Tan Chui Mui (director) and Joanna Lee (producer) from Malaysia
Tan Chui Mui and Joanna Lee presented their project “Living Quietly” at a Pitching of the 4th Edition of OPEN DOORS in the frame of the Locarno International Film Festival, a vision of Tan Chui Mui about her process of aging and being a middle-aged women living in Penang, Malaysia, as a writer. She was awarded 10,000 Euro for script development for “Living Quietly” by the French Institution CNC (Centre National de la Cinématographie) at Locarno on the 9th of August. “Living Quietly” is an ambitious project which seeks a funding of 400,000 Euro and will be Tan Chui Mui´s second feature film.“All my films are inspired by my own experiences of live or of how I envision my future”, told Tan Chui Mui, who graduated in Film and Animation from the Multimedia University in Malaysia and works as a columnist, tutor and director. She sees herself as the “Second Generation” of pioneers of the Independent Cinema in Malaysia, being inspired by filmmakers like Amir Muhammed, James Lee and Ho Yuhang. Amir Muhammed one of Malaysia´s renown filmmaker established the production company “Da Huang Pictures” together with Tan Chui Mui and Nyu Ka Jin. The company produced James Lee´s “Before We Fall in Love Again”. Ho Yuhang is editing Tan Chui Mui´s current project, her first feature film “Love Conquers All”. Being involved in the independent film industry of Malaysia, Tan Chui Mui is also working as an editor and script-writer for her colleagues. “We all help each other in any way and my friends and colleagues are working as my producers or even actors in my films”, Tan Chui Mui told the audience at Locarno at one of her screenings, where she presented a series of her award-winning short films at Oberhausen and Belfort festivals, such as “A Tree in Tanjung Malim” (2005) and “Company of Mushrooms” of (2006).
As the film industry in Malaysia is still small, Joanna Lee pointed out that the vibrant exchange among the film professionals is an enormous support, both financially and idealistically. Red Films, the production company behind “Living Quietly”, aims to boost local and worlwide attention to a new wave of art-house-cinema from Malaysia. To raise financial support for making a movie is still quite a challenge and due to the lack of governmental funding, some of the Malaysian producers rely on the funding of European institutions like the Hubert Bals Fund of the Int´l Film Festival Rotterdam, named after the founder of the film festival, who died in 1988. The Hubert Bals Fund is dedicated to support filmmakers from the developing world with a funding of 1 Million Euro each year. “When we are granted with money for script writing, we take this money and can make a whole film! We have the ability to make movies under any circumstances.” Tan Chui Mui proves the energetic and vibrant power of the new independent film industry scene in Malaysia.
VY 2006