Friday, October 24, 2008

Premier show: `Zero Waste Home' this Sunday!



Halo friends,

Screening this Sunday(Oct 26th) :
`Zero Waste Home'

(85min) 8.00pm, D' Space (3rd floor, 62 Weld Quay, above Damacai shop)

Introduction to film:

The film to be screened is a home made film on a decade long recycling campaign by the well known Penang couple Don Thesiera & Mylene Ooi of Bkt Mertajam. The film shows the seldom seen faces of the 30-year-old Jelutong Landfill -which has grown up to over 3-storey high, and if left to push into the sea, may well create a 2nd Penang-Prai Bridge at no financial cost to the tax payers! (But the environmental cost may send some shivers up your back!) To stop such garbage mountain from crowding out Penangites' (and Malaysia'ns') living spaces the committed couple have been making their recycling presentation to almost anyone who requested it in the country. The film was made as a way to document the presentation after some 200 times that Don & Mylene have done it on face-to-face encounters with residents groups, schools, clubs, corporations and even government officials! The film will help extend their green message, especially considering that they will get too tired one day. Come to meet the tireless couple and give them a pat on the back! You are also welcome to check out their web site through the link above.

Background to the film making:

The idea of making the film has started at least a year ago after the film maker(BK Ong) won a Freedom Film Fest award in 2007. Don & Mylene had been resisting the idea of filming their presentation because they prefer face-to-face talks which they rightly consider to be more effective. But they then saw that making a film and sending it to festival is also a very effective way to push their green message at well attended festivals. So they appraoched the film maker to make a film about their presentation and to look for a suitable film festival to send the future film to. When a suitable film festival was found ie the Eco-film Fest the film making was set into motion. But there was some unexpected twist: the film fest only offer financial support to film proposals from first time film makers. That information did not come to the film maker until after the proposal was sent out-which meant it was at quite late stage. To salvage the film project some calls were made around to locate alternate sponsors.

Luckily and quickly USM RCE (Regional Centre for Expertise) program offered RM3000.00 to sponsor the film's making! By the time the finances came through and Don & Mylene found time for the filming it was quite late before the submission deadline on Sept 20th (later extended).But thankfully some 50 people turned up for the shooting to play the live audience!

On top of that the film fest limit the films submissions to less than 15 min, which mean that the film maker need to make another shorter version of the presentation for submission. With the help of another few more volunteers and Don's neighbours the 15-min version film was successfully shot and express-edited by editor Johny Goh before the deadline.

So the screening will be joined by a number of the original audience of the shootings of the 2 versions of the film. For all others who had not seen the presentation before the film is definitely a recommendation! So cancell all appointments this Sunday evening and bring your family and friends to the FREE premier screening!

`Zero Waste Home'(85 min)
Producer & Director : Ong BK
Editor: Johny Goh
Language: English
Camera: Ronnie Yeoh, Lim Chuin Nian, Ong BK, Johny Goh


Penang Film Club

No comments: