Making Global Cinema a Cultural Experience and Practice for the Community

How would you react to an old Korean ‘ajooma’ (aunty) asking for movie tickets during your field trip to Busan, South Korea? You may be caught by surprise but also be in awe because you would hardly see an old aunty walking around alone, asking for a movie ticket just to enjoy a film festival in Malaysia, but that’s exactly what happened in Busan! 

The old lady knew that we were part of the programme by seeing our name tags that allowed us free access to all the movies at the festival. Some might say she is just another lady who is taking advantage to watch some free movies, but her act would be deemed bizarre should it ever take place in Johor or even Kuala Lumpur. 

Then we grew curious; how did a country make celebrating the cinema, a culture in their society?

This is where an epiphany came to us — to start an impactful film scene; it needs to start with the locals. 

Johor Street Film School (JSFS) is on the right track in vibing the cinema culture, where we started with small screenings, gathering and having a movie club. Furthermore, JSFS has filmed locals’ stories and the only obstacle is to make a non-circle to be part of the movement; just like how the ajooma enjoyed the film festival – It is an ultimate goal to see that happen in Malaysia. 

JSFS’s founders Cech Adrea and Haziqah Azemi are constructing a fringe collaboration in setting up local crowd to be part of the movement. In the pipeline, they will have frequent screening sessions at Shattuck St. Mary’s Forest City International School in Iskandar Puteri, and the tour of ‘Malaysian Like Me’ will reach communities like Warung Orkes in Kulai and studio Mapo in Muar.

The Johor Street Film School and Kapsul Studio had the opportunity to become a part of the Busan International Film Festival this year under the Platform Busan Programme and Asia Content Film Market. JSFS was given the opportunity to pitch and meet investors from various countries. During the pitch a personnel from Iskandar Malaysia Studio, was also present. 

We also managed to speak to the director of BIFF’s opening film ‘Scent of Wind’, Hadi Mohaghegh, Indonesia’s megastar Joko Anwar and Asmara Abigail, and from the Malaysia delegations, we met the director of Redha, Tunku Mona Riza, Ho Yu Hang, Singapore producer ‘Ilo Ilo’ Anthony Chen and few filmmakers from Korea as well.

The Busan International Film Festival ran from 8th to 11th October located in Busan Cinema Centre, which included the satellite event Asia Content & Film Market, Platform Busan, Malaysia’s My Lab and many more.

We watched a lot of movies during the festival which were all very inspiring. 

As we had an opportunity to meet a lot of filmmakers during the networking sessions, some of the filmmakers were open to travelling and doing a screening in Malaysia. We are definitely thrilled to get global coverage to Johor Bahru by bringing them in, and this could be one of the ways to ‘culturalise’ cinema practice here, mixing local and international minds.