of instant noodles. He meets a brutal heavy metal band in Iran, discovers a Syrian version of Low Yat Plaza in Damascus, hangs out with a couple of Palestinian dudes in a camp in Beirut and learns about sex from a bunch of artists in Jordan.
Zan will be in attendance to discuss his film with the audience after the screening.
Introduced by Hassan Muthalib.
Tuesday 19 February, 8.00pm
HELP University College Theatrette, Pusat Bandar Damansara, KL
Free admission
The video above features Mustafa Mohe, an Iraqi refugee who now lives in Syria with his beautiful wife (feeewiiit!!). I bumped into him while searching for Hezbollah’s computer game, Special Force.
Don’t you just wish you could watch my film? Be patient… I can feel a special screening of ‘I’m Muslim Too!’ in the near future…
Here’s Ali Azhari, lead guitarist and producer of Arsames. He lives in Tehran and not in Mashhad with the rest of the band. Aside from playing music, he’s also a TV and film director.
I have finally finished editing ‘I’m Muslim Too!’. The first cut was a freaking 2hours 10minutes long torture-struggle fest! I cut it down to 90minutes… showed it to the Outphace gang (sarcastic mofos!) and got some valuable comments… and now the final cut is 73minutes.
Aggressive hawking of the film to broadcasters and distributors shall now go on full force! (Sponsors and funders are still welcome! Muahaha!)
Check out the video. It’s Ali Sanaei, the bassist of Arsames who can only speak English by impersonating Robert De Niro. Quite a funny guy… and pretty good on the instrument too! I’m glad he’s in my film.
I’ve been working hard on ‘I’m Muslim Too!’. Not just on editing (damn its going slow!), but on trying to get it distributed and screened. The good news is that I’ve met with a couple of broadcasters and it looks promising. Now if I can just sit my butt down to finish the editing!
On another note, I’m heading down to JB next week for the FSI Education Fair to give a talk on documentary filmmaking. Why the hell would they want to listen to me? I dunno!! But hey, if you’re free and you’re down south, just pop by the Puteri Pacific Hotel. I’ll be hanging out at the HELP University-College booth. Come and say hi and I might just say hi back to you! And if you pay me RM5, I’ll even give you my autograph!
I will be on radio (RADIO24 - 93.9FM) tonight (15th November 2007) from 12am to 1:30am talking about my film ‘The Look-East Project’ which will air on NTV7 this weekend. Joining me will be my film’s music composer Arif Rafhan (Apan) and my girlfriend Nik Khairun Nisa, who is also a character in my film. Do tune in!
I wrote two articles based on my filmmaking trip to the Middle-East for Surf! magazine (click on the pics to read). Go check out the latest issue at all major newstands and bookstores!
Editing has begun on ‘I’m Muslim Too!’. This is the first video blog entry documenting the production. By the way, I’m still looking for funding. Got some money to give?
Here’s the video of the small gathering at Blog House in Damansara Heights a day before the forum.
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I hope none of you have forgotten my (extremely) long term film project ‘I May Be Malaysian, But I Carry A Big Stick‘. Well, in relation to this, All Blogs (National Alliance of Bloggers) organised a forum on Digital Democracy with David Sasaki of Global Voices Online as the main speaker. Other’s included Jeff Ooi, Rocky and Datuk A. Kadir Jasin. It was held on 3rd October 2007 at KLGCC, Kuala Lumpur. I was there to document the event on video. Check it out yo!
I’ve finally started editing ‘I’m Muslim Too!’. Give me a break… I’ve been catching up with work ever since I got back from the Middle East. A guy has got to eat! And so what if a little procrastination gets thrown in as well? Haha!
All jokes aside, I have been busy. I’ll be shooting an Internet video series for a new travel portal soon and pre-production has been taking up some time (watch out for it when it comes out… it’ll be pukka!). Also, adding the final touches of the making of video of ASTRO SHAW’s movie ‘Tipu Kanan Tipu Kiri’ has got me going to bed in the wee hours of the morning. Add a couple of lecture hours a week into the fray and Zan is a pretty burnt out boy!
Although editing of ‘I’m Muslim Too!’ has been slow, I have been working hard on trying to sell it. I met up with a local broadcaster recently and they’re interested in looking at a rough cut once it’s done. Another meeting with another broadcaster is also on the schedule. So finger’s crossed!
(No video blog entry on the film yet. But one will be posted very soon! I promise!)
Made it to the Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts after lots of trouble getting my press pass. Getting the pass wasn’t any trouble. It was trying to get to the organisers’ office that gave me a headache! I went to three different places in Amman and wasted nearly RM70 on taxi fare till I finally got to the right place.
This dude (above) I met at the festival and I’m putting him in my film. His name is Ghassan Ayasreh and he’s an artist. He spent three years of his life building a model of the Dome of the Rock out of olive seeds. Time well spent!
Here’s another dude I met at the festival and I’m putting him in my film too. Mohamed Salameh is a photographer who likes to keep all of his wives under the same roof!
And now I’m done with my journey. I’m back in Damascus ready to catch my flight home to Malaysia. Once I arrive home, it’ll be time to start on the editing of ‘I’m Muslim Too!’. Also, there’ll be more updates here in video form! So you can start sweating in anticipation now!
