This week, four of us will be flying the flag at FICCO in Mexico City, which is having a focus on recent Malaysian cinema by showing 14 feature-length films, including three of my oddball documentaries: The Big Durian, Lelaki Komunis Terakhir and Apa Khabar Orang Kampung. Sharifah Amani, Liew Seng Tat and Khoo Eng Yow will be there, too.
This will be the longest flight of my life (30 hours, including two stopovers) but I decided to go for it because I just love being surrounded by the Spanish language! Swoon!
As is usually the case whenever a foreign festival wants to spotlight Malaysian cinema, no cooperation at all was received from the Malaysian embassy. This is in marked contrast to how the embassies of, say, Thailand, Indonesia and especially Singapore operate. Oh well. It's a good thing the festival managed to get their own sponsors. So there's no reason to gripe :-)
This is one of my favourite Spanish songs (the singer is actually Brazilian):
Unfortunately the video seems to cut off; luckily I have the original double CD of his Greatest Hits!
4 comments:
Aiyo, Malaysian government is busy eating the $$$$, mana ade mase gi sponsor. Do it on our own lah.
All the best.
just wonder if u did inform the embassy before hand that you were coming and what sort of assistance you required. btw, i dont think singapore has embassy in mexico.
Oh, festivals always inform the embassies/consulates/representatives of each country whenever this sort of focus happens. It isn't usually cash sponsorship that is required, true. Sometimes, just to host a reception. (The Malaysian Focus in the Pusan Film Festival 2007, Asia's largest film event, proceeded with not a single Malaysian government official. Ditto for a similar focus in San Francisco 2005).
There have been exceptions, though; the staff in Germany was very helpful and even provided a guide/translator :-)
Like I said, things always work out in the end, so there's no need to gripe :-) Perhaps the staff in Mexico might even turn out to be more interested than most! We will only know when we get there :-)
Eh, aren't you going to advertise that Apa Khabar Orang Kampung is showing in Singapore soon?
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