Indrani Kopal, one of the winners for FFF 2007 for her documentary “She’s My Son”, was recently nominated for The Asian Youth Ambassadors (AYA) Dream Malaysia ‘Most Outstanding Youth’ Award. AYA seeks to give recognition and to reward young individuals (aged 18 – 33) who have overcome and may still be overcoming obstacles in their lives to be where they are today. For more info please visit http://www.ayaawards.com/index.cfm The winners will be announced at AYA Dream Malaysia Awards Night to be held on 9th of November 2008 at KLPac. Invitation passes will be available for sale soon. Stay tuned!

“Raised in the city of Kuala Lumpur and the eldest of four siblings, she has been afflicted with a hormonal imbalance in her system that resulted in hair loss since she hit puberty. Despite having a poor self-image, she persevered and gained her confidence through the art of dancing and the inspiration of her dancer teacher.

Now an award winning video journalist famed for “She’s My Son?, she seeks to abolish slavery and strives to improve the social and living standards by capturing the heart of destitute and bringing these issues to light.”

To vote for Indrani:

Step 1:
Type: AYA Y 3

Step 2:
Send to: 36828

AYA TEAM

http://www.ayaawards.com/

Ah Penang. The final frontier. The last man standing. The end of the road…It was a strategic decision to visit Penang last because Penang is like FFF’s second home, it’s second nature, it’s surrogate mother (too Freudian?). Penang was our final blow out and we had always meant to finish as we had begun in KL, playing to a warm, welcoming and appreciating crowd, a familiar crowd, a supportive and encouraging crowd. Many many thanks to the Penang FFF Team who’s passion for FFF was truly felt and appreciated – Kris Khaira, Ong Boon Keong, Penang coordinator, Joshua Boss, Agnes James and the entire team at Wawasan Open University and everyone else, including all our volunteers and resource people, who contributed, taking time out over the weekend, to make FFF yet another success on the island. Special thanks to P Ramakrishnan, President of Aliran and DAP MP Jeff Ooi for gracing the event at WOU and extending such kind and encouraging words towards KOMAS and FFF.

WOU was a fantastic venue with its state of the art equipment, comfortable seating with a much larger capacity than 2007, free parking and not to mention, the brilliant sea side locale. Perhaps slightly off the beaten path, but I think we silenced all those skeptics showing you can’t keep Penangnites away from FFF. And not only was there the usual suspects but a lot of new faces too, which proves the event is expanding and reaching out to new audiences and that we are not just preaching to the converted.

And it wasn’t just Penang where we found fresh, new voices. Both JB and Kuching, in fact, pleasantly suprised us with the overwhelming support from the communities there, especially Kuching where FFF was visitng for the first time and the response was rather suprising. Strangely, ‘The Native Land Rights’ session did not seem to hit a such a raw nerve, as we expected it to, while Justin’s film ‘Who Speaks For Me?’ caused waves as did ‘Pecah Lobang’. Our experiences in these cities also reinforced how vital FFF is and why every year the FFF team puts so much effort into making the event just as good in the other states.

Every year the biggest criticism of FFF is that the publicity was lacking even though the numbers are always up from the previous year. But you’re right, we can always do better. And to that I have only this to say – FREEDOMFILMFEST is a community event. In order for it to grow, remain vital and reach a bigger audience it requires the participation and organisation of the communities who wish to be involved. It’s definitely an important lesson I have learned from the process of coordinating such a large scale but small event. I take as an example the courage and passion of all the foreign filmmakers and activists, many who are struggling to make ends meet, who traveled around Malaysia with FFF to talk about their films in the hope that they can effect change through their films or through the workshops they give or simply just by talking about the issues they stand for. Without them, the event would not exist. In the same vain, without an open minded audience, ready to be engaged, FFF would also simply, not exist.

So if you attended this year in KL, JB, Kuching or Penang, if you loved it, hated it, moved by anything you saw, I ask you to please please tell as many people as you know. Get involved! Become a volunteer. Take up the local coordinator’s role. Call, write, email us with your ideas. Hold your own mini FFF screenings. Buy the FFF dvds. Have talks, workshops, write on your blogs, write to the papers, mention it in columns. Just do do do do it! All it takes for FFF to be better is if eveybody just ‘did’. Start today…

Thank you again for all your support and I really can’t wait to see you all next year!

Elaine Foster
FFF 2008 Coordinator (on behalf of Pusat KOMAS)