09 October 2006

RM200,000 Silat documentary in the making

I came across an interesting piece of news today. Apparently The National Film Development Corporation (FINAS) has decided to fund the making of a Silat documentary.

As many Malaysians already know, apart from those produced by Filem Negara Malaysia (oh so many years ago), the following ones such as the Mahaguru series (shown on TV3 terrestrial tv in the 90s) and Wajadiri (shown on the sattelite operator Astro) were short of expectations, but we embraced them anyway, since that's all we had.

TV3 also came out with a one episode 'SILAT' which was a forum show where masters discussed their views on the arts. Unfortunately, I have never seen it and the only person I know of who has a copy is Azlan Ghanie (so, go bug him for it).

Anyway, back to the FINAS effort. Six million ringgit has been allocated to produce quality documentaries of National Geographic standard. Currently, the body is in the midst of producing three of them — 'Silat', 'Seni Pertukangan Perak' and 'Tembaga'. Each documentary costs RM200,000 and is made for local tv, but they're hopeful they can be exported.I just hope the money spent isn't going to go the way of other 'cultural white elephants'. Rant rant rant.
Click here for the full story http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Monday/Features/20061008144230/Article/index_html

Original Article by Mohd Nadzrin Wahab

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