KUALA LUMPUR: Women’s empowerment Ikal Mayang Festival 2016 is back for a fourth season, with an emphasis on bringing filmmaking to neighbourhoods and self-help.
Initiated by non-governmental organisation Women: Girls, the six-day festival bucks its own trend of being launched in major shopping malls (such as Pavilion last year), because members have decided that it be organised on the ground and deep in the heart of a traditional community.
Women: Girls president Low Ngai Yuen said Ikal Mayang Festival 2016 begins in the Sri Tioman 1 low-cost flats, Setapak here, especially for its members to share their experiences on women’s empowerment with like-minded youths in “grassroots” neighbourhoods.
“It’s our tradition to organise Ikal Mayang on Women’s Day, March 8, and apart from that, we’ve kicked it off with a gotong-royong. A very Malaysian tradition, gotong-royong means pure community volunteerism. This is a key characteristic of Malaysian culture, where neighbours and visiting friends irrespective of colour and creed help make a difference in the lives of fellow Malaysians especially those from the lower income groups,” she said at the launch of the festival in Setapak here today.
Women: Girls staff helped paint the lobby of Sri Tioman 1 beginning today to prepare for a star-lit, open-air cinema screening for all to enjoy, free of charge at 9pm on Friday night.
“What we’re doing this year is reaching out to the marginalised sections, just as we’ve done previously. Back then we helped elevate the voices of women in film and media, and more recently we widened our focus to include youth,” she said.
Women: Girls visited nine towns or cities around Peninsular Malaysia over the last week including Georgetown, Kuala Terengganu, Seremban, Malacca and Johor Baru.
“It’s in these cities that we held workshops on filmmaking for young students besides performing gotong-royong in their neighbourhoods. And in all these neighbourhoods, the budding young filmmakers had a chance to screen their short films via the traditional open-air cinema known as Wayang Pacak.”
In previous years, well-known artistes as Elaine Daly, Vanidah Imran and Ida Nerina directed short films that were often poignant and profound. Male directors such as Afdlin Shauki and Vince Chong also joined Ikal Mayang last year.
“This year, we’ve got six films, and two of them are directed by invited directors Syed Azmi Alhabshi who is a pharmacist and Fynn Jamal who is a writer.”
The other four filmmakers are Nora Nabila, Asyraf Arshad, Abtal Zulhazmi and Vayshalini Devi.
Ikal Mayang’s other first this year is its collaboration with Buku Fixi, a publishing house founded by filmmaker and author Amir Muhammad. “It’s a beautifully-curated book simply titled W, an anthology of stunning photographs and thoughtful prose that captures readers’ imaginations and reminds them of traditions and customs from Malaysia and the region. Proceeds from the book’s sales will go towards our social outreach fund for less fortunate women and youths.”
Low stressed that Ikal Mayang 2016 was more than a showcase of new filmmaking talents. “This season is about having women empower themselves via self-help. We bring their ideas of empowerment to schools and neighbourhoods, and educate students and filmmakers-to-be that we should always redefine the roles imposed on us by society and not blindly accept them. It is also about developing a sense of community via timeless traditions as gotong-royong and wayang pacak, because such traditions define us as Bangsa Malaysia.”