Fat Bidin Media

As you all probably already know, I’m was a mentor for the recent Apostrophe competition organised buy DiGi. Seven winners were selected (you can see their works here) and they all won a chance to go on a filmmaking trip to Hanoi, Vietnam, with me as their all-knowledgeable and infinitely intellectual mentor!

The winners are:
Amir Rashid Othman
Fatul Ghazali
Johan Arif Mazlan
Nik Ahmad Faiz
Tan Zi Hao
Lesly Leon Lee
Azizan Abdul Rahim (DiGi internal winner)

The trip to Hanoi was great! Although documentary filmmakers and journalists would call it parachuting (they only had 3 days to make a film there!), the guys were gung-ho from the get-go! The picture above is of them being interviewed by ntv7.

Aside from filming, the organizers also arranged a slew of activities. We met up with a group of Vietnamese filmmakers at Red Bridge Productions. Getting their perspective on filmmaking was an eye-opener. The picture above is of me with Bui Kim Quy, a young Vietnamese documentary filmmaker.

We also met up with a a group of young Hanoi artists who shared with us stories of their struggle in creating art in their country. Respect goes out to them.

And staying true to the whole Apostrophe theme of ‘Makan’, we learnt how to cook traditional Vietnamese dishes from the beautiful Hanh An at Hidden Hanoi.

But nothing could beat the PHO BO (Vietnamese beef noodles) you get on the streets!!

So it really wasn’t that hard for the guys to come up with a film (I’ll try and post the final film they did… if I can get my hands on a copy… FATUL!!). A nice dinner screening was held for an audience which consisted of the Malaysian contingent and the Vietnamese filmmakers and artists.

There were a bunch of reporters (The Star, New Straits Times, ntv7 and China Press) who were following us around. So watch out for write-ups and TV coverage. In fact, ntv7’s The Breakfast Show is running a 3-part package on Apostrophe starting yesterday and will continue till Friday. You can tune in from 8am to 10am.

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.

‘I May Be Malaysian, But I Carry A Big Stick‘ is going to be a tough film to complete. I’ve been following Jeff around since January 2007 (check out my entries since the first day). Tons of footage to go through. And I still need to shoot more!

Barisan Nasional = Opposition

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.

And what about Jeff Ooi? Salam sejahtera YB!

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!

(Check out more pics and details at Oon’s)

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.

Off The Edge (that artsy fartsy magazine!) talks about documentary filmmaking in the Nov 2007 issue, and I was one of the interviewees. Being the publicity freak that I am, I just had to plug my new film, ‘I’m Muslim Too!’. Haha! They don’t call me Mat Pub for nothing! (Click on the pics to read the article.)

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 have not forgotten the ‘I May Be Malaysian, But I Carry A Big Stick’ film project. It’s just that my recent work schedule made it difficult for me to focus on it fully. Now that my ‘Impian Illyana’ shoot is over, I’m back full steam! So watch out for more updates.

It seems that the topic is getting quite a fair bit of attention. Al-Jazeera International’s 101 East focused on the Jeff Ooi and Rocky case in one of it’s episodes (first broadcast on Thursday, 3rd May, 10:30pm - ASTRO20). If you missed it, you can still catch it on these dates:

- May 4 (Friday) at 1.30 pm
- May 5 (Saturday) at 3.30 pm and 9.30 pm
- May 6 (Sunday) at 4.30 pm
- May 7 (Monday) at 10.30 am
- May 8 (Tuesday) at 11.00 am
- May 9 (Wednesday) at 9.30 am and 3.00 pm
- May 10 (Thursday) at 8.30 am

A review of The Look-East Project AKA Pandang Ke Timur in the recent Weekend Mail. Read it here.
(It’s pathetic how a small write-up like this can get me all excited! Gila glam betul!)

Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia will be previewing The Look-East Project AKA Pandang Ke Timur to the public on Tuesday, 27th March, 8pm, at HELP University-College, Pusat Bandar Damansara. I’ll be showing a couple of my video blogs too, and this includes the short videos of the Jeff Ooi & Rocky court cases (which is part of my next film project called ‘I May Be Malaysian, But I Carry A Big Stick’).

ntv7’s 7 Patrol will be around to hand out freebies and talk about FESTIVAL… Jeff Ooi will be there… I will be there… and if that doesn’t give you a tingly sensation… there will also be hot babes in skimpy baju kurungs pole dancing on stage!

Admission is free… seats are limited… so keep Tuesday evening free and come over or you will have to just wait for the film to air on ntv7 on Merdeka eve to finally see it (yup… that’s the confirmed broadcast date)!

I have started a new film project called ‘I May Be Malaysian, But I Carry A Big Stick’ (which is actually the title of a short film I did in 2003). It will be a documentary about New Media and it’s role in the democratisation of Malaysia. The main subject is blogger Jeff Ooi. I talked to Jeff about this project end of last year and he agreed. And now… his court case. Read more about the case here:
www.jeffooi.com
rockybru.blogspot.com

For those of you who are wondering about ‘The Look-East Project’, it’s coming along in editing. Will keep you guys posted.

Weird people are all around us! A sense of humour always gets us through.

(Part 4 of a series - END)

Things are slowly improving. Time to rebuild.

Want to help out?
MERCY Malaysia
Malaysian Red Crescent

(Part 3 of a series)

And so the story of the floods continue. As the conditions of other flooded areas start to improve, the situation in Batu Pahat remains unchanged.

Care to help?
MERCY Malaysia
Malaysian Red Crescent

(Part 2 of a series)

We all know about the massive floods in Johor. With it being my home state and all, I decided to make a trip down to see how things are. I went to Parit Sulong in Batu Pahat, one of the worst hit areas. What impressed me most is how organised and calm they are. The way they carry on is as if they don’t need any help. But that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it.

Feel like helping? Visit MERCY Malaysia or the Malaysian Red Crescent.

(Part 1 of a series)

If you would like to read more about the toll issue or to see photos of the demonstration, you can do so at Jeff Ooi’s. Excuse me for now as I have to go and reload my Touch ‘n’ Go card.